Stylistic and Semantic Expression of Zoonyms in English Fairy Tales

Abstract

A fairy tale is one of the oldest and most popular genres of folk wisdom. It was created orally by our ancestors a long time ago. Fairy tales exist almost in all languages of the world. The language of the fairy tale is interpreted according to the cultural context, which is mainly characterized by a simple and direct form of storytelling, which makes it even more accessible to a wide audience. However, the simplicity of the narration does not mean that the text of the fairy tale is devoid of artistic coloring. On the contrary, we can find in it a lot of elements of poetry or artistic language, such as metaphor-metonymy, epithet, comparison, symbolism, etc.

The aim of the research is to determine the stylistic and semantic expressiveness of zoonyms, as the main characters, in English fairy tales and to find out in what form, context and means these linguistic phenomena are reflected in English fairy tales.

The analysis method was used during the research, on the basis of which the English fairy tales compiled by Jacobs was analyzed. In particular, the fairy tales whose main characters are not only humans, but also other living beings in the form of representatives of the fauna have been reviewed in detail. It was particularly interesting for the research to observe the discourse of the fairy tale and to understand and analyze how the living creatures representing the fauna, representing as the main characters, speak or act throughout the text.