Olha Vusatiuk
Kamianets-Podilsky Ivan Ohienko National University
Scientific Supervisor: PhD, Associate Professor O.V. Halaibida
ALOGISMS AS MEANS OF CREATING HUMOUR
IN JEROME K. JEROME’S PROSE
Abstract
The article presents a study of alogisms as a linguistic homour device in the novelette “Three Men on a Bummel” written by the famous English writer and humorist Jerome K Jerome. It proves that the alogisms used in the book are unique and striking. They perform figurative and descriptive functions, contribute to the expressiveness and emotiveness of the text, help to convey the characters’ psychological frame of mind and produce a comic effect.
Key words: alogism, humour, comic effect, hyperbole, comic device.
Comicality is one of logical-philosophic and aesthetic categories which has been in the centre of attention of linguists for a long time. Among linguistic humour devices an important place is taken by alogisms.
Alogism is anything that is contrary or indifferent to logic, specifically: an irrational statement or piece of reasoning [2].
In literary artistic works like in the life, alogisms have a double nature: people either speak senseless things or do foolish deeds. In the first case there are wrong clue, which are expressed by words. In the second one – wrong thoughts are not expressed by words, but are shown in actions, which cause laughter.
In philosophy, a mental act that ignores the laws and rules of logic and disrupts the harmony between thought and reality. Alogism is often hidden by the formal correctness of the statement. The dialectical approach in logics allows to identify alogisms even in a correctly constructed statement and to identify the logical sequence of thought that reflects the pattern in the “illogic” of life itself.
In literature, alogism is a stylistic device in which logical continuity is deliberately broken for the sake of comic effect. Alogism is often used in folk riddles and humorous verses for children. That is comic destruction of logical and causal connections.
Jerome K. Jerome, the famous English humorist, often uses alogisms in his works for creating humoristic effect.
In the story “Three Men on a Bummel” Jerome K. Jerome depicted the scene when the main hero finds different reasons why he should have a rest, and among others he mentions the following: “This aching monotony of life, these days of peaceful, uneventful felicity, they appall one” [1, c. 9]. Is it not strange that the peace to which an ordinary person only can strive and rejoice causes fatigue in the main hero?
Our attention also is attracted by an episode in which friends discuss and criticize badly written phrasebooks for travelers. Jay says that although tourists use it, nobody understands it; of course, it`s a little bit illogical and greatly exaggerated remark, but otherwise how do foreigners communicate with locals, if not using phrasebooks? Using a hyperbole also increases the comicality of situation:
“Maybe,” I replied; “but fortunately nobody understands them. I have noticed, myself, men standing on railway platforms and at street corners reading aloud from such books. Nobody knows what language they are speaking; nobody has the slightest knowledge of what they are saying [1, c. 41].
It is often characteristic for Jerome K. Jerome to have simultaneous usage of two or three lexical expressive means for making a comic effect. In the next example we can see a combination of alogism and hyperbole:
It vexes Ethelbertha my shaving quickly. She fears that to outsiders it may suggest a poor-spirited attempt at suicide, and that in consequence it may get about the neighbourhood that we are not happy together. As a further argument, she has also hinted that my appearance is not of the kind that can be trifled with [1, c. 45].
This scene causes sincere surprise and laughter. Jey`s wife is too mud of what people think about their family. It seems very unlikely that someone really thinks that the main hero tried to die because of unhappy marriage by making small cuts on his face. An oversimplified motivation and arbitrariness in the way one incident is linked with another are in general characteristic of comic structure in Jerome K. Jerome’s stories.
There is one more example of alogism:
“Clara thought it would be such a saving of expense, having the two things done at the same time. I believe,” said Harris, “if a woman wanted a diamond tiara, she would explain that it was to save the expense of a bonnet” [1, c. 28]. Alogism arises through a contrast explanation of buying a diamond tiara, which is very expensive, to save the expense of a bonnet, which is much cheaper. Here the comic effect depends on a break in logic.
We can see alogism in the description of how Jay compares the methods of learning a foreign language in English and German schools. For example, he tells the story of a French textbook which is used in English schools. The author of the book wrote it like a satire on the customs of the English society, but it was used as a school textbook:
“My notion is to publish it as a serious work for the use of schools!”
The author stared, speechless.
“I know the English schoolman,” said the manager; “this book will appeal to him. It will exactly fit in with his method. Nothing sillier, nothing more useless for the purpose will he ever discover [1, c. 86].
The scene is illogical when the heroes argue about the best execution for the Germans, and what is best for the British:
I remember George quite patriotically indignant with Harris once for suggesting the introduction of the guillotine into England.
“It is so much neater,” said Harris.
“I don’t care if it is,” said George; “I’m an Englishman; hanging is good enough for me” [1, c. 98].
It sounds very strange that two people argue about which kind of execution is better and that George is in favour of hanging but not the guillotine, because he is a “true Englishman”.
So, humor in Jerome K. Jerome ’s prose is often created by one of the basic comic devices – comic alogism. The writer handles this device with extraordinary ease. It comes out in the language of the characters and the narrator, in the way the dialogues are constructed and in the motivations given for actions and events.
References
- Jerome, K. Jerome. Three Men on the Bummel. URL: https://www.e-reading.club/bookreader.php/70984/Jerome_-_Three_Men_on_the_Bummel
- Merriam-Webster dictionary.URL: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alogism