typical cultural features in english and vietnamese fables about philosophy of life a contrastive analysis = phân tích đối chiếu các đặc điểm văn hóa điển hình trong các truyện ngụ ngôn tiếng anh và tiếng việt nói

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES
o0o






NGUYỄN VĂN NGHĨA






TYPICAL CULTURAL FEATURES IN ENGLISH AND
VIETNAMESE FABLES ABOUT PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE:
A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS

PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU CÁC ĐẶC ĐIỂM VĂN HÓA ĐIỂN HÌNH
TRONG CÁC TRUYỆN NGỤ NGÔN TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT
NÓI VỀ TRIẾT LÝ CUỘC SỐNG


M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60 22 15






HANOI – 2010


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES
o0o



NGUYỄN VĂN NGHĨA




TYPICAL CULTURAL FEATURES IN ENGLISH AND
VIETNAMESE FABLES ABOUT PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE:

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS

PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU CÁC ĐẶC ĐIỂM VĂN HÓA ĐIỂN HÌNH
TRONG CÁC TRUYỆN NGỤ NGÔN TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT
NÓI VỀ TRIẾT LÝ CUỘC SỐNG


M.A minor thesis

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60 22 15



Supervisor: PHẠM XUÂN THỌ, MA.



SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER IN LINGUISTICS




HANOI – 2010


iv
Table of contents Page

Certificate of originality of study project report i
Acknowledgement ii
Abstract iii
Table of contents iv
Abbreviations vii
List of tables viii


Chapter 1: Introduction 1

1.1. Rationale of the study 1
1.2. Aims and research questions 2
1.3. Significance of the study 2
1.4. Scope of the study 3
1.5. Organization of the study 3

Chapter 2: Literature View 4

2.1. Culture 4

2.2. Fables as a type of literature 8

2.2.1. Fable 8

v

2.2.2. Fables about philosophy of life. 10


Chapter 3: Methodology 11

3.1. Subjects 11
3.1.1. English fables 11
3.1.2. Vietnamese fables 11
3.3. Data collection and data analysis procedures 12


Chapter 4: Results and discussions 14

4.1. Typical cultural features of English fables about philosophy of life. 14
4.1.1. Features of the settings and objects. 14
4.1.2. Features of the characters. 17
.4.1.3. The features of the language used by the characters. 20
4.1.4. Features of the ways the philosophy of life is expressed 23
4.2. The TCFs in Vietnamese fables about philosophy of life 24
4.2.1. Features of the settings and objects. 24
4.2.2. Features of the characters 26
4.2.2.1. Characters as humans 26

vi
4.2.2.2. Characters as animals 28
4.2.3. Features of the language 30
4.2.4. Features of the way the philosophies of life are expressed 32
4.3. The similarities and differences of the TCFs in English and Vietnamese fables about
philosophy of life 34
4.3.1. Similarities 34
4.3.2. Differences 35

Chapter 5: Conclusion 37
5.1. Major findings 37

5.2. Limitations and suggestions for further research 38
5.3. Pedagogical implications 38
References 39
APPENDIX I













vii


Abbreviations

TCF: Typical cultural features
CA: Fables with characters as animals
CHA: Fables with characters as humans and animals
CH: Fables with characters as humans
S: Settings
O: Objects
R: Rural setting
U: Urban setting

D: Domestic animals
ND: Non domestic animals
H: Humans
A: Animals
DA: Domestic animals
NDA: Non-domestic animals
FR: Family-related relation
C: Career relation
SR: Social relation
L: Language used by characters in the conversation
ES: Explicitly stated
IS: Implicitly stated

viii

List of tables

Table 1: TCFs of the settings and objects in English fables about philosophy of life
Table 2: TCFs of characters in English fables.
Table 3: Features of the language in the conversations of English fables
Table 4: Features of the ways the philosophy of life is stated in English fable
Table 5: TCFs of the settings and objects in Vietnamese fables about philosophy of life
Table 6: TCFs of characters in Vietnamese fables.
Table 7: Features of the language in the conversations of Vietnamese fables
Table 8: Features of the ways the philosophy of life is expressed in Vietnamese fables

1
Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1. Rationale of the study

The first thing to mention when it comes to choosing the topic of this thesis is that culture
itself is a broad and complicated subject matter. There are plenty of aspects in this field. As
usual, each of them is touched upon individually from different angles, depending on the
interests of certain authors. Therefore, it is not surprising that different authors give different
definitions of culture. In addition, it is agreed that getting a deep understanding about any
aspect of culture is a really hard job. This is because culture is not tangible, and it is only
perceptive to human sense. For different individuals, the perceptions are not the same. Thus,
there is a variety of presentations on the subject matter.
However complicated it is, culture is still an important factor in our life. It distinguishes
humans from animals. The way people behave and treat each other makes them different from
other living beings. It is also agreed that although the world is coming toward common
standards in many fields like science, technology and business, there are by no means a
uniform in culture among the regions or nations in the world. It is cultural identities that
distinguish groups of people. Nowadays, in the world of integration, humans are searching for
a common understanding of one another. Culture is really a bridge that brings people closer
together. The need to discover certain cultures has become more urgent than ever before.
Another reason that inspires the author to carry out this study is the attractiveness of fables,
in this case, fables in English and Vietnamese. Fables are one type of folk literature with
stories containing characters as either animals or humans. Stories of this type tell a variety of
subject matters like the explanations of phenomena in real life or the teasing of bad habits of
humans. Each story is a moral lesson and through the words and behaviors of characters, we
can draw certain philosophies of life. The readers become thoughtful after reading such a

fable.
Among fables of various themes, those about philosophies of life appear to be the most
remarkable. These are the most attractive of all types of fables. The world of animals or

2
humans - mostly in the past, speaks of the moral lessons which are still relevant in present life.
Apart from the moral lessons, another attraction in fables is the cultural features embedded in
each story. The settings, characters, language, and the way characters treat one another reveal
the cultural identities of certain nations, regions and these are the most attractive parts of
fables.

1.2. Aims and research questions

Conducting the study, the author sets several limited aims. First of all, the study is to find
out the typical cultural features (TCFs) in fables in English as well as in Vietnamese. As a
matter of fact, there are a number of cultural features in fables, but the author’s focus is only
on the typical ones. That is, only the most remarkable features are taken into account. The
second thing this study has to do is to contrast these typical cultural features in the fables in
the two languages, finding out the similarities and the differences. In order to do so, the study
will have to search for the answers to the following research questions:
1. What are the typical cultural features in English fables about philosophy of life?
2. What are the typical cultural features in Vietnamese fables about philosophy of life?
3. What are the similarities of the typical cultural features in English and Vietnamese
fables about philosophy of life?
4. What are the differences of the typical cultural features in English and Vietnamese
fables about philosophy of life?

1.3. Significance of the study

The study is of great significance to not only culture researchers but those whose interests

are in applied linguistics as well. To those who are interested in cultures, the findings of the
study will manifest the TCFs in the fables in two languages, namely English and Vietnamese.
The readers and the learners of English language will have a chance to perceive the TCFs in
each language. In addition, the study also presents a contrastive analysis between these

3
features. The audience will get a deep understanding about the similarities and differences
between Vietnamese culture and Western one. For learners of English as a second language,
the study helps them become aware of cultural elements in the process of learning, which has
not been paid much attention to so far. Meanwhile, this is very important in English learning
because learners are able to perceive why speakers or writers use different language in
different contexts. Being aware of cultural elements is also a good way to avoid cultural
shocks when they communicate with people from English – speaking countries.

1.4. Scope of the study

As stated earlier, culture is a broad field with various aspects. This study, however, only
focuses on the TCFs in a limited number of fables in English and Vietnamese. It is also known
that fables consist of lots of themes. Yet, due to the shortage of such factors as time, materials
and finance, this study only exploits those about philosophy of life, which are very common in
the world of fables.

1.5. Organization of the study

The thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter is the introduction, which includes the
rationale, aims and research questions, scope as well as the organization of the study. The
second chapter is the literature view in which the author presents an overview of the
publications related to the topic of the research. The methodology used in the study is
presented in the third chapter. It includes a description of the data collection and data analysis
procedures used in the study. The findings of the study are presented in the fourth chapter,

Results and Discussions. The final chapter presents a summary of the findings, limitations of
the study as well as suggestions for further research.




4
Chapter 2: Literature View

In this chapter basic concepts relevant to the study will be reviewed with the aim of finding
out what has been about the topic as well as forming a theoretical framework for the study.

2.1. Culture

As stated earlier, culture is not tangible, only perceptive to human senses. There have been a
large number of publications regarding culture from different points of view. Some authors do
their best to give its definitions; others both give the definitions and discuss certain aspects of
culture. As a consequence, the publications about culture are plentiful not only in number but
also in its aspects as well.
As is known, scholars all over the world have defined and regarded culture differently. In
fact, it is believed that there is no commonly - shared definition. According to Gooddenough
(1964:36), a proper definition of culture must ultimately derive from the operations by which
we describe particular cultures. Because these operations are still in early stages of
formulation and development, it is not yet possible to state precisely just what we mean when
we speak of a society’s culture. He adds:
“As I see it, a society’s culture consists of whatever it is one has to know or believe in order to operate
in a manner acceptable to its members, and do so in any role that they accept for anyone of themselves.
Culture, being what people have to learn as distinct from their biological heritage, must consist of the
end product of learning, knowledge, in a most general, if relative, sense of the term”. (p.36)
By this definition, we should note that culture is not a material phenomenon; it does not

consist of things, people, behavior, or emotion. It is rather an organization of these things. As
such, the things people say and do, their social arrangements and events, are products or by –
products of their culture as they apply it to the task of perceiving and dealing with their
circumstances. To those who know their culture, these things and events are also signs
signifying the cultural forms or models of which they are material representations.

5
Given such a definition, it is obviously impossible to describe a culture properly simply by
describing behavior or social, economic, and ceremonial events and arrangements as observed
material phenomena. Goodenough (1964) gives further analysis:
What is required is to construct a theory of the conceptual models which they represent and of which
they are artifacts. We test the adequacy of such a theory by our ability to interpret and predict what goes
on in a community as measured by how its members, our informants, do so. (p.36)
Meanwhile, Hoijer (1964:445) employs a well – known definition by Tylor (1903) that
culture is “… complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, law, custom
and any other capability and habits acquired by man as a member of society”. Concerning
another aspect of culture, Hoijer (1964:445) claims that some traits of culture are easily
borrowed by one group from neighbouring groups. In essence, then, the similarities in culture
which mark societies in the same cultural area result from contacts and borrowings and are
limited to those features of culture which are easily transmitted form one group to another.
Robert Lado (1957) views culture form another approach. He only focuses his attention to
human behaviour. From his point of view, “cultures are structured systems of patterned
behaviour” (p.111). In addition, he connects culture with anthropology. According to him,
“cultural anthropologists have gradually moved from an atomistic definition of culture,
describing it as more or less haphazard collection of traits, to one which emphasizes pattern
and configuration” (p.111). He also compares this definition with the assumption by Edward
Sapir (1921) that “all cultural behavior is patterned” (Robert Lado, 1957:111). This point of
view is shared by Holliday, Hyde and Kullman (2004), they assume much of the debate on
“culture” in the last fifty years or so have been concerned with challenging models of culture
which have emanated from the field of anthropology.

Meanwhile, when discussing the concept of culture, Risager (2006:32) briefly presents three
dimensions of the concept of culture described by the Polish-British sociologist Zygmunt
Baumann (1999). They are:
The hierarchical concept of culture
The differential concept of culture
The generic concept of culture

6
In the hierarchical concept, Baumann (1999) regards a culture as something that the
individual human being or individual society either “has” or “does not have” or “has” at a
higher or lower level. This concept cannot exist in the plural and it is always value-laden. The
criteria for what “culture” is – and thus the “ideal human” – are something for which a
struggle takes place in a society. To attain culture is actually to attain an ideal nature: “There is
an ideal nature of human beings, and the culture means the conscious, strenuous and
prolonged effort to attain this ideal, to bring the actual life – process into line with the highest
potential of the human vocation.” (Baumann, 1999:7).
The differential concept of culture, according to Baumann (1999), has to do with culture as
something that “marks off” group of people from each other. This concept can be used in
plural. Following this concept, a culture is typically a cohesive unit that various
anthropologists have described with the aid of such terms as ethos, genius, pattern,
configuration, style and the like. Baumann (1999) adds that “a culture has the nature of a
system that is self – contained and resists mixing; it mainly alters as the result of encounters
with other cultures (“cultural clashes”)”. Baumann (1999) also assumes that cultures viewed in
such a way can be compared, and the comparison can result in cultural universals being
collected and categorised. Culture can be both “from the outside” and “from the inside”; the
former involves observing behaviour on the basis of a general or universal apparatus, while
the latter involves listening to and trying to understand what categories are relevant for the
indigenous people themselves – consciously or unconsciously (Baumann, 1999, quoted in
Risager, 2006:33).
The generic concept of culture, on the other hand, has to do with what is common to

humanity, that which distinguishes humanity from nature and all other living creatures. One
could say that the more one emphasises the diversity of cultures and their mutual
incompatibility, the more one needs, despite everything, to have a concept that applies to all
humanity. The generic concept of culture can give rise to the view that there is only one
culture, i.e. human culture everywhere and at all times. (Baumann, 1999, quoted in Risager,
2006:33).

7
Like William (1988) and Fink (1988), Risager (1999) distinguishes between three concepts of
culture that have come into being at different times but all of which can be refound in present
– day understandings of the concept:
The individual concept of culture
The collective concept of culture
The aesthetic concept of culture
With regard to the individual concept of culture, Risager (2006) assumes that this concept has
been known since at least the time of Cicero, who uses the metaphor expression cultura animi
, i.e. cultivation of the soul/mind, and this has to do with the individual’s mental cultivation,
either via God’s cultivation of the soul. For the first 16 centuries cultura animi (or from the
16
th
century, cultura without a logical object) designates a process of mental cultivation, a
pedagogical process. Not until the 17
th
century can the concept also signify the result of this
process, i.e. the mental (intellectual, spiritual, aesthetic) level the person involved has attained.
One begins to speak of “the cultivated person”. The individual concept of culture is generally
speaking chracterised by a hierarchical understanding of culture (the hierarchical concept of
culture). (p.36)
As for the collective concept of culture, Risager (2006) claims that from the end of the 17
th

century, a collective concept of culture developed alongside the individual one. The collective
concept of culture has to be divided into a hierarchical and a non-hierarchical variant. The
hierarchical variant is the earlier, and it deals with either the societal conditions for the
individual process of cultivation, or with what “cultivated people” have in common. (p.36)
With reference to the aesthetic concept of culture, Risarger (2006) assumes that in the course
of the 19
th
century, a number of special spheres crystalise in connection with modern
development, including “art” with its subsections including literature, visual arts and music.
These become a reference for the aesthetic concept of culture which develops during the same
period, alongside other concepts of culture, and which adopts a narrowing, individual and
hierarchising direction that focuses in particular on artistic products as supreme achievements
of symbolic – aesthetic creativeness.

8
Like many authors who are interested in culture, Claude Lévi – Strauss (1958), an European
sociologist and anthropologist proposes that all cultures reflect fundamental and universal
principles of human mind. Cultures were shared creations of human minds. Meanwhile,
Keesing (1974:78-79) when discussing Lévi – Strauss’s points of view supposes that the mind
imposes culturally patterned order, a logic of binary contrast, of relations, and transformation,
on a continuous changing and often random world. The gulf between the cultural realm, where
man imposes his arbitrary order, and the realm of nature becomes a major axis of symbolic
polarity: “nature vs. culture” is a fundamental conceptual opposition in many all – times and
places.
To conclude, there is no limit in the discussion of culture. This is a multi-facet subject
matter. Yet, through the overview of the publications involved, we can focus our attention on
some issues like the definition, concept of culture seen from different angles or the
relationship between culture and anthropology.

2. 2. Fables as a type of literature

2.2.1. Fable

There are many definitions for fables. David Emery (2010) views a fable as a short allergical
narrative making a moral point, traditionally by means of animal characters who speak and act
like human beings (About.com Guide). The website Questia.com shares this point of view.
According to this online journal, a fable is a short, pithy, and animal tale, most often told or
written with a moral tagged in the form of a proverb. Thus, to convey a moral is the aims of
most fables, and the tale is the means by which this is done, providing illustration and
compelling argument for the moral. The author adds that “fable does not originate as a
folktale, though it may make use of folk material, and can also be composed into a culture and
exchanged as traditional oral folklore” ().
Similarly, according to the free encyclopedia on Wikipedia, a fable is a “succinct story, in
pose or verse, that features animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of

9
nature which are “anthromorphized” (given human quality), and that illustrates a moral lesson
( a “moral”), which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim”.
According to another definition on the free encyclopedia, fables can be described as a didactic
mode of literature. That is, whether a fable has been handed down from generation to
generation as oral literature, or constructed by a literary tale-teller, its purpose is to impart a
lesson or value, or to give sage advice. Fables also provide opportunities to laugh at human
folly, when they supply examples of behaviors to be avoided rather than emulated.
With reference to fable characters, this author claims that the characters of a fable may be
people, gods, animals or even lifeless objects. When animals and objects are used in fables,
they think and talk like people, even though they act like animals or objects. For example, in a
fable a clay pot might say that it is frightened of being broken.
The stories told by fables are usually very simple. To understand a fable, the reader or
listener does not need to know all about the characters. For this reason animals are often used

in fables in a way that is easily understood because it is always the same. They keep the same
characteristics from story to story.
 A lion is noble
 A rooster is boastful
 A peacock is proud
 A fox is cunning
 A wolf is fierce
 A horse is brave
 A donkey is hard-working
Fables frequently have as their central characters animals that are given anthropomorphic
characteristics such as the ability to reason and speak. In antiquity, Aesop presented a wide
range of animals as protagonists, including "the Tortoise and the Hare" who famously engage
in a race against each other; and, in another classic fable, a fox which rejects grapes that are
out of reach, as probably being sour ("sour grapes"). (Wikipedia)
In summary, fables belong to fiction in literature. A fable is a simple story with the
characters as persons, animals or even inanimate objects. At the end of each story, a lesson or

10
moral is often drawn and this is the most typical feature of fable. The characters and content of
a fable are always influenced by cultural factors.

2.2.2. Fables about philosophy of life.

It is agreed that fables have a wide range of themes. It can be either about human relationships
expressed through animal behaviours or the explanation of a natural phenomenon, or simply it
is about humans’ daily interactions. However, in this study, those about philosophies of life
are the major concern. The question asked here is “What is philosophy of life?” As shown in
Dictionary.reference.com, philosophy of life is “any philosophical view or vision of the nature
or purpose of life or of the way that life should be lived”. Literally, this definition is
satisfactory and clear in the common sense. However, in the article “The philosophy of life”

on the website , Swami Krishnananda thinks deeply about
this definition. According to this scholar “Philosophy is a well coordinated and systematised
attempt at evaluating life and the universe as a whole, with reference to first principles that
underlie all things as their causes and are implicit in all experience”. In addition, we see
another concept of philosophy by : “Philosophy is a quest for a
comprehensive understanding of human existence. The objective of philosophy is to consider
the rational justification of logical inferences, human values, criteria for establishing the
claims of knowledge and certainly, and interpretations of the nature of reality”.
From the definition of philosophy, it is not a hard job to comprehend what fables about
philosophy of life are. In fact, they are fables with a “moral”, or philosophy of life in the end.
This characteristic is typical among fables in all languages. Hence, each of the fables about
philosophy of life is a lesson about life, and way of life. We can claim that a fable is
something more important than a work of art. It is a lesson about life.



11
Chapter 3: Methodology

In this chapter, the procedures of data collection and data analysis will be outlined. Whether
the findings are valid and reliable or not depends on the method in which the study is
conducted.

3.1. Subjects
In this study, the subjects are 15 fables about philosophy of life in English and 15 fables about
philosophy of life in Vietnamese.

3.1.1. English fables

The 15 English fables come from the collection of Aesop’s fables . This collection is taken

from the website An English-Zone.com. It is also noted that An English-zone.com is a
webpage for online English learning and teaching . This is a reliable website in terms of
academic English and is very well – known in the field of teaching and learning English as a
foreign language (EFL). The English language used on this webpage is the standard one; and
the collection of Aesop’s fables on this webpage is used as the material for reading skills.
Therefore, these fables are quite reliable for academic purposes.

3.1.2. Vietnamese fables

The 15 Vietnamese fables in this study are taken from the book “Tổng tập văn học dân gian
người Việt - Tập 10: Truyện ngụ ngôn” (The great collection of Vietnamese folk literature –
Volume 10: Fables) by Social Science Publishing House, Hanoi (2003). The book consists of
hundreds of fables of different types like prose, poetry. In particular, all the fables are
collected from different regions of Vietnam; therefore, the regional diversity is guaranteed. In
this study only those of prose are taken as the subject of the study.


12
3.2. Data collection and data analysis procedures

15 fables of philosophy of life in English and 15 fables of philosophy of life in Vietnamese
were chosen from the two sources above. They were then carefully read and analyzed in terms
of the following features in order to answer the first two research questions:
- The objects and settings : First, the setting is the situation in which the story takes place and
the characters interact with each other. The settings might be either rural, urban or in the
mountainous area. The story might take place in a room, at the market or in the field. In
addition, there are a large number of objects in the fables. They might be the objects used in
everyday life at home or anywhere else. These objects are very important for finding out the
cultural features because they are obviously influenced by cultural factors.
- The characters: The characters in fable are diversified. They might be human: farmers,

merchants, huntsmen, fathers, sons, husbands, wives, friends or children. They belong to
different social classes at that time. It is clear that cultural elements have influence on them.
Apart from human characters, there are many fables in which characters are animals, either
wild or domestic such as tigers, lions, foxes, wolves, weasels, hares, tortoises, buffalos, cows,
horses or chickens.
- The language used by the characters: In fables, language is used as a means of
communication. The way the characters make themselves understood, or the language they use
– either direct or indirect is the concern of this study. It is clear that language depends on
cultural elements, which are embedded in the words uttered by the characters. In addition, we
should bear in mind that language is itself a broad field. However, this study only focuses on
the directness and indirectness of the language used by the characters in the fables. Other
linguistic properties will not be considered.
- The way the philosophies of life are expressed: Philosophies of life are the themes of the
fables in this study. There are a number of philosophies of life in these fables like those about
human relationships or the struggle between the good and the evil. The question of how these
philosophies of life are expressed - whether implicitly or explicitly is taken into consideration
in this study. These features are clearly influenced by cultural elements.

13
In order to answer question 3 and 4: “What are the similarities of typical cultural features
in English and Vietnamese fables about philosophy of life? /What are the differences of
typical cultural features in English and Vietnamese fables about philosophy of life?”, a
comparison between the TCFs of fables in English will be compared to those of fables in
Vietnamese.
This chapter has outlined the subjects of the study as well as the procedures of data
collection and data analysis. The results of the study will be discussed in the next chapter in
order to answer the four research questions of the study.

14
Chapter 4: Results and discussions

In this chapter, the results of the study will be discussed with relevant citations from fables in
English and Vietnamese. The four research questions will be answered in turn.

4.1. Typical cultural features of English fables about philosophy of life.

4.1.1. Features of the settings and objects.

R % U % D % ND %
CA 4 26.6 0 0 1 6.7 2 13.3
CHA 3 20 0 0 3 20 0 0
CH 4 26.6 0 0 3 20 1 6.7
Total 11 73.2 0 0 7 46.7 3 20
S
O
Table 1: The TCFs of the settings and objects in English fables about philosophy of life

CA: Fables with characters as animals
CHA: Fables with characters as humans and animals
CH: Fables with characters as humans
S: Settings
O: Objects
R: Rural setting
U: Urban setting
D: Domestic animals
ND: Non domestic animals

The TCFs of the settings and objects in English fables about philosophy of life are shown in
Table 1. As can be seen from the table, 11 out of 15 fables have got rural settings (73.3%).
The percentages of fables with characters as animals (CA), characters as humans and animals

15
(CHA), and characters as humans (CH) in rural setting are 26.6 %, 20 % and 26.6 %
respectively. On the contrary, there are no fables in which urban setting is employed.
Table 1 shows that the settings in most of the English fables are rural. The rural background
consists of “the field” or “the plowland” where farmers work. Particularly, in many fables,
“the field” is considered the setting of the story. The reason for this is that long ago, farming
mainly took place on the farm or in the field. Another reason that explains why rural setting is
dominant is that these fables were mostly written long ago in the ancient time, when farming,
including the raising of cattle and the growing of crops is the most popular economic activity.
Throughout Aesop’s fables, there is a dominance of rural settings, so we can claim that rural
settings are a typical feature of fables in Western cultures. In the fable The farmer and the
crane, “the feeding ground”, “plow land newly sown with wheat” are seen as the major setting.
Apart from “wheat”, farming production in the West involves many other crops like “vine” in
the fable The farmer and his son. In this fable, “farm” and “vineyards” belong to rural setting.
They are typical of farming production in the West.
With reference to urban settings, Table 1 shows that none of the fables has this kind of
setting. This is quite understandable because in ancient time most people earned their livings
by growing crops and raising cattle, both of which took place on the farm or in the field. At
that time there were not many urban areas, so urban life was not typical of the culture of the
time. As a result, urban settings were not popular in fables.
The TCFs are also manifested via the objects of the fables. The total number of the fables
with domestic objects is 7 fables (46.7%). The cultural features are hidden inside the objects
themselves. Some major tools are “spades”, and “mattocks” (Farmer and his sons); “the
wagon” and “the wheel” (Hercules and the wagoner); the “panniers” (The merchant and his
donkey). It is commonly known that spades, mattocks, wagons, wheels, and panniers are the
tools used in farming. They are very useful in daily life of farmers. Apart from the domestic

objects, farming products also bear some typical cultural identities. For example, “fleece”,
“wool”, “flesh” (The widow and the sheep) are farming products from the animals. They are
typical in the life of the Western people. In addition, the tools associated with them are also
taken into account in terms of culture. “The shearer”, which farmers use to shear sheep is a

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typical tool in the West. Besides, there are many non-domestic objects which bear certain
cultural identities. The “oak” tree is an example: “… He asked a man felling oaks …” (The
hunter and the woodman). The oak is a typical tree in forests in Western cultures.
In short, the settings and objects in Easop’s fables embed European cultural identities not
only of the ancient time but at present. They help distinguish the European culture with
cultures anywhere else. These settings and objects are so popular in the West that they have
become stereotyped whenever Western rural life is mentioned.

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4.1.2. Features of the characters.

Along with the settings and objects, the characters of English fables reveal a lot about TCFs.
They are divided into two groups: characters as animals, as humans, and the characters as both
humans and animals. Animals are divided into two subgroups: domestic and non-domestic
(DA and NDA); Characters as humans is on the other hand grouped according to many
different norms: family relation (FR), career relation (C), and social relation (SR). The
characteristic of humans and animals as the main characters is very common in the world of
fable. Table 2 presents the TCFs of characters in English fables.

DA % NDA % FR % C % SR %
CA 1 7 5 33 0 0 0 0 0 0
CHA 3 20 3 20 1 7 5 33 1 7
CH 2 13 0 0 1 7 3 20 1 7
Total 6 40 8 53 2 14 8 53 2 14
A
H

Table 2: The TCFs of characters in English fables.

Notes:
H: Humans
A: Animals

CA: Fables with characters as animals
CHA: Fables with characters as humans and animals
CH: Fables with characters as humans


DA: Domestic animals
NDA: Non-domestic animals
FR: Family-related relation
C: Career relation
SR: Social relation


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As shown in Table 2, the number of fables that have characters as animals is relatively high.
The percentage of fables that have domestic and non-domestic animals as characters is 40 %
and 53% respectively. Clearly, when a certain animal acts as the character of a fable, it bears
many cultural features.
First, cultural identities can be recognized by the types of animals themselves. Concerning
the characters as domestic animals, they are the ones kept for food (flesh, milk) or for products
(horn, wool) such as “lamb” and “sheep” (The wolf and the lamb, The shepherd and the wolf
and The widow and the sheep); or they are kept for their services like drawing force for
ploughing lands or transporting crops like “donkey” (The salt merchant and his donkey). It is
noted that these animals are very typical of domestic animals in Western families. The features
above might be due to the conditions of geography, climate and other socio-cultural factors in
the West. In the West, there are many green fields, pastures, meadows and prairies that are
favorable for keeping cattle such as sheep, goats, horses and donkeys. These animals, in turn,
provide different services and products to their owners. Thus, there is an interrelation between
these characters and their owners, which forms a distinctive culture.
As far as non-domestic animals are concerned, these animals are diversified in terms of
species. They are “the wolf” in “The wolf and the lamb” or “The shepherd and the wolf”;

“the hare” and “the tortoise” in “The Hare and the Tortoise”; “the fox” in “The Fox and the
Goat”, “the raven” and “the swan” in “The Raven and the Swan”; “the lioness” in “The
Lioness”; “the bear” in “The Bear and the two travelers”. The animals above are typical wild
animals in Western culture. In ancient time, forests covered most of the surface of the earth
and there lived a lot of wild animals. Due to natural conditions, such animals outnumbered the
others. From this reality, these wild animals are considered to be the representatives of wild
animals of the culture. Because of this, the stereotypes about such animals were also formed.
For instance, foxes and wolves have always been viewed as cruel, evil, and sly. By contrast,
lambs, goats and tortoises are always thought of as the symbol of the little, timid and kind.
With reference to the TCFs embedded by the human characters, they are mostly manifested
through family-related relations, career relation, and social relation. As for the relationships
between family members in the fables, they are assumed to be the same as those in every