Olga Francesca

Matr:4312200960
Facolt di lingue e letterature straniere
Corso di laurea in lingue e culture straniere
Lingua inglese II-Prof.Linda Barone

Final Paper
The aim of this essay is to analyze linguistic features of two fantasy novels: Alice's adventures in
wonderland (by Lewis Carroll) and Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone ( by J.k.Rowling).I
am going to analyse the novels in a quite same way focusing my attention on figures of speech
slang and major characteristics of fantasy literature found in the texts especially reporting common
characteristics. In each chapter i will introduce a page extracted from the books and try to make an
analysis. Then i will write a short concluding chapter.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

-Abstract

1.Talking about fantasy literature

page 2

2.Alices adventures in wonderland

page 3

2.1 Latinisms in All in the golden afternoon

2.2 Interjections
2.3 Analysis of a page: The Mouses tale

page 4

2.4 Figures of speech

page 6

3.Harry Potter and the Philosopher stone

page 9

3.1 Neologisms, spells and characters names

page 9

3.2 Adjectives and reporting verbs

page 11

3.3 Analysis of a page

page 13

3.4 Figures of speech

page 15

4 Conclusion

page 18

5 Bibliography and Sitography

page 18

1.THE FANTASY LITERATURE

Fantasy literature is a literary genre characterized by the telling of a story that is out of the ordinary,
with mysterious and inexplicable episodes and set in real life. Fantasy's habit of taking real-life
situations and characters and introducing them into a world where, unexpected (and unexplainable)
things happen, has resonated with readers since the earliest days1. Classic myths have often inspired
the plotlines as well as contributing characters to the fantasy genre ( Heroes, fairy stories,Greek
myths,conflict
between
good
and
evil)2.
The main characteristics of the fantasy genre are:

Imaginary settings
Animals talking and acting like humans
Sometimes the use of a fantasy language
Magical powers

The Plot is almost always a natural serial sequence. It is simple and predictable, the characters
action is often based on traditional roles and archetypes. The style is often folk or oral, there is
the use of a simple vocabulary and lots of repetition. Fantasy particularly is notable as the only form
of literature that consistently blurs the boundaries between adult fiction and children's fiction. Lewis
Carroll's books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, for instance,
have defied description since they first were published over 100 years ago. The books
unquestionably were written for a child,the original Alice, who was the daughter of a friend of
Carroll's. However they are just as often read by adults looking for an escape back to a simpler
time. The J.K.Rowlings Harry Potter series are a more modern example of fantasy literature, we
can find in it everyday issues such as family situations, growth and maturity and the acceptance of
cultural differences but all themes are tempered with the magical experiences3.

http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring05/Sanchez/index.htm
www.uky.edu (Fantasy 2 ppt)
3
Polly L. Kotarba-Harry Potter: A Link to the Fantasy Genre
2

2.ALICES ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

Lewis Carrol wrote this novel for a child audience but his writing style is so poetic and clever.
Although,for the most part,the book is written in simple language, the author plays with words, uses
paranomasia, homophones confusion,puns and metaphors,which add richness to his writing and
capture the attention of the adults .In addition he also uses poetry, parodying songs and nursery
rhymes.

2.1 LATINISMS IN ALL IN THE GOLDEN AFTERNOON

Imperious Prima flashes forth
In gentler tone Secunda hopes
While Tertia interrupts the tale

In the third verse of Alices adventures in wonderland introductory poem, Carrol uses latin ordinal
numbers to refer to three girls: Alice and her two sisters.

2.2 INTERJECTIONS
Since the beginning of the novel we can notice that Carrol often makes use of interjections.An
interjection is a part of speech that shows the emotion or feeling of the author. Interjections can
stand alone or after a sentence and are sometimes followed by a punctuation mark. The most used in
this novel are:
ALAS! ( Used to express sorrow,regret,grief or compassion4. A synonym can be Unfortunately)
Maam (It is a contracted form of Madam.. Was formally used when addressing women in the

days when etiquette and common courtesy were commonplace5.)

I beg your pardon! (Stands for sorry, excuse me)
Indeed ( Indicates emphatic agreement. Other synonyms can be: absolutely,

for real)
Most of these interjections can be considered archaisms because they belong to an earlier historical
period and are no longer used in everyday language.

4
5

http://it.urbandictionary.com/
http://it.urbandictionary.com/

2.3 THE MOUSE TALE

Then they all crowded round her once more, while the Dodo solemnly presented the
thimble, saying 'We beg your acceptance of this elegant thimble'; and, when it had finished
this short speech, they all cheered.
Alice thought the whole thing very absurd, but they all looked so grave that she did not
dare to laugh; and, as she could not think of anything to say, she simply bowed, and took
the thimble, looking as solemn as she could.
The next thing was to eat the comfits: this caused some noise and confusion, as the large
birds complained that they could not taste theirs, and the small ones choked and had to be
patted on the back. However, it was over at last, and they sat down again in a ring, and
begged the Mouse to tell them something more.
'You promised to tell me your history, you know,' said Alice, 'and why it is you hateC
and D,' she added in a whisper, half afraid that it would be offended again.
'Mine is a long and a sad tale!' said the Mouse, turning to Alice, and sighing.
'It IS a long tail, certainly,' said Alice, looking down with wonder at the Mouse's tail; 'but
why do you call it sad?' And she kept on puzzling about it while the Mouse was speaking,
so that her idea of the tale was something like this: 6.

This is a page, extracted from chapter 3 titled The Caucus race. In this chapter there is a great deal
of confusion about words and their meaning .For the most part of the chapter he uses direct
speech.The style is colloquial and quite informal. Some linguistic features that we can notice in this
extract are:

Personification: The dialogue is between Alice and a mouse. The characters in this novel are
for most animals,Carroll attributes to them human qualities infact they can talk, think and
act like humans.

P62.Alice nel paese delle meraviglie.La feltrinelli

Paranomasia: It is like a word play and is also known as a pun. TALE and TAIL are
homophones, they have the same pronounciation but different meaning and spell.

The Mouses Tale is a concrete poem, that is a poem that forms a picture that follows the topic .It is
also called Shaped verse.In this case the poem has the shape of a tail like a mouses tail. The poem
is a "quadruple pun": besides being a tale about a tail, the poem is also typeset in the shape of a tail
and its rhyme structure is that of a tail rhyme.7 The words at the end, infact, begin to become
smaller and smaller as the tail becomes narrower.At the beginning of the first verse there is a name,
FURY, written in capital letters, that is the name of the dog. To refer to him Carrol uses the
synonymous CUR. Other linguistic particularities are:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mouse%27s_Tale

Repetition: It is the simple repeating of a word, within a sentence or a poetical line, with no
particular placement of the words8 The words repeated here are Trial Jury and Judge
Personification: The poet gives human qualities to the cur. He can prosecute, Judgeand
Jury, all unusual things for an animal.

2.4 FIGURES OF SPEECH

As i said from the beginning of this essay, in Alicesadventures in Wonderland novel the writer
makes a great use of figures of speech, besides the personification that recurs in all the novel, the
most evident are repetition, onomatopoeias, puns, metaphors and similes. Here are some examples
taken from the novel:

REPETITION: Other two examples of repetition can be found in chapter 1:

There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the
rabbit say to itself , Oh dear!Oh dear! I shall be too late!

In chapter 2:
Curiouser and curiouser! cried Alice (she was so much surprised)

ONOMATOPOEIA: An onomatopoeia is a word that phonetically imitates the source of

the sound that it describes.9

when suddenly THUMP! THUMP! down she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves...10

In the first chapter we find the word Thump that is an onomatopoeic word, it replaces the
sound that makes alice falling at the end of the rabbit hole, there is also a repetition because
it is repeated two times to strenghten the concept.

PUNS: In Carrols text almost every paragraph contains some sort of play on words, their
sounds and their multiple senses.11 The puns used by Carroll are ones that revolve around
homophones: words that sound alike. Generally a pun takes a word that is quite
understandable in context and replaces it with a homonym to create an entire new
meaning12
An example is seen in the scene between Alice and the Duchess, Alice explains, "You see the
earth takes twenty-four hours to turn round on its axis " when the Duchess interrupts Alice
and says, "Talking of axes, chop off her head!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repetition_(rhetorical_device)
//en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onomatopeia
10
P.32 Alice nel paese delle meraviglie.La feltrinelli
11
http://ler.letras.up.pt/uploads/ficheiros/7246.pdf
12
www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pun
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In the Mock Turtles Story episode the pun is on the similar sound of different words:

When we were little,the Mock Turtle went on at last, more calmly, though still
sobbing a little now and then, we went to school in the sea. The master was an old
Turtle we used to call him Tortoise
Why did you call him Tortoise, if he wasnt one? Alice asked.
We called him Tortoise because he taught us, said the Mock Turtle angrily:
really you are very dull!

TORTOISE and TAUGHT US are pronounced the same way in carrols dialect, obviously
they have diffrent meanings.
Another humourous substitution of words can be found in this passage:
And how many hours a day did you do lessons? said Alice, in a hurry to change the subject.
Ten hours the first day, said the Mock Turtle; nine the next, and so on.
What a curious plan! exclaimed Alice.
Thats the reason theyre called lessons, the Gryphon remarked: because they
lessen from day to day.

The play on words is in this case is between the words LESSON and LESSEN. The lessons are
named so because they lessen, that is because they become shorter, from day to day.

The Mock turtle chapter is full of word plays, other examples are:
What was that? enquired Alice.
Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with,the mock turtle replied; and then the different branches of
Arithmetic-Ambition,Distraction,Uglification and Derision.

And so on
`Well, there was Mystery,' the Mock Turtle replied, counting off the subjects on his flappers, `--Mystery,
ancient and modern, with Seaography: then Drawling--the Drawling-master was an old conger-eel, that
used to come once a week: HE taught us Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in Coils.'
`I never went to him,' the Mock Turtle said with a sigh: `he taught Laughing and Grief, they used to say.'

Reeling and Writhing correspond to Reading and Writing

Ambition, Distraction, Uglification and Derision mean Addition, Substraction, Moltiplication and
Division
Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in Coils stand fot Drawing, Sketching and Painting in oils
Laughing and Grief for Latin and Greek

METAPHORS AND SIMILES:

'What a curious feeling!' said Alice; 'I must be shutting up like a telescope.'

Like a telescope because she could get smaller or taller like a retracting telescope.

Well, I hardly know--No more, thank ye; I'm better now--but I'm a deal too flustered to tell you--all I know
is, something comes at me like a Jack-in-the-box, and up I goes like a sky-rocket!'

A "Jack-in-the-box" is a toy which is a box with a lid and a little figure inside, in this context it
refers to being surprised by something that happens suddenly.
Like a sky-rocket in this case means to rise or increase rapidly or suddenly 13

Carroll also uses similes in his book to describe the characters. . When Alice first meets the Queen:
The queen turned crimson with fury, and,after glaring at her for a moment like a wild beast

Later, the Queen frowns like a thunderstorm as she and Alice play croquet.
This similes show the personality of the queen that is clearly aggressive , unreasonable and moody.

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http://dictionary.infoplease.com/skyrocket

3.HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHERS STONE

The world of JK Rowlings Harry Potter is vast and appreciated by millions of fans around the
world. The books of Harry Potter have been read by children, young adults and adults all over the
world. Harry Potter and the Philosopher stone is the first book of the series. One particularity of
J.K.Rowlings novels is the richness of vocabulary, the use she makes of word formation processes
for the creation of new words and neologisms, magic spells and characters names. In the novel we
find very frequently reporting verbs and adjectives.Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone is told
in third-person, limited point of view, with the narrator unidentified and invisible and the tone
objective. Harry is the character whose thoughts, feelings, and experiences are revealed to the
reader.The actions and thoughts of the other characters are relayed to the reader via the
conversations among the characters themselves.

3.1 NEOLOGISMS, SPELLS AND CHARACTERS NAMES

Harry Potter booksare not just good literature but a treasury of word play and inventionIn naming her
spells, beasts, characters places and objects, author J.K.Rowling makes use of Latin, French and German
words, poetic devices, and language jokes. (Jessy Randall)

A neologism is a newly invented word or term14 In harry potter and the Philosopher stone book
there are a great number of new words to designate invented or real things.
One of the most famous neologisms in this saga is:

MUGGLE. It is an invented word infact it has unknown origins. It is tought that the author
herself says that she created the word muggle from mug in the sense of gullible and then
added -le to make it sound cuddly.15

In chapter IV Hagrid says:

A Muggle. Its what we call non-magic folk like them.Anits your bad luck you grew up in a family o the
biggest Muggles i ever laid eyes on.

A muggle then is a person who has no magical abilities.

QUIDDITCH: It seems to be a mixture of the names for the balls that are used in this
wizard sport played on brooms, which are quaffle, bludger and snitch16

Whats your Quidditch team? Ron asked. Er- i dont know any, Harry confessed. What! Ron looked
dumbfounded. Oh, you wait, its the best game in the world- (chpt6)

REMEMBRALL: This neologism is a blending word it derives from the verb rember and
the word all. It is a tool for remembering all kinds of things.

14

Whatis.com/definition/neologism.
Dumbledore,Remembrall and owls,Emma Pren
16
Dumbledore,Remembrall and owls,Emma Pren
15

Its a Remembrall! He explained. Gran knows i forget things-this tells you if theres some youve forgotten
to do. Look, you hold it tight like this and if it turns red-oh. (chpt 9)

Most of the carachters names derives infact from latin words and other languages. Here are some
examples:

Albus Dumbledore: He is the headmaster of Hogwarts, his first name derives from the
Latin word white which marks him as a good character. The surname derives from Old
English Bumblebee.
Voldemort: Also known as You-Know-Who. It seems to be an invented name but for many
linguists it could come from the french word Vol-de-mort that means death flight.
However there are different opinions about this names etymology, for other it can derives
from Latin because also in this language the word Mort means Death.
Draco Malfoy: Draco is the Latin word for Dragon. Malfoy is a bit more difficult to
analize it is thought that it derives from the words mal and foi. The first part derives
from Latin malus and means evil or bad, the second part which is faith in French
derives from Latin Fides, means trust, belief. As a result the combination of the two
words is Bad faith or evil belief17
Severus Snape: Severus is from Latin and means stern like his personality. Snape is
taken from J.K.Rowling from an old village in Suffolk but is also a verb in English that
means to snub or give a hard time to that is what he often does to Harry.18
Rubeus Hagrid: Rubeus from the Latin word rubeo that means red and is related to the
word ruddy. Hagrid is from several old English, French and German words to sum up it
may be derived from the term Hagridden which means worried.

These are only some examples of names in which there is a great use of Latin but this language is
not only used for the choice of characters names but also in this spell:

Wingardium Leviosa;

Hermione rolled up the sleeves of her gown, flicked her wand and said, Wingardium Leviosa!

Wingardium is a blending word from the English term wing and a Latin adaptation of the
comparative of arduus which means steep. The second word is an adaptation of the
Latin word levo meaning i lift.19 It is infact a levitation charm.

17

www.languagerealm.com/hplang/dracomalfoy.php
Sandrova.com/Harry-Potter-etymology-great-wizards/
19
Blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2013/07/spells-harry-potter
18

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3.2 ADJECTIVES AND REPORTING VERBS

The adjectives in this novel are so frequent and important, most of them are used to describe
characters. In the following examples we can notice the richness of adjectives used, some of
them have positive or negative connotations. Depending on the term that the author chooses
for the character description, the reader can understand if this is good or bad; ugly or
beautiful.

Mr Dursley: He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck (Chpt 1)

Mrs Dursley: Mrs Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck (Chpt1)

Dudley: Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large, pink face, not much neck, small, watery
blue eyes and thick, blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. (Chpt 2)

Harry: Under a tuft of jet-black hair over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of
lightning (Chpt 1)
Harry had always been small and skinny for his ageHarry had a thin face, knobby knees, black hair and
bright green eyes (Chpt2)
He was ever so polite when he asked hoe to get on the platform (Chpt6)

The Weasleys: The speaker was a plump woman who was talking to four boys all with flaming red hair
(Chpt 6) All the Weasleys have red hair (Chpt 6)

Ron: He was tall, thin and gangling, with freckles, big hands and feet and a long nose (Chpt 6)

Malfoy: a boy with a pale, pointed face was standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up his
long black robes he had a bored drawling voice (Chpt 5)

Dumbledore: He wore half-moon glasses, had a long crooked nose and flowing silver hair, beard and
moustache. (Chpt 6)

We can notice then that the adjectives used in describing characters like Mr and Mrs Dursley,
Dudley and Malfoy assume a negative connotation and this is because they are some of the novels
bad characters. On the other hand the adjectives used for Harry, Ron etc have positive connotation
for the same reason.
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Reporting verbs are frequently used throughout the novel; a reporting verb is a verb used to
indicate that discourse is being quoted or paraphrased20

I will not concentrate on the most common and used such as said told and asked
The most used for Harry are: Asked, Gasped and Whispered.
All what? Asked Harry (Chpt4)
Im a what? Gasped Harry (Chpt4)
See? Harry whispered. (Chpt 12)

For Reporting Mr Dursleys discourses she uses: Barked, Sneered, Yelled and Shouted.
Comb your hair! He barked, by way of a morning greeting (Chpt 2)
STOP! I FORBID YOU! yelled Uncle Vernon in panic. (Chpt 4)
Whod been writing to you? sneered Uncle Vernon (Chpt 3)
Whos there? he shouted. (Chpt 4)

Other reporting verbs used for Ron we can notice are: Mumbled and Muttered
Right! mumbled Ron (Chpt 6)
Im Ron Weasley, Ron muttered (Chpt 6)

These are just a few examples compared to the huge number of reporting verbs occurring in the
text.Also for the reporting verbs it is evident that the choice contributes to the classification of the
bad and good characters. Mr Dursley for example barks and shouts which is typical for a rude
man like him and then can be considered a bad character.

20

Grammar.about.com> reportingverbterm

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3.3 ANALYSIS OF A PAGE

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These are two pages from chapter 4, chapter in which Hagrid appears for the first time and reveals
to Harry his true magician origins. Particularities of this extract are; two onomatopoeias BOOM at
the beginning of the first line and SMASH in the ninth, reporting verbs such as he shouted, and
said used seven times.
There are also two similes:
his eyes glinting like black beetles line 15
and Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on.
The style is very informal and simple but most noticeable particularity is hagrids language. One of the

main aspects of Rubeus Hagrid's character is his dialect characterized by alternative spellings and
apostrophes indicating elided vowels and consonants.
Examples of elision are : a cup otea where o stands for of.
An heres a cup of tea an for and.
Las time i saw you las for last .

Rowling writes Hagids dialogues with British slang and vernacular speech
Got summat fer yeh here The word summat is a slang word from northern England and means
something.21

Here is a list of Hagrids terms translated :

21

Yeh = You
Yer = Your
Mighta = Might have.

http://pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/monkeynotes/pmHarryPotter122.asp

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3.4 FIGURES OF SPEECH

ONOMATOPOEIAS

The first onomatopoeia appears at the beginning of the fourth chapter:

BOOM! They knocked again.Dudley jerked away

BOOM its the sound that Hagrid makes knocking at the door, Hagrid is a giant and his knock
sounds like a cannon fire.

In Chapter 9 and 11 we find:

WHAM- a thud ad a nasty crack and Neville lay, face down, on the grass in a heap.

WHAM is used to express the sound of a violent impact as Neville does.

In chapter 3 and 15 there is:

AAAAAAAAAAARG! Malfoy let out a terrible scream and bolted

This word is an onomatopoeia that expresses pain but can also be used as an interjection.

PERSONIFICATION
In Harry potter novel the personification doesnt affect animals but objects which assumes
human qualities through the magic.
An example is: THE SORTING HAT.
This hat determines to which of the four school houses each new student is to be assigned22

This is evident in chapter seven, it can infact speak think and even sing.

22

Harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Sorting_Hat

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THE WAND
In chapter five we can read: Its really the wand that chooses the wizard.
Even if, it doesnt own human characteristics like talking thinking etc, it is still a personification
phenomenon because it can choose.

THE BROOM
Chapter nine: Harrys broom jumped into his hand at once.
Like the wand, the broom doesnt own proper human qualities but it jump that is an action it cant
make in real world.

METAPHORS AND SIMILES

The first metaphor in the novel concerns Mrs Dursley, talking about her phisical appearance
description the author says:
Mrs Dursley wasand had nearly twice the usual amount of neck...she spent so much of her time
craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbors

This is a metaphor because Mrs Dursley is compared to a crane, his neck is long and thin
like a crane boom.
A second metaphor appears in Hagrids description:
His face was almost completely hidden by a long shaggy mane of hair

He is here compared to a lion, his hair is like a lion mane.

SIMILES
A simile is like a metaphor but in it are used the words like or as to make the
comparison.
Two examples taken from the book are:
His feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins (chpt 1 Hagrids description)
Dumbledores silver hair was the only thing in the whole hall that shone as brightly as the ghosts

(chpt 7)
As we can see these are two similes because the first in introduced from Like and the
second from as.

HYPERBOLE

16

Hyperbole is a figure of speech which involves an exaggeration of ideas for the sake of emphasis23

In chapter twelve in the description of the table laden with food and drinks for the Christmas dinner
we find this hyperbole : mountains of roast and boiled potatoes
The exaggeration is expressed in this case from the word mountains.

23

Literarydevices.net/hyperbole/

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4 CONCLUSION

In conclusion, as we have seen in this essay, the two described novels have common
characteristics. In both can be found representative elements of the fantasy genre such as imaginary
settings (Hogwarts and The wonderland), objects and animals personification, magic and unreal
games.The styles and registers are quite the same and also figures of speech used are common.
Alices novel is so nonsensical unlike Harry Potters novel in which there is more violence and
danger. These obviously belongs to different periods, Harry potter represents modern fantasy
literature but Carrols novel is so innovative despite being a novel written in 1865.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
-Carroll L. Alices adventures in wonderland
-Costa L. Alice nel paese delle meraviglie
-Fordyce A. Semiotics and Linguistics in Alices World, De Gruyter
-Langlotz A. Idiomatic creativity: A Cognitive-linguistic model of idiom-representation, John
benjamins publishing company
-Lunari L. Alice nel paese delle meraviglie, La Feltrinelli
-Rowling J.K, Harry potter and the philosophers stone, Bloomsbury
- Kotarba L.P,Harry Potter: A Link to the Fantasy Genre

www.uky.edu
www.urbandictionary.com
www.mugglenet.com
www.literarydevices.net
www.wikia.com
www.pinkmonkey.com
www.grammarabout.com
www.languagerealm.com
www.wikipedia.org

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