Semantics and structure: an analysis of two trickster tales

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of the underlying semantic structure of two trickster tales told in two unrelated languages, Hausa, spoken in WestAfrica, and Tunica, once spoken in Southeastern North America. The tales arefound to share a generic structure which is describedas a cognitive scene representing the experience of playing a trick. The cognitive scene is analyzed äs a sequence ofcase frames, semantic role configurations, which reflects the development of the relations between the characters. The notion that grammatical patterns can function semantically, äs modes ofmeaning in themselves, is examined by means of an analysis ofthe narrators'use ofthe different linguistic structures of Hausa and Tunica. Both the individual narrators'patterned use of linguistic forms and the common generic structure, the sequence of case frames, are found to function äs linguistic Symbols, expressing the theme of differentiation common to trickster tales throughout the world. The textsThe two trickster tales which are printed below are the subject of this article. Original language versions can be found in Skinner (1968: 21-22) and Haas (1950: 103-106). The first tale, The Tasks of Rabbit', was told in Tunica, a language once spoken in Mississippi and Louisiana. Tunica is usually described äs a language isolate, but Crawford tentatively proposed connections with Yuchi and Atakapa (1979). The text comes from a collection made by Haas, who recorded the last Tunica Speaker, Sesostrie Youchigant (1950). The second tale was told in Hausa, a language spoken by at least 20 million people 0165-4888/81/0001-0241 $2.00