Taking the Miaows out of your Mouth. Creative modification in multi-word expressions

What is it about?

Multi-word units such as idioms, formulas, proverbs, etc. are often referred to as "fixed expressions". This is no wonder, since these groups of words usually do not allow transformations nor any type of modification in their form (e.g. insertion or substitution of constituents). However, human creativity goes beyond these limits and plays with this type of language, taking advantage of its fixed nature. When this happens, the result is a new expression. For example, "take the miaows out of someone's mouth" is a modification of the idiom "take the words out of someone's mouth". These novel units are ephemeral and provoke a wide range of effects, for example, humor, satire, meta linguistic awareness, intertextuality, etc. Being capable of achieving an array of effects, creative modification of multi-word units is one of the stylistic resources at play in many literary works. A good example of a master use of phraseological modification is Sepúlveda's fable "The story of a seagull and the cat who taught her to fly", where the main characters, the cats, make an extensive use of modified expressions. In this article, all the instances of modified multi-word units are extracted and analyzed. Results show that the pervasive use of occasional phraseological variation in this story works in favor of building upon one of the fable's distinctive features, that is, animal humanization. Cats can speak and even play with language, as humans do. But, at the same time, in this word play, animals make expressions specific to their animal characteristics to achieve some distance from humans. They can act like humans, but they are not human beings; they are animals, and they wish to be distinguished from humans because humans do not care about environmental issues. In this way, Sepúlveda reinforces the moral lesson of the fable with the help of modified expressions.

Featured Image

Photo by Marko Ganzaro on Unsplash

Photo by Marko Ganzaro on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Creative modifications of multi-word units are occasional instances of groups of words, which provoke a wide range of effects. Due to this ephemeral nature, they are not recorded in any dictionary, which makes their identification and collection more difficult. This article focuses on the most creative and original form of phrases in a complete literary work, a fable by Sepúlveda, combining both linguistic and stylistic analysis. The delightful fable of a cat who teaches a seagull to fly is the ground for this study in which all the instances of phraseological modifications are identified and explored. The author's literary talent is magnificently displayed in this story through these novel variations giving animal humanization a turn.

Perspectives