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An Experiment in Definitions and in Terminology
To the memory
of Alan Dundes
A clear terminology, that is, proper terms for clearly defined concepts, can greatly advance scholarly discussion. Lately, I have begun to wonder about some of the terms we ('we', the etfuiopoeticians) habitually use in analyses of oral-and-folk literature (on oral/written and folk/high literature see Jason 1988; 1990,73; 1992). Are they proper? Are the concepts we designate by diese terms clearly enough defined? Do we not often use the same term for different concepts? And so on.
In principle, the label for a concept is arbitrary and a matter of agreement and habit. Labels such as 'unit of order A', 'unit of order B', 'relationship of kind C', etc., would serve their purpose just as well. Yet, it seems tiiat it would be useful and practical for the label to express the nature of the concept in some way; the term should not resemble a word used in everyday speech, i.e. not be loaded witii too many meanings, and should be at the same time short, i.e. consist of a single word and not of a whole phrase. The following are some thoughts on such concepts and labels: the labels 'motive' and 'motif in general use, Thompson's 'motif (Thompson 1955-58), Propp's 'function' (Propp 1928), Pike's 'alio-' and '-etic/-emic' relationships (Püce 1954) and Dundes' 'motif-eme' and 'allo-motif ' (Dundes 1962).
Upon the translation of Vladimir Propp's book into English, Alan Dundes was the first to pick up Propp's ideas (Propp 1928; translated in 1958). In his wellknown paper, published in 1962, Dundes tried to combine the novel ideas which Propp's work brought, with some linguistic notions (Pike 1954), also a novelty at the time, and apply the result to traditional folkloristics. Thus the terms 'motifeme' and 'allo-motif ' were coined and are still used. I want to analyze diese terms, see to what extent they correctly label the concepts, and what their impact is.
I. The labels 'motif, 'motive' and 'Motiv'
These labels have been variously used in scholarly discourse. Among others, motive (English)/Motiv (German) may indicate the cause of action: a personage is motivated by X to act in a particular way. It may denote a general theme, or part of a theme,...