LANGUAGE IN INDIA

LANGUAGE IN HOMILETIC USE
V.V.B.Rama Rao, Ph.D.

What is Homily?

Homily usually is a sermon. Pejoratively, it is a tedious moralizing discourse. 'Homiletic' is used in a very broad sense in this article. While it usually relates to religious preaching, the intention here is to make it inclusive of public discourse in the several fields using catchy and pithy emphatic declarations, questions and statements for a variety of purposes. Encapsulation is an expressive device. We call a gelatin envelope enclosing a dose of medicine a capsule. 'Encapsulating' or putting in a capsule is not merely wrapping or enveloping but also miniaturization wherein the substance supposed to be ingested for medical purposes is reduced in volume by a specialized technique.

Levels and Layers of Messaging

Messaging through articulate speech varies from person to person and from situation to situation in any language. A message necessarily has to be clothed in some 'style' according to the speaker's linguistic competence, his social status, cultural level and the need of the situation. Message has communication as its primary function. At one level message has a prescriptive, spiritually edifying import. The preacher, the guru, the written scripture have messages for spiritual guidance and moral edification. Sometimes the messages are prescriptions, sometimes, prohibitive injunctions, warnings and so on. Messages in discourses are specially encapsulated with implicit and sometimes explicit meaning. There is message zooming for emphasis and carrying power. It is an accessory too as a mnemonic device.

In English language there are certain categories of discourse generally listed as Allegory, Parable, Fable, Epigram, Aphorism, Maxim which relate to encoding the message.

Modes of Messaging

All these relate broadly to discourse programming: while some are elaborate and sustained, some are brief and pointed like Epigram, Aphorism, and Maxim. These categories are not limited to English. They are applicable with modifications and variations to other languages as well. All the categories of this kind can be brought under one generic name 'homiletic use'.

Implications for ELT (English Language Teaching)

While teaching English as a foreign language at the senior levels, the homiletic use of language has to find a place in the course. The justification is that this

1. helps linguistic competence in extended reading
2. facilitates the appreciation of inter-cultural aspects
3. enables learners to get insights into the unique modes of messaging
4. improves the learners' competence to switch when necessary into the various modes according to the context.

This study is an aspect of analyzing the discourse. As such it belongs to the area of Discourse Analysis also. M. Stubbs in his textbook (1983) on the subject wrote:

I will use it (the term Discourse Analysis) to refer mainly to linguistic analyses of naturally connected speech or written discourse. Roughly speaking, it refers to a study of the organization of language above sentence or above the clause and therefore to study larger linguistic units such as conversational exchanges or written texts.

Maxims and Aphorisms, Epigrams and Slogans (a study of these take another full-length paper) do not normally stand in isolation in a dialogue or piece of writing. They become part of the discourse and hence should be belong to the area of Discourse Analysis.

Messaging as an Aspect of Style

Style is a matter basically of choice. It is also true that, as Carlyle observed, it is more in the nature of skin than in the nature of a coat. It is a matter of individual personality. It is also a matter of expedience and skill. It is more acquired/learnt than being spontaneous. The same person may switch styles according to situations. Le mot juste, right words, and right words in the right order, however one may phrase it, refer to choice by judgement. We will now see briefly the nature and purpose of the various modes of messaging: sustained discourse as well as single utterances.

Sustained Discourse

Allegory

An Allegory is basically is a homiletic discourse that is significant as 'veiled' moralizing. Here the sense of the message lies deeper than appears at the surface.

The superficial literal sense conceals the more significant messaging intentionally. The reader/listener has to get into the primary message looking through the apparent, outward one. Usually regarded as a figure of speech too it is used to elaborate a theme with an ulterior good intention. This can be illustrated from many languages, through the languages learners know for a quick and better understanding. John Bunyan, Jonathan Swift of the earlier times and Salaman Rushdie among the contemporaries are great allegorists.

In Sanskrit, in Bhagavatpuran, just to cite an example, Puranjanopakhyana, provides an illustration of sustained allegory. Dante's Divine Comedy, the 14th Century Christian epic is another fine example.

In an undergraduate class this writer gave to the amusement of youngsters this as a quick example:

Miss Beautiful, daughter of a millionaire, fell in love with Mr Dandy. Mr Dandy seduced her and eloped with her. They soon had a daughter whom they appropriately called Discomfiture, when Beautiful was disinherited that very day.

Northrop Frye came up with the category of 'naïve allegory' to describe Edmund Spenser's Faery Queen to differentiate it from more sophisticated modern versions. For example, Rushdie's Grimus is more than a mere allegory though one can easily read an allegory into it as in many other modern novels.

Generally speaking, allegorical figures are 'flat' and not 'round' in that they stand for a single quality, trait or characteristic, becoming two-dimensional showing no 'development'.

Parable

Parable is a story devised, primarily, to drive home a moral. Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia has this from the Punch, Vol. 103, Oct 29, 1892.

The Governess: "And now, what is a Parable, Effie?"
Effie: (who has got muddled) "A Parable? Oh! Of course a parable is a heavenly story with an earthly meaning."

The intention of a parable is not admonitory but to pass on an edifying message. Greek rhetoricians considered it a thought-up tale to serve as an illustration. The New Testament has several parables like that of the prodigal son.

A Parable can be seen as an extended metaphor also. It has a meaning that is transparent and striking. In an allegory some parts may be a little obscure but it is not so in a Parable. Many fairy tales can be viewed as parables since each of them illustrates a virtue and is usually pregnant with a moral sense. These may be understood as prescriptive laying down righteous ways of conduct. This category is used as a vehicle to explain spiritual tenets.

All Christians know the Parables like the one of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan. If in Christianity there are illustrative parables of virtue and goodness and such other noble sentiments, the Hindu scriptures too are replete with many such as in Ajamilopaakhyaanam, Gunanidhi Katha etc. Sinners are redeemed by a single act of goodness. Between the stirrup and the ground sought he and found mercy. In Hindu scriptures a single small act of unintended devotion leads to salvation. Any number of parables illustrates this. In a parable the narrative has a setting to describe an incident and the story value is something cherished by great minds to educate the lay in the nuances of good conduct. Evil deeds lead to punishment and good deeds are rewarded.

Fable

A Fable, again, is a narrative, driving home a moral. It could be in prose or verse. The distinguishing mark of this is that uses animals and birds as personae. Aesop's fables are favourites of pupils as well as schoolteachers. Aesop of the 6th Century B.C.

Greece was the first known to have collected these narratives. Panchatantra is the work of a Sanskrit scholar of the third century A.D. These stories were supposed to have been written by Bidpai, ( a court scholar, in Persian), one Vishnu Sharma to teach the King's dullard sons quickly and effectively the ways of life. The book was written in four parts and widely translated into Persian and Arabic. Subsequently the work went into Greece, Russia and Germany. The work is supposed to be the gift of an Indian ruler to the Persian king. La Fontaine is a celebrated French Fabulist. In a fable things inanimate are personifies as having intelligence and speech.

Brief Messaging

Aphorisms

An Aphorism is a brief pointed emphatic statement, which is a pithy generalization. It displays an insight that is strikingly new or true. These nuggets of truth could be found in the writings of all great writers, who have a flair for remarkable self-expression. Plato, Montaigne, La Rochefoucauld, Dr Johnson are some of the names that come readily to mind. Pope's aphorisms are memorable. The urge to make valid generalizations pithily is found in all writers. It involves not merely wisdom but also a capacity to pack the idea in as brief a statement as possible, which remains strikingly true and really memorable. La Rochefoucauld's wit lies is in 'formulating' Maxims, which we see presently.

Maxims

Proposito maxima, in Latin, signifies the greatest theme. It is quite akin to aphorism but the French La Rochefoucauld made a distinct contribution to Maxim elevating it to the status of a genre. Maxim is something like a precept.

A maxim is a terse statement assertion, remark or comment, which has both elegance and pithiness while making a n observation of man and his conduct. It is closely related to the French pensee, which consists of a pithy succinct statement, usually very brief, tough it may run into several sentences. In the 17th Century France it has come to be an indoor game of making reasonable, valid statements on human nature and the condition of man by a group of people in a salon, the resort of fashionable, cultured people. The gentlemen and ladies in this salon played a kind of intellectual game making pithy statements about human nature and human foibles and oddities. These are called "sentences." A person would toss out an idea. The idea is discussed. With a collaborative effort a polished statement would be finalized. Any area of life would be accepted except those relating to religion and politics. The Maxims of Mme Sable and La Rochefoucauld came to be very famous. The latter came to be called Master of Eloquent Melancholy and some saw in him a degree of cynicism too. Madame Sable, some say, was the first to have made Maxims.

Here are just a few examples from La Rochefoucauld:

Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example.
A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire.
Hypocrisy is the homage, which vice pays to virtue.

The leisured classes in that era spent time with fashionable ladies in pastimes of this kind. Many of the maxims are valid statements on the human condition and human nature. In all great writing we come across statements which would add to the treasure of maxims available. Here is style and substance in an ideal combination with pithiness and quote-worthiness. Advanced learners of a language would do well to test themselves making maxims open for discussion in small circles of like-minded friends.

Homily

In Greek it is a discourse, a sermon to a congregation. It is necessarily long, being a discourse. It is addressed to a congregation but in common parlance it is a moralistic assertion.

Epigram

Literally something inscribed, it is short statement either in prose or verse may be satirical or simply aphoristic. S.T. Coleridge, the English Romantic poet, defined it as 'A dwarfish whole, its body brevity, and wit its soul.' Pope's 'The proper study of mankind is man.' and "Fools rush where angels fear to tread' are cases in point."

There is humour too as in this:

'We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow
Our wisest sons, no doubt, will think us so.'

Mahavakyas

Apart from these, in Sanskrit, there are grand declarations like Mahavakyas. Vaakya, (sentence) is a primary basic unit in language which communicates some complete meaning. As civilization advanced there came about a maturation of thought, insight and expression and a 'standard' has been achieved. Language performed its diverse functions in different fields, in science, arts and literature and mysticism and philosophy.

Some of the statements are made in the third category. The utterances in the third category are of universal validity, relevance and significance. Mahavaakya is a grand declaration condensing in it a sublime insight with pithiness and force. The maha vaakya, great sentence, or assertion has a ring of finality. Sarvam khalvidam brahma is a Vedic declaration. These condense the great intellect of the preaching of the Vedas and each of these stands apart as the substance of a great deal of intellectual activity and achievement. The Ten Commandments belong to this category. There is a ring of supreme authority in these commandments applicable to all human beings: 'Thou shalt not kill.' Some statements in English qualify to the status of Mahavakyas.

Formulations

Brevity, absoluteness, certainty, inviolability and most importantly impossibility of saying the same thing in different or fewer words mark statements or "Laws" like those of Newton. Not only Students of Language and Stylistics but also students of sciences are best benefited by a course in Language in Homiletic Use.

Reference

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