Style in the Tale Literature of Mala Kamchan

Abstract

This paper aims to study the style in the tale literature of Mala Khamchan. The study was conducted by collecting his 19 tales as written in the works called “The 1st Mala’s Tale: Mystery Coin” (2008) and “2nd Mala’s Tale: Khanthamad-Tanghom (2008). In term of word usage, the result shows that the works embrace character-referring words, ideophone, pleasant characteristic describing words, super-nature referring words, color terms, northern Thai dialectal words, synonymous compound words and reduplication. In term of sentence usage, the works use explaining sentences. In term of literary devices, the works show multi-levels of language that fit properly with each character. Also, trope and rhymes are used therein. In term of context and cohesion, the works were written purposely to communicate with children. The stories are told through narrative method, and contain fantasy aspect which smoothly connects each story together. The style as such allows readers to greatly understand the stories. It also entertains readers, provides imagery to readers, and implies the ethical standard of the society. The style additionally makes the elegance of language to appears before the readers. Therefore, the style as used in Mala Khamchan is consistent with the target readers and genre.