The theory of the "four functions of folklore" in world folklore studies

Abstract

Research in the field of philological science is primarily closely related to text recognition. The search and comprehensive research in this direction marked the beginning of the emergence of new views and judgments, theories and research methods. One of them, that is, the theory of the “Four Functions of Folklore", as a native point of view on the differentiation of texts of oral folk art. His birth was caused by the conclusion of a scientist named B. K. Malinowski in the early twentieth century and the opinion of anthropologists. Then, 20-30 years later, his conclusion became a theory and was proposed as a new method of studying the folklore text. The first person who raised this topic was an American folklore scholar – William Bascom in 1953-1954. Since then, this topic has been actively discussed among scientists-members of the "Society of American Folklore" the results of the study were published in the scientific publication "Journal of American Folklore". The scientist W. Bascom, generalizing the texts of oral folk art, studies its place in the life of the people. As a result, four main functions of the folklore text are distinguished: protection of traditions, customs, education and upbringing, support for going beyond the established views. It was formed as a theory and already then began to be used in scientific research and educational programs. This topic will be studied by Turkish scientists after the 2000s and included in the content of education. Such views have been mentioned in the works of Kazakh scientists since the beginning of the twentieth century, although it is not called "the four functions of folklore". However, due to the lack of close relations between American and Soviet scientists, many research works were ignored. Therefore, this article discusses the theory of the" four functions of folklore", the history of its origin and study. For this purpose, the research of B. K. Malinowski, who first expressed his opinion on the topic, and W. Bascom, who justified the theory and the work of other scientists, are taken as a basis. The issues related to this topic are reasoned by the opinion of Kazakh scientists. As a result of the study, the four functions of folklore voiced by the scientist U. Bask are comprehensively shown, its connections with Kazakh folklore are differentiated. This, in turn, will allow us to study samples of oral Kazakh folk art within the framework of new humanitarian knowledge and on the basis of world scientific relations. In addition, it can be used in the training of industry specialists.