Linguistic and Cultural Characteristics of Words Referring to Characters in Vietnamese Fairy Tales

Abstract

In fairy tales, the main character is the center, the soul of the narrative as  all the events and details in the story revolve around this figure. Characters in fairy tales are diverse, and each is identified by different names associated with different fates, qualities, appearances, psychological traits, personalities, actions and behaviors. Studying the words referring to characters in fairy tales from a linguistic - cultural perspective therefore not only shows the diversity in naming characters  but also helps to better understand some cultural and national characteristics expressed through the meanings of some character names.