TEASER

TEASER is a genre of children's folklore, a short­rhymed poem aimed to vex, irritate or offend somebody deliberately. They are ut­tered in a recitative manner. T. are closely con­ nected with rhymed nicknames which are sort of appendixes to proper names: Vovka­carrot, Yulka­smug (both – Rus.), Khaybul­-Khabysh, legs and arms are crooked (Bashk.); Bikmet­ Bikmet – a half of bread (Tat.), Alyesha – galosh, My beloved – Vanyusha (Chuvash.); Vasya, Vasya, is the shop open? Go back home and stab your stomach (Udm.), etc. Dialogical taunts can be considered as T: Say: towel. / – Towel. / You've got two Germans in your nose  (Rus.); – Say: glass / – Glass/ – Your mother's finger will swell tomorrow (Bashk.), etc. One of the Bashkortostan T. peculiarities is that there are texts in two languages, Russian T. of­ ten use non­Russian names etc. (see National and international parts of folklore) Themes of T. are dedicated to the negative phenomena of social life, it assesses human vices. In con­ trast  to  other  genres  of  children's  folklore, T. widely use low colloquial lexis and vulgar­ isms. T. foster a sense of humor, the ability to distinguish negative from positive, to build up good relationships.

L.A. Afanasyeva, I.E. Karpukhin, T.G. Minniyakhmetova