Small forms of folklore genre in the epic of the Buryats

Abstract

The heroic epic of the Buryats (uligers), like many epic works of other peoples, contains in its artistic canvas various language expressions, such as proverbs, sayings, well-wishes, conspiracies. This article analyzes the proverbs and sayings used in the epic works of the Buryats in the semantic aspect. The purpose of the article is to define and identify the meaning and functional features of proverbs in the structure of epic texts. The material for the study was selected from the texts of the Buryat uligers Abai Geser hubuun by M. Imegenov, Abai Geser by Pekheon Petrov and Abai Gesar Bogdo Khaan by Alfor Vasiliev. The analysis is based on the structural-semantic, structural-typological methods. The relevance of our research is due to the fact that at present, the semantic meaning of paroemias in the epic texts of the Turkic-Mongolian peoples is not well studied, as well as there is lack of research on the functional meaning of proverbs used in folklore texts. The novelty of the work lies in the fact that for the first time an attempt was made to do a semantic analysis of proverbs in heroic and epic works, and their functions were revealed. In the structure of the heroic tale, paroemia, acquiring an epic color and character, are a special component of the structural system of the uligers, while reflecting the ancient cultural, social, and religious traditions of the Buryats.

A comparative analysis of proverbs in Buryat uligers revealed that the same paroemia can be used by the storyteller in different lexical forms, as well as the places of their use are different: in the beginning, in the middle or at the end of an epic work. Due to their genre specificity, they can perform certain functions in the structure of epic texts: they serve as a poetic means of imaginative characterization of the hero, motivate the hero to act, are used as the ending of individual episodes of the epic text, and so on. Individual proverbs used in Buryat epic texts differ in the variety of lexical forms and frequency of use. Proverbs, being a structural component of a heroic work, perform various functions and make the epic language rich and meaningful in terms of poetics.

Acknowledgements: The work was carried out within the framework of the state assignment of the Institute of Mongolian, Buddology and Tibetian Studies of the SB RAS XII.192.1.4 Myth and history in the folklore and literature of the Buryats and Russian Siberians: universals and specificity (state registration number AAAA-A17-117021310268-2).

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