COMPOSITION OF COMPARISON OBJECTS IN THE YAKUT OLONKHO (BASED ON THE TEXT OF OLONKHO UOL DUOLAN)

Abstract

The article is a part of the study of comparison as a speech means of imagery in the Yakut epic olonkho. The paper deals with the reference component in the structure of comparison – the object of comparison. The aim of the study is to identify the main composition of comparison objects with their subsequent classification on the example of the text of the olonkho “Uol Duolan” recorded in 1938 by A. A. Savvin from M. Z. Martynov, a olonkho-teller of the local Suntar epic tradition. The research was conducted with the use of the methods of corpus folkloristics: in the initial stage of the research we created an electronic catalog of comparisons of the olonkho “Uol Duolan”, containing 341 units of comparative constructions; the data analysis was performed; the automatic search was applied for the semantic and contextual analysis of comparison objects, for identifying the variants and other examples of using comparisons. The classification of comparison objects into five thematic groups, based on the systematization applied by F. M. Selivanov in the study of comparisons of Russian bylina has been carried out. The author concludes that the main components of the “cognizable” in the olonkho “Uol Duolan” are the appearance of the characters (31%) and their actions, including body movements and emotions (29%). The image of the main character, as well as the images of his adversary, the bogatyr-abaasy and the beautiful girl-aiyy, are revealed in the most detail. Comparative objects belonging to the group of nature description (13%) participate in the representation of the world model of the Olonkho, contribute to the expression of its binary nature, as well as convey the power, abundance and beauty of nature. Character properties (12%) are subjected to comparison mainly to clarify qualitative characteristics of objects (size, shape, color, etc.), as well as to hyperbolize their size. The share of objects of comparison – peculiar sounds and voices of different origin, distinguished by accuracy and expressiveness, is 6%. In addition to the highlighted groups, other objects of comparison, which do not form separate groups, are abstract concepts, time, measures, etc., were also revealed.

Acknowledgements: The study was carried out within the framework of the NEFU research project “Epic monument of the intangible culture of the Yakuts: textological, typological, cognitive and historical-comparative aspects”.

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