Euphemisms with meanings ‘to die’ and ‘to kill’ in the texts of Khakas heroic epics Altyn-Aryg and Ai-Khuuchin

Abstract

The heroic epics of the Turkic peoples in Siberia are the brightest achievement of their authentic culture. Due to the processes of urbanization, the diverging from the traditional way of life that are actively taking place in the Republic of Khakassia today, the mass bilingualism among the native speakers of the Khakas language, the switch to Russian by the Khakas younger generation, the loss of traditions in intergenerational transmission of folklore works, especially heroic epic, it is very important to study the linguistic features of Khakas folklore. The purpose of the article is to describe the features of semantic models of verbal euphemisms with meanings ‘to die’ and ‘to kill’, presented in Khakas heroic epics Altyn-Aryg and Ai-Khuuchin. Nominative units with similar meanings have not been previously studied in Khakas language and folklore studies. To achieve this goal, the method of contextual analysis, component analysis, and word formation analysis were used. Phrases with euphemistic verbal nominations, included in thematic group ‘death’ were identified with the help of the method of contextual analysis. Using the method of component analysis, the presence of seme ‘death as cessation of vital activity’ was confirmed in the verb semes. By word-formation analysis, models of the formation of euphemisms with meanings ‘to die’ (8 models) and ‘to kill’ (5 models) were established. The notion “to die” is conveyed by euphemisms formed according to such semantic models as “to lie down > to die”; “to fall down > to die”; “to cross > to die”; “to pass over > to die”; “to break off > to die”; “to transform > to die”; “to part > to die”; “to break (about a saddle pommel) > to die”. The notion “to kill” in the analyzed texts is conveyed through euphemisms formed using semantic models “to make somebody lie down > to kill”, “to make somebody cross > to kill”, “to drop > to kill”, “to tear > to kill”, “to eat > to kill”. Most of euphemisms are formed by metaphorical transfer; one semantic model is based on metonymic transfer (“to break (about a saddle pommel) > to die”). The analyzed units reflect archaism of the ideas reflected in them about death as a transition to the world of the dead, as the result of the interruption of a thread–like substance – a soul ‘tyn’, as the transformation of the external appearance (khubul- literary ‘to change', ‘to transform'), as the parting with the light world ‘akh charykh’.

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