Temporal Lexis in the Kalmyk Heroic Epic Dzhangar and the Issues of its Lexicographic Reflection

Abstract

Although sharing typological features, the category of time proves itself in different ways in relation to different cultures and languages, revealing the character of national mental outlook and the value system of the ethnicity. The language and imagery of Kalmyk epic reveal to the fullest extent the Kalmyk idea of time in conjunction with philosophical and cultural conceptualization, spiritual and religious comprehension, as well as with ethic and aesthetic appraisal. Research of the time pattern in the Kalmyk language, based on the words denoting time periods, leads to the conclusion that many temporal lexemes are parts of so-called formulas, invariables in the story-teller’s memory. This is one of the numerous manifestations of the oral nature of an epic text. The ‘naïve’ model of time in an epic can be reconstructed through the semantic interpretation of Kalmyk (Oirat) temporal lexis, fixed in the texts of songs. Analysis of temporal words and expressions in different songs of the Kalmyk heroic epic Dzhangar, represented by diverse local traditions, variants, and repertoires of story-tellers, revealed the following topic groups: common denomination of time (tsag /‘period’; ‘epoch’; ‘time’), denomination of repeated cyclic long periods of time (dzhil’ / ‘year’, dzhil’in tsag / ‘season’, sar /‘month’), denomination of major parts of the day (yedr / ‘daytime’, sye / ‘night’).