The Sub-Corpus of Texts of Aphoristic Genres of Bashkir Folklore: Structure and Composition of the Database of Riddles

Abstract

The article discusses one of the aphoristic genres in Bashkir folklore - the riddle. The riddle is a widespread aphoristic genre to be found in all languages worldwide. Riddles generalize historical, social and everyday life experiences of a people. In Bashkir folklore, riddles exist as separate genre but to a certain extent can be also included into other genres. Riddles consist of two parts: a riddle ass such (a question) and a solution (an answer). Such expressive means as metaphor, metonymy, comparison, antithesis, epithet, alliteration, and onomatopoeia are used in riddles. When solving riddles, people learn to see and understand the beauty of the world, as well as learn about the past and present of their nation. Taking into account the importance of studying and saving folklore materials in electronic format and opening free access to the information provided for the public, employees of the Laboratory of Linguistics and Information Technologies of the Institute of History, Language and Literature (Ufa Scientific Center of the RAS) established the Folklore Corpus as part of the Machine Fund of the Bashkir Language comprising various folklore materials. Riddles take an important place among them, being divided into thematic sections as follows: 1. The earth and sky, natural phenomena - riddles about celestial bodies and other natural phenomena, 2. The plant world - riddles about plants, trees, vegetables and fruit, 3. The animal world - riddles about domestic and wild animals, 4. The man and human life - riddles about human life and all the objects used by human beings in everyday life. As a result, as of today over 3900 Bashkir riddles have been introduced into the Folklore Corpus.