Bilingualism As A Way To Categorize The Kalmyk Worldview In Russian Language

Abstract

The article discusses the means and methods of categorizing the Kalmyks ' worldview in the Russian literary text. The research material is a chronicle novel by the founder of modern Kalmyk prose A. M. Amur-Sanan "Mudreshkin's son", which was written in Russian in 1925. In the course of studying the language material using continuous sampling, contextual analysis, lexical and semantic analysis, linguistic and cultural commentary techniques, and statistical analysis, certain patterns of using national units in the Russian literary text are established. It is shown that the means of both the Kalmyk and Russian languages perform an artistic role in the novel-chronicle of A. M. Amur-Sanan "Mudreshkin's son": they introduce the foreign-language reader to the world of nomadic culture of the Kalmyk people. The authenticity of the picture is achieved thanks to the artistic and visual means of two languages. It is concluded that the categorization of reality in the picture of the steppe world, recreated in the signs of Russian linguoculture, is the result of the artistic bilingualism of the writer Amur-Sanan.

Keywords: Amur-Sanan, artistic bilingualism, Kalmyks, linguistic culture

Introduction

Russia has historically been and remains a multinational state. The choice of Russian as the language of interethnic communication for the peoples of Russia is a historically established reality, which determines the relevance of bilingualism. Interest in the scientific study of bilingualism arose in the late 19th century and was associated with the development of linguistics and related Sciences. However, according to Chernichkina (2007), "as a social phenomenon, it has roots that go much deeper – in the ancient world: the mixing of the language of the conquerors and the vanquished in the conquered territories". In the middle of the XX century, in connection with the national liberation movement in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, the importance of bilingualism also increases. Nowadays, bilingualism is becoming a mass phenomenon in the countries of modern Europe, which is associated with the inclusion of once independent countries in the framework of one state – the European Union. Its importance is also growing in connection with the migration of the population from Africa and Asia to Europe. Consequently, the problems associated with bilingualism are becoming extremely urgent. The foundations of the linguistic study of the problems of bilingualism were laid in the works of Shcherba, Polivanov, Vereshсhagin, Rosenzweig, Avrorin, Desheriev, Protchenko, Meye, Weinreich, Martinet, Haugen and others. For the first time, Avrorin used the term «bilingualism» in our country in 1938 to denote equally fluent knowledge of two languages. The English-language scientific literature uses the term diglossia, introduced in 1959 by Ferguson (1959). In modern linguistics, in addition to these terms, the term semi-lingualism is used, introduced in 1983 to denote the linguistic competence of the Saami (Skitnebb-Kangas, 1983). A. Rosetti uses the concept of "language with elements of confusion". Soffietti raised the question of the correlation between bilingualism and biculturalism (Soffietti, 1960).

Problem Statement

In the works of linguists, various types of bilingualism are distinguished and characterized (Zalevskaya, 2002), and artistic bilingualism is recognized as the highest type of bilingualism. It is characteristic of writers, journalists, word masters who create highly artistic works in a foreign language. Artistic bilingualism requires a bilingual person to have deep knowledge of not only language, but also culture, aesthetic preferences, and literary traditions of the second creative homeland. Currently, monographs and articles have been published, scientific research devoted to this phenomenon is carried out annually, and the number of dissertation research on the study of artistic bilingualism is growing. The term "artistic bilingualism" began to be used in relation to bilingual writers who wrote in European languages - English, French, German, Russian: Nabokov, Beckett, Klyukin, Epstein, Kozlov and others. The works created by bilingual writers reflect the dual linguistic and value picture of the writers' world, which makes their works unique works of art, in which, like in a mirror, the native and acquired culture is reflected. Until recently, artistic bilingualism has not been an object of research by linguists for a number of reasons. First of all, bilingual writers are singly represented in the world art culture. In addition, the theory and methodology for the study of artistic bilingualism have not been developed. In recent years, due to the changed socio-cultural situation, the number of bilingual writers has been growing. Researchers from Adygea discovered bilingual writers who write in two languages: Adyghe and Russian, Adyghe and Turkish, Adyghe and Arabic, etc. In Kalmykia, studies of the Russian-language poetry of Kalmyks have been carried out (Topalova, 2014). In recent years, philologists have moved from studying purely linguistic problems to studying the linguistic and artistic picture of the world of bilingual writers.

Research Questions

One of the topical problems of modern linguistics is artistic bilingualism, within the framework of which the literary work of outstanding bilingual writers is analyzed: Nabokov (Dyudyaeva, 2011; Morris, 2010; Schuman, 2014), Ajtmatov (Dusheeva & Sataeva, 2017; Pimenova, 2018), Suleimenov (Tuksaitova, 2007), Sangi (Vukolov, 1990), and others.

Generalizing works have been created in which the typology of literary creativity of bilingual writers is traced (for example, Achoh & Abubakarova, 2017; Alekseev, 1981; Bagirokov & Sheudzhen, 2017; Blyagoz, 2012; Hasanov, 1990; Kremer, 2009; Timizhev, 2006; Topalova, 2014, 2017) and the reflection of the ethnic picture of the world is studied in the works of writers in a non-native language (for example: Abdokova, 2006; Arzyamova, 2016; Ryadchikova & Kushu, 2004). The main research questions of this article relate to this research direction, namely: by what means the picture of the world of Kalmyks is conveyed in the Russian literary text; what the function of national linguistic units in a text in a non-native language is.

Purpose of the Study

The aim of the research is to study the means and ways of categorizing the Kalmyks' worldview in the Russian literary text.

Research Methods

In the course of the study of the linguistic material, a complex of linguistic methods and research techniques was used.

• The method of continuous sampling was used to select all national means used in the Russian literary text.

The contextual analysis method was used to determine the appropriateness of the use of national means in a foreign language text. To study the functions of the national lexicon in the Russian literary text, the method of lexical-semantic analysis was used. At all stages of the work, the methods of statistical analysis were involved, which made it possible to establish the typical in the identified linguistic features.

• In order to determine the artistic significance of Kalmyk linguistic units in the Russian literary text, the method of linguoculturological commenting was used.

Findings

Amur-Sanan can be called the ancestor of Russian-national artistic bilingualism since the publication of the writer's works dates to 1925. The largest work of Amur-Sanan is a novel-chronicle "Mudreshkin's son", which depicts a panorama of the traditional life of Kalmyks (Kabachenko, 1967; Mayorov & Polyakov, 1970; Musova, 1988), traces the socio-political and cultural-historical views of the author (Topalova, 2014). One of the tasks set by Amur-Sanan is an acquaintance of the general reader with the original culture, history of the Kalmyk people. At the same time, according to the author himself, the transmission of an original national culture by means of another language especially significant areas of the Kalmyk world picture - "Man and His World", "Nature", "Society", has become a complex artistic problem. In order to convey the ethnic identity of these areas, the writer uses different means and methods. As you know, an important way to categorize the world in a text in a non-native language is the use of national vocabulary. Our analysis showed that 250 Kalmyk units were used in the chronicle novel "Mudreshkin's son", which have no equivalents in Russian. These words and expressions denote ethnic characteristics of the material and spiritual culture of the Kalmyks, social organization, national character and communicative behavior of the Kalmyks. In addition, in the Russian literary text, Kalmyk paremias (9), stable phrases (13) are used, denoting the specifics of the behavior of Kalmyks and the use of speech etiquette in different situations of communication. Particularly significant spheres in which the uniqueness of the people is vividly represented are "Man" and "Society". The novel depicts typical representatives of the then Kalmyk society, who can be combined into types based on different criteria. Noyon ‘nobility’, zaisang ‘a representative of the nobility, family foreman’ are distinguished according to social criteria; sain ‘master’, tsagan yasn (lit. ‘white bone’) - ‘clan and tribal nobility’; khar yasn (lit. ‘black bone’) - commoner, man of low birth ’, instrument (lit.‘ entered ’,‘ alien ’- primak); omkte 'this is how people who feel the strength behind themselves are called', etc. From the point of view of gender, the following types stand out: noykh 'girl', kevyun 'boy', emgn 'old woman', ovgn 'old man', shivkchin 'prostitute', alyk kevun ' piebald, motley boy; in this text, piebald from beatings, sian-chikin (lit. ‘good ear’) is a sign of being male: male Kalmyks wore an earring in their left ear; gichin zalus ‘men accompanying the bride to the wedding’; shinkar ‘a man who secretly sells vodka’; al-ha-dg ‘lover of visiting guests’. The novel depicts the following types, the main feature of which is kinship: hadma ‘relatives by marriage’, hud kevun ‘brother-in-law’, edgey ‘mother, grandmother’. On religious grounds, the types of lamas are distinguished, gelung ‘buddhist monk’. The novel also depicts a new type, deduced by the author - siang-kyun, significant for the text of the work, which conveys the author's intention and sociocultural reality of the era described. Literally translated, siang-kyun means 'good person'. However, its linguocultural content is broader. Little Anton dreams of becoming a good person (siang-kyun). In this concept, he puts the following meaning: to grow up as an educated person who will not allow humiliation and insult either to himself or to his relatives; he dreams of becoming the protector of his relatives, primarily his mother. This content can be considered the individual meaning of the word siang-kyun, which is derived from the text of the chronicle novel. In modern speech practice, the meaning of the phrase sәn kүn is reduced to the moral and ethical content - honest, decent, reliable.

The text of the work categorizes the fragment of reality associated with the customs and rituals of the Kalmyks, some of which are not cultivated today. For example, modern women do not adhere to hadmlh - the custom forbidding a married Kalmyk woman to directly name her husband's elder relatives: father, mother, uncle, brothers, etc. Some of the customs of the Kalmyks described in the novel have acquired new semantics these days. Thus, in the novel the galtaine rite is associated with the propitiation of fire, celebrated on the 49th day after the death of a person; in the modern ritual of the Kalmyks, this is a rite of offering to the spirit of the area. Another rite, the manger, is described in the novel as a rite of propitiation for a spirit. In the modern culture of Kalmyks, this is a rite of passage for correcting any negative phenomena associated with harm to humans. In this regard, we can talk about the historical and cultural value of this literary text, which recorded the functioning of national customs at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The picture of the world of the Kalmyks in the Russian text is also recreated through the description of gestures, signs, characteristic of the Kalmyk culture. The novel describes the action of ul zaakh - to show someone the sole, bringing it to the very nose of the seated person. Such an insulting gesture is used with the intention of hurting a person and damaging his reputation. In addition, the text provides a description of an action indicating preparation for a quick jump, a sign of the greatest anger: tightening the girths of the horses tighter, pull on the cap over the ears. The picture of the world of steppe people is being recreated from such deeply ethnic elements.

The perception of the Kalmyks is conveyed not only by national units that cannot be translated into Russian, but also by Russian words and expressions that denote Kalmyk realities from the sphere of "Nature", "Society": steppe nature (sand, hillock, well, dune, etc.), climatic phenomena different seasons (blizzard, blizzard, heat, drought, dry wind, wind, etc.), events that took place in the historical fate of the Kalmyks (cultural assault, educational program, revolution, civil war, etc.). An important pictorial role is played by the vocabulary describing the animal (horse, camel, jerboa, wolf, kite, eagle, etc.) and plant (wormwood, feather grass, camel thorn, reed, etc.) world of the steppe, detailing the habitat of the Kalmyks. The world of nomadic pastoralists is also depicted through the Russian verbal vocabulary denoting a way of life (to roam, winter, fly, etc.), types of economic activities (graze sheep, drive a herd, water cattle, drive a flock, beat off a sakman, dig a well, etc.) Kalmyks.

Conclusion

The study of the means and methods of conveying the original world of the Kalmyks in the Russian text allows us to conclude that the means of both the Kalmyk and Russian languages are performed in the novel-chronicle of Amur-Sanan "Mudreshkin's son" artistic role: they introduce a foreign-language reader into the world of the nomadic culture of the Kalmyks unfamiliar to him. The reliability of the depicted picture is achieved thanks to the artistic and graphic means of two languages. The categorization of reality in the picture of the world of the steppe people, recreated in the signs of Russian linguistic culture, is the result of the artistic bilingualism of the writer Amur-Sanan. The phenomenon of artistic bilingualism has great prospects in connection with the position of many national languages of the small peoples of Russia and their massive bilingualism. In this regard, it is necessary to study this phenomenon, first of all, by linguists and culturologists to understand the mechanisms of the embodiment of the ethnic in the means of a foreign language.

Acknowledgments

The paper was prepared as a result of the implementation of the RFBR project No. 20-312-90030 "The world and images of Kalmyks in Russian literary text (based on the chronicle novel by A.M. Amur-Sanan "Mudreshkin's son ")" (2020)

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