On phraseological representation of the concept ukhel ‘death’ in the buryat language

DOI 10.51955/2312-1327_2021_1_132

Tatiana B. Tagarova

Abstract. The paper considers the concept ukhel ‘death’ verbalized by phraseological units of the Buryat language in the linguoculturological aspect. Differences in understanding of the concept ukhel ‘death’ in the Buryat naive view of the world and the scientific type of consciousness, namely, the belief in the existence of the soul after death in the linguistic view of the world and its denial in the scientific world-image are revealed. The existence of phraseological units with the meaning of death demonstrates the connection with the ancient ritual actions for the burial of the deceased, which is confirmed in the Mongolian literary work “The Secret History of the Mongols” in 1240. The naive view of the world of Buryat speakers-Buddhists through phraseological units reflects the understanding of death as a transition to another level of life, in a new physical body, but the subsequent life depends on the previous way of life. The worldview of shamanists is also reduced to the belief in an afterlife, but in the existence of a disembodied spirit. Phraseological meaning is developed by metonymization and metaphorization from the original free phrase. At the same time, a more significant role of the denotation is noted. A bright functional and stylistic differentiation of the phraseological unit about death is revealed. The semantic field ukhel ‘death’ demonstrates the breadth of the functions of this lexeme.

Keywords: Buryat language, the concept ‘death’, linguoculturology, phraseological unit, linguistic view of the world, scientific world-image, shamanistic, Buddhism.

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