The Lexical-thematic Group “Clothes”: a system of definitions (evidence from the Definition Dictionary of the Language of the Kalmyk Heroic Epic of Jangar)
Abstract
The article examines the system of definitions of words relating to the lexical-thematic group “clothes” and included in the word list of the Definition Dictionary of the Language of the Kalmyk Heroic Epic of Jangar; a number of dictionary entries containing words of the mentioned lexical-thematic group have also been evaluated.
Definitions of words relating to the lexical-thematic group “clothes” are incomplete since it is impossible to fully reconstruct the clothes of the Kalmyks’ ancestors – the Oirats; some of the features have been reconstructed due to literary sources and descriptions composed by travelers of later periods.
The analysis resulted in the following conclusion: when compiling definitions it is also necessary to apply ethnographic sources for the names of clothes in the epic are culture specific words that require detailed descriptions because the words denote items with no direct equivalents in other languages.
Definitions of names of clothes are to contain the basic differential features characteristic of a certain word of the lexical-thematic group “clothes” (the intended purpose; type of cloth; style of the garment; preferred color; ornaments and other elements; existing limitations relating to the age, gender, status, etc.).
About the Author
N. Mulaeva
Kalmyk Scientific Center of the RAS (Elista)
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Ph.D. in Philology (Candidate of Philological Sciences), Research Associate, Department of Linguistics
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Review
For citations:
Mulaeva N. The Lexical-thematic Group “Clothes”: a system of definitions (evidence from the Definition Dictionary of the Language of the Kalmyk Heroic Epic of Jangar). Mongolian Studies. 2016;8(1):158--174. (In Russ.)
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