on plural signifiers in the language of mongolian medieval literary monuments (evidence from two texts of “the novel of prince manibhadra”)
Abstract
The article describes plural signifiers of Classical Mongolian with evidence from two Mongolian texts of “The Novel of Prince Manibhadra” — one of the most famous monuments of translated Buddhist literature. The first text which is part of the Tibetan Buddhist canon (Kangyur) was presumably created before the 1620s, the second one (manuscript) contains no colophon which complicates the task of identifying the time when it was written down. Almost all plural formants (-s, -d, -ud /-üd, -nuγud /-nügüd, -nar, -tan), except for the affixes -γud and -n, are present in the texts under consideration. The affixes -s and -d proved most productive in the studied materials. The affix -nuγud /-nügüd characteristic of the lofty language is widely used in the canonic text of “The Novel…”. Some cases of use of compound plural signifiers were described which, as deemed by some researchers, testifies that the importance of grammatical number had decreased. Moreover, cases of formal noun-determiner agreement have been discovered in the canonic text of “The Novel…” which is characteristic of ancient Mongolian texts.
About the Author
S. Mirzaeva
Kalmyk Scientific Center of the RAS (Elista)
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Postgraduate Student, Department of Written Monuments, Literature and Buddhist Studies
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Review
For citations:
Mirzaeva S. on plural signifiers in the language of mongolian medieval literary monuments (evidence from two texts of “the novel of prince manibhadra”). Mongolian Studies. 2016;8(1):175-183. (In Russ.)
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