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Яндекс.Метрика

DOI: 10.46698/VNC.2022.84.45.007

ON THE LNGUISTIC ASPECT OF THE EPIC FORMULA IN THE NARTS’ SAGAS

Besolova, Elena B.
Izvestia SOIGSI. 2022. IIS 45 (84).
Abstract:
The heroic epic monument about the Narts, stored in the people’s memory for centuries
turned out to be insufficiently represented due to the late fixation of the epic tradition. But
even what we have at the present time is quite illustrative of the strong and deep traditions of
epic creativity preserved by the Ossetians. They are called formulae, typical places‚ common
places (loci communes), set phrases, traditional clichés, conventional epithets. Formulae are
considered to be one of the typological universals of folklore and the basis of the oral poetic
technique of the text. Some scientists believed that the folk text should consist entirely of
formulae, others considered that an epic text cannot be based on formulae alone. According to
third group of scholars, every poetic trope is a set phraseological unit. The article deals with the
epic formula, the meaning of which is determined differently and is rather controversial both in
folklore and in the tradition on the whole. The phenomenon is determined by the ambiguity of
its definition, the national peculiarity of the way of life and ethno-cultural relationships, as well
as the role it has in aesthetic and religious ideas. Other significant factors are represented by
different understanding of the national and typological in the North Caucasian folklore; archaic
features of the traditional culture, geographical uniqueness of the region and other prerequisites.
The present article substantiates the differences between the folklore formula and linguistic
phraseology and literary topos, and focuses on the establishment of folklore identity of form
and meaning. The research differentiates between folklore formulae, free phrases and non-free
combination of words and meanings of the words; it describes the traditions and factors that
contributed to the preservation of the epic, etc.
Keywords: the Ossetian language, Narts’ sagas, epic formula, phraseological formula
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