Structural and Functional Features of Comparison Methods in the Yakut and Khakass Epics

In the article, an attempt of comparative analysis is made between the texts of two different Turkic epics (the Yakut Olonkho “Kyys Debiliye” and the Khakass alyptic nymakh “Ay Huuchin”) that were published in the academic series “Monuments of folklore of the peoples of Siberia and the Far East”. The choice of these texts is determined by the scientific nature of the publications, the belonging of these epics to one type of women-heroes tales, the presence of a Russian translation, and their relatively equal volume. The relevance of the study is determined by the growing interest for comparative study of the language and epic poetics, as well as their genesis. The purpose of this article is to establish the features in the methods of comparison formation in the Yakut and Khakass epics. The study of comparison is always in demand as an artistic and pictorial tool in linguistics and folklore studies. The subject of this study is the syntactic comparison structures, previously identified from the texts of the epics that were questioned by the method of continuous sampling. The methodology practiced by Yu.I. Vasiliev in the Yakut and E.V. Kyrzhinakova in the Khakass languages were used to study the comparisons and classifications. The study leads to conclusion that the comparison in the Yakut epic is expressed mainly by lexical means (the indicator of comparison are function and categorematic words), and in Khakass – lexical and morphological words (with the help of derivational and case affixes). The most common way of forming a comparison in the Yakut olonkho is the method with the help of the курдук index ‘alike, similar to, as’, and in Khakass alyptic nymakh – with the word чiли ‘like, akin to’. Words with a same etymology were not established among the lexical indicators of the two epics. The common ancient Turkic origin have two morphological indicators: the affix -ча and the affix of the ablative case. A relative analysis of comparative works revealed that there are no completely identical structures in epic texts, but comparisons with similar objects and images, decorated with the help of various indicator words and affixes, are noted. A number of comparable works have a commonality in the expression of the same features and functions. Further studying of the comparative formations with the involvement of a wider material, including other Turkic epics is for seen.


Introduction
The Yakuts and Khakases are representatives of the Turkic group of the peoples of Russia, their languages belong to one Uyghur group of the Eastern Hunnic branch of the Turkic languages (Baskakov, 1952, pp.7-57).Khakases live in Southern Siberia in the left-bank part of the Yenisei basin, in the territories of the Sayan-Altai upland and the Khakass-Minusinsk bolson, in the neighborhood with other Turkic-speaking Sayan-Altai peoples -Altaians, Tuvinians, Shorians, etc. Yakuts, according to most scientists, migrated from the Lake Baikal region, and approximately from the VIII century occupied the basin of the Lena River in the North-Eastern part of Siberia.There is a suggestion that in the middle of the VIII century there could be a "spin-off of the Yakut olonkho from the Turkic-Mongolian epic world" and "the time of the olonkho foundation can be considered VIII-IX cc." (Ivanov, 2013, p.84).Also, folklorists established signs of typological and genetic similarities in the epic style of the Yakut olonkho and epics of the Sayan-Altai peoples (Pukhov, 2014, p.328;Gogoleva, 2014, pp.61-69).
There is a possibility that comparative means in the Yakut olonkho could also survive, along with the recently revealed archaic elements indicating a single origin with the epics of other Turkic-speaking peoples.After all, the comparison is "one of the most widespread tropes of figurative speech and one of the oldest forms of thinking" (Filippov & Sergeev, 2010, p.231) of a person who "perceived the environment indirectly through familiar objects and phenomena" (Subrakova, 2007, p.21).Earlier, the authors of this article have already considered objects and images of comparisons in the Yakut and Khakass epics (Gerasimova & Lvova, 2017, pp.72-74),where similar features were traced in the pictures of the world of two epics.Researches on comparative analysis make it possible to assess the stability of relative structures in epic works.
The purpose of this article is to establish the peculiarities in the formation methods of comparative structures in the Yakut olonkho and Khakass alyptic nymakh by relative analysis of the comparison means in them.
The texts of the Yakut olonkho "Kyys Debiliye" (Burnashev, 1993) and the Khakass alyptic nymakh "Ay Huuchin" (Kurbizhekov, 1997), published in the academic series "Monuments of folklore of the peoples of Siberia and the Far East", were selected as the material for the study.The choice of these texts is determined by scientific nature of the publications, the belonging of these epics to the similar type of tales about women-heroes, the presence of a Russian translation, and their relatively equal volume.

Method
In domestic linguistics and folklore studies different approaches to the study of comparison have been developed.In this article, an integrated research approach is applied.The methodology of Yu.I.Vasiliev is the most complete and systematic research on comparisons in the Yakut language in terms of syntax.Syntactic structures of the comparison are extracted from the epic texts by the method of continuous sampling.Work was carried out with dictionaries ("The Big Dictionary of the Yakut language" and "Khakass-Russian Dictionary") to establish the semantics of individual words.The etymology of words and affixes, that serve as comparison indicators, is given according to the work of Yu.I.Vasiliev and E.V. Kyrzhinakova.Relative analysis between two epics is based on a classification of the methods of expressing the comparison, compiled by E.V. Kyrzhinakova and Yu.I. Vasiliev.When describing the methods of formation of comparison in epics, a descriptive method and a method of semantic analysis are used.Relative analysis was used to identify similarities and differences in the methods of forming a comparison, when comparing elements of the comparison structure.
Importance is attached to the expression of examples from epic texts.In the volumes of the series "Monuments of the Folklore of the Peoples of Siberia and the Far East", a "folkloristic translation has always been applied, which performs a special function, preserving the artistically imaginative meaning of the work" (Kuzmina, 2018, p.12), therefore, in some cases, the syntactic order of the words in the sentence, and sometimes even the types of syntactic structures of the sentence, were not taken into account.The syntactic order of words in a sentence is important for the analysis of syntactic forms and types of links.In the assumption of this fact, in the article the examples are given in the original language with a verbatim and, when necessary, with a literal translation of the article's authors.

Means of expressing comparison in olonkho and alypticnymakh
By method of continuous sample, the comparative structures (excluding repetitions) are established in the epic texts under consideration: in the Yakut olonkho -135 units, in Khakass alyptic nymakh -96 units.The quantitative indicators of comparison expression means are reflected in tab. 1 and 2.

In total: 96
In the Yakut language Yu.I.Vasiliev singled out three basic ways of expressing comparisons: syntactic, wordformative, and the method of foundation.We do not consider comparisons formed by foundation, because in olonkho poetics, similar comparisons are considered as metaphors.It should also be noted that in the olonkho texts comparisons formed by the word-building method are not established.This is explained by the fact that most derivational affixes considered by the researcher (-ча, -тык, -тай; -лаа, -рҕаа, -мсый etc.) do not form artistic comparisons.That is, they can not act as an indicator of the expressiveness, artistic quality of the epic work.An exception would be comparisons formed by the affix -тыҥы (the ancient Turkic affix -sїn + affix -qї), but in the material of this study such comparisons were not revealed.Thus, comparisons in the Yakut epic are expressed by the definition of Yu.I.Vasiliev, only in "syntactical" ways: with the help of service words, notional words, case affixes and -лыы affix.It was found that the syntactic method that uses the service words is the most productive, in the Yakut language as a whole (Vasiliev, 1986, p.95).
E.V. Kyrzhinakova also identifies three ways of forming comparative structures in the Khakass language, but on a slightly different principle: lexical (the exponent is expressed lexically), morphological (affix indicators) and syntactic (by means of the affix of the ablative case -daң/-deң).She does not consider the metaphor as a comparative structure.In the Khakass epic all three of these methods do function.
The classifications of the two researchers differ substantially, although in both languages the same means of the comparison expression are used -service words/postpositions, significant/full-valued words and affixes.In our opinion, the classification of E.V. Kyrzhinakova is the most suitable for studying the comparison formation on the material of epic works.Therefore, we consider the methods, adhering to her classification.
It should be taken into account that in both Yakut and Khakass languages some words and affixes serving as a bunch in comparative structure have universal functions, "semantic latitude" and "syntactic multidimensionality" (Vasiliev, 1986, p.63).For example, the Yakut word курдук can act as a simple service word, and in some cases may assume the affix of the predicate.In Khakass linguistics, some researchers recognize the word чiли as postposition "the main case of names and pronouns expressing similar relationships" (GCN, 1975, p.257), while others believe that this is a particle with comparative semantics (Kyrzhinakova, 2010, p.9).We do not aim to clarify these provisions, and in this research we will refer to them as "indicators" of comparison.
First, let's look at the lexical indicators of the comparison formation.The indicator words of comparative structures in the text of the Yakut epic are the functional words: 1. курдук (verb көр 'see, watch' + affix -лык, compare ancient Turkic afterword kőrű) 'like, similar'.58% of the examples of comparison from the text of the Yakut epic are comparative structures with the курдук index.This fact indicates that the comparative structures with the курдук index are the most popular way of expressing the comparison in the text of a narrator, and also confirms the position of Yu.I.Vasiliev that this indicator is "the most common and universal means of expressing comparison in the Yakut language as a whole" (Vasiliev, 1986, (Vasiliev, 1986, p.98).We also note that in the text of the Khakass epic, a comparative structure containing a proverb is also not revealed.
In the Khakass epic, the following words-indicators of comparative structures were noted: 1. чiли (gerunds from the verb чiле -meaning is not established, dialect чiлеп, compare altaic dialect чылап/чилеп with a similar meaning) 'akin to, like, similar'.41% of the comparative structures in the text of the Khakass epic are formed with the help of the чiли index, which shows that this indicator is one of the most frequently used ways of expressing the comparison in the Khakass epic; 2. осхас (from the verb осха-/охса-/охша-'be like') 'like, as if, accurately'.There are 11 comparisons with the indicator of осхас, which is 12% of the total number of comparative structures in the text of the Khakass epic.As Yu.I.Vasiliev points out, this word in the Khakass language lost its original lexical meaning and turned into postpositions, like in the Altai and Tuvan languages.In the Yakut language, this indicator corresponds to the word үкчү/өкчү (mongolian 'abruptly, vertically') 'very, absolutely similar, just exactly, akin to', which functions as a service-adjective component, which is a word-basis and sometimes acts as an intensifying-prepositive particle (Vasiliev, 1986, pp.59-60).Though this indicator is used quite often in modern literary and colloquial language, it was not found in the considered comparative structures of the Yakut epic.
3. син (borrowed from Chinese) 'measure, size, value'.The postposition син serves to express the magnitude, size of the object, in comparative meaning it can appear in the form of belonging and take the affix of the comparative case -ча (Kyrzhinakova, 2010, p.14).In the text of the epic, only two examples with a score of син (2%) were found.
Also, among the lexical means of the comparison expression there are significant words.Out of the 20 notional words marked by Yu.I.Vasiliev only the adjective холобурдаах (paleomong, qoli, 'interfere, mix') 'approximately similar' is applied in the comparative structures of the Yakut epic.Also, additional words as кэриҥнээх (from кэриҥ 'the size, the measure', tuv., alt хире 'about, roughly'; mong.хир 'measure, limit') 'about this much', бадахтаах 'like that' were used.In total, five examples of comparative structures formed by means of significant words have been established, which indicates their rather rare use in the expression of comparison in the Yakut epic (4%).Comparative structures built with the help of significant words, noted in the work of E.V. Kyrzhinakova, are not established in the Khakass epic.
Consequently, for the formation of comparisons each epic has its own universal indicator words, which are distinguished by broad semantics (in Yakut -курдук, in Khakass -чiли), and also indicator-words with the main function of describing size (in Yakut -саҕа, in Khakass -син).The origin of these words is completely different.In the Khakass epic often used indicator осхас, describing the greatest similarity of compared objects.Related Yakut word үкчү with the same semantics, was not found in the comparative structures of the epic.Why is it not involved in the formation of comparisons in olonkho?The answer lies, in our opinion, in the special style of the Yakut epic.The Yakut olonkho is not characterized by direct, laconic descriptions that are inherent in the Khakass epic.In olonkho retardation is widely applied, everything is described in detail, intricate expressions.Perhaps the very style of olonkho avoids specific comparisons.Instead, in the Yakut comparisons there is an indicator дылы, which is used to indicate an approximate, light similarity.
Among the morphological indicators two affixes are considered to be the earliest in origin and are especially noteworthy.Firstly, it is the affix -ча (ancient Turkic comparative affix -ča), expressing comparison and likeness in the ancient Turkic language, in modern Turkic languages appears as a case or derivational affix (Vasiliev, 1986, p.31).This can be traced in the Khakass language, where the affix of the comparative caseча expresses a comparison in size, shape and volume.To express the comparison by size, the following parametric words are used: улии 'size', син 'scalet', пőзии 'height', чооны 'thickness', etc. (Kyrzhinakova, 2010, p.16).In the text of the Khakass epic 9% of comparative structures are formed with the help of this morphological indicator.It is also noted that in the considered Khakass text, the comparative structures чіп чонынӌа 'thin as a string' and сунынча 'blade of grass' are in some cases used without parametric words, that is, as with чіпӌе 'a string thin', отча 'thin as a blade of grass'.
In the Yakut language, the same -ча acts as a word-building affix.By means of this affix, comparativeindicative quantitative pronouns are formed (бачча 'as much as this', оччо бачча 'as much as that' and others) and approximate numerals (уонна бачча 'about ten', etc.).But, as was stated above, this wordbuilding affix does not act as an indicator of comparative structures in epic works.
Secondly, the interesting thing is the form of the ablative case, typical to all Turkic languages.It goes back to the affix -та, -да of the ancient Turkic local-ablative case (Vasiliev, 1986, p.39).E.V. Kyrzhinakova defines comparison expression by means of the affix -дaң (-дeң) as the only syntactic way of a comparison forming in the Khakass language.This form "image in the ablative case + module" can show the comparison of the object, the attribute of object and action.There are 8 comparative structures in the text of the Khakass epic, which were made with the help of this affix (8.33%).Example: Ханнаң хазыр чил ирткен (Ay Huuchin, 1997, p.3140) verbatim 'The more furious than khan wind rushed'.Here the degree of wind strength is emphasized by determining its superiority over the ferocity of the khan.
Unfortunately, such a structure is not found in the text of the Yakut epic.But as the material of other Yakut olonkhos, including those in previous studies, shows, the affix of the ablative case -нан is found in the widespread stable olonkho formula and also it expresses the superiority of the comparison object over the other in some respect: сахаттан саанан ордук, киһиттэн кириһинэн ордук, урааҥхайтан ураҕаһынан ордук (Gerasimova & Lvova, 2016, p.60) verbatim 'the yakut is superior to a bow, a person superior to a string, the Urankhay is superior to pole', literally 'it is better to have a yakut on a bow, a person on string, an Urankhay on a pole'.We also give an additional example from the text of another Yakut epic: Киһиттэн киэрги эбит, / Урааҥхайтан ураты эбит, / Сахаттан саарбах эбит (Suuleljin Bootur, 2011, p. 24) verbatim 'Worse than man, / Different than Uranhay / Shady than Yakut'.Here you see different function of comparison: the modules are qualitative adjectives that do not accept any morphological indices киэрги 'hellacious, repulsive', саарбах 'doubtful' (DDYL, 2011, p.87) and ураты 'different' (DDYL, 2015, p.252-253) with the help of the affix -тан establish the predominance of certain qualities of the object over the image of comparison, and this indicates another entity of the object in comparison with the image, i.e. there is some denial of its similarity to "man".
Undoubtedly, these examples confirm that the affix of the ablative case is rare, but still occurs in the comparison expressions of the Yakut epic and performs the same function as in the Khakass epic.And we can say that "syntactic" method of forming a comparison, described by E.V. Kyrzhinakova, functions in both epics.
In the comparisons of considered Yakut epic there is the affix of comparative case -тааҕар (Turkic affix of comparative case maj + Turkic affix of comparative degree -raq), which performs the same function when expressing the comparison.It is considered "arisen on the Yakut soil itself", as a means of expressing comparison is used more often than the affix of the ablative case, and "in some respects supplants the last from this sphere" (Vasiliev, 1987, p.43).There are only three comparative structures in the text of the Yakut epic made by using comparative case.Also, there are two structures formed with the help of the affix of the instrumental case -нан (ancient Turkic postilogue bilȁn, birlȁn 'with, together with').13% of the comparative structures written out of the Yakut text made the comparisons expressed by means of the affix -лыы (the ancient Turkic affix -laju) 'like, a kind of', described as an intermediate position between case forms and adverbial formations by Yu.I.Vasiliev.In total, 18 comparative structures with morphological indices were identified from the text of the Yakut epic, 14% of the total number of examples.Thus, in the text of the Yakut epic, the affixal means of the comparison expression are used much more rare than lexical ones.
In the text of the Khakass epic, the method of a comparison, formed with the help of the derivational affix -даг/-дег (a common Turkic affix expressing similarity) is clearly distinguished.Comparative structures with the affix -даг/-дег amount to 26% of the total number of comparisons.This morphological indicator expresses similarity, comparison, assimilation of objects, attributes and even actions.From the 25 examples, 15 comparisons are formed by attaching the affix -даг to participle -ган/-ген and 5 comparisons -by attaching the affix -даг to participle to -чатхан/-четкен.These structures have similarity semantic of actions and states, and some of them can denote a supposed modality.
The word-building affix -ли/-ти/-ни (Khakass) refers to the affixes of qualitative adverbs, which, as noted by D.F. Patachakova, show how the action takes place or proceeds, what is the degree of the attribute, and has the mean of comparison and assimilation (Grammar of Khakass language 1975, p.97).This affix has the semantics of comparison if it joins nouns and participles only (Kyrzhinakova, 2010, p.19).Such comparative structures are not used in modern conversational Khakass language, they can be found only in epic texts.
It should be noted that the Khakass text reveals a single example of a two-term parallelism of negative comparisons that are formed with the help of a negative particle чох 'no': Тирек тізе, салаазы чох, / Тибе тізе, пӱгірі чоғыл / Ат кӧдірбес алып кізі (Ay Huuchin, 1997, p.224) verbatim 'To put it down for a polar, there are no branches/ to put it down for a camel, there is no hump, / a hero that horse can not lift', literally 'To say poplar -there are no branches, / To say a camel -there is no hump, -/ [Such] hero, not raised by a horse'.A negative comparison is a kind of comparison in which "phenomena are not compared directly, but through the negation of their identity" (Matveeva, 2010, p.455), is not so widely involved in Turkic epics, as, for example, in Russian epics.In this text of the Yakut epic an example of such comparison is not fixed.

Structural and functional parallels in comparative structures
Despite the fact that the composition of the comparison indicators in the Yakut and Khakass epics differ significantly, when comparing the comparative structures, certain functional and structural parallels were revealed.
The most widely used comparisons in the Khakass epic with the words чiли and осхас find equivalent with comparative structure with the index курдук in the Yakut olonkho.They coincide with the universal functions of the attributes expression: "how", "like", "as if" etc.As an example, we present comparative structure in which a fairly close fit is observed for the object (flowing blood) and the image (rope/fine hair):

Conclusion
If lexical methods of comparison are used more often in the Yakut olonkho (82%), then in the Khakass epic lexical (56.25) and morphological (43.75) are used almost with the same frequency.Also the most widespread structures in the Yakut olonkho are the comparative structures, formed with the help of the курдук, and in the Khakass epic -with the word чiли with the affix -даг.
Words with a same etymology were not established among the lexical indicators of the two epics.The common ancient Turkic origin have two morphological indicators: the affix -ча and the affix of the ablative case.If the affix -ча functions as an index of comparative structure in the Khakass epic, then in the Yakut epic (as in the language as a whole) only comparative-indicative quantitative pronouns and approximate numerals are formed with its help, which are not artistic comparisons.Using of the affix of the ablative case -даң (-дең) is the only syntactic way of forming comparisons in the Khakass language, 8 examples are found in the epic text.In the formation of comparisons in the Yakut language, the affix of the ablative case -тан is supplanted by the form of the other case, but it was preserved in some stable formulas in the epos.It is revealed that the structures identical in all three components of the comparison -the object, the image, the grammatical index -are not established in the compared texts.However, there were established comparative structures, in which objects and images coincide, but the means of comparison expression in them differ (курдук and чiли, саҕа and affix -ча).
A functional community between the comparative structures of the Khakass epic with the words чiли, осхас, with the affix -даг/-дег and the Yakut epos with the index курдук; structures with the affix -даг/дег, with the form -ча, with the word син of the Khakass epic and with the index of the Yakut epic саҕа; comparative structure with the affix -даң/-дең of the Khakass epic and the structure with the comparative case -тааҕар of the Yakut epic; a comparative structure with the affix -ли/-ти/-ни of the Khakass epic and a substantive adjective comparative assimilative structure of the Yakut epic in the form of -лаах is established.
Comparative analysis of the formation methods of comparative structures in the epics of two different nation has brought interesting results and further research involving wider material, including other Turkic epics, it is no less fascinating.

Table 2 .
Means of comparison expression in the Khakass alyptic nymakh "Ay Huuchin" pp.62-63); 2. саҕа (possessive form of the third person from 'measure'; see ancient turk.čaq 'time') 'equal to someone, anything, with the size of, the size of a'.The indicator caҕa basically performs the function of a figurative image of the object's size or phenomenon with an obligatory exaggeration element (with hyperbolization or litotes).Comparative structures, designed with сaҕa index, accounted for 21% of the examples in the Yakut epos, which were drawn from the text; 3. дылы (mong.адил'like',evenk.адали'as,like, similar, semblance').It is the second most frequent used word in the Yakut language, but in this text it occurs only once (1%).This is probably due to the individual stylistic feature of this narrator, who makes comparisons primarily with the курдук index.It is noteworthy that the comparisons of detected structures underlay in yakut proverb: Кулгаах ырааҕы истэр, / Харах чугаһы аҥаарар диэн / Өлбүт өбүгэлэр / Өйтөрүн хоһоонугар дылы, мин иһиттэхпинэ...(Kyys  Debiliye, 1993, p.150.)Lit.. 'The ear hears far, / eye sees near -/ in accordance with the proverbial longgone ancestors, / I heard about ...'.It is known that such comparisons are not characteristic of the Russian language The comparative structure of the Khakass epic with the affix -даг/-дег can equally be related to the structure with the word курдук in the Yakut epic, since this morphological indicator also conveys the similarity, comparison, likening of objects, attribute and actions.However, some examples indicate that the affix -даг/-дег expresses the size, size of the object, and thus can be compared with comparative structure саҕа in the Yakut epic.Example:The comparisons formed with the use of the word син and with the form -ча in the Khakass epic can be identified with comparisons with the index саҕа in the Yakut epic, since the comparative structures with these indicators convey the size, size of the object or phenomenon figuratively.Therefore, these three structures can be considered similar in function of the designation of characteristics.Here is an example of comparative structure with similar objects (soul) and images (thread / fine hair):Comparative structure, formed by the affix of the ablative case, are typical for all Turkic languages.The Khakass structure with the affix of the ablative case -даң/-дең is similar to the Yakut structure with the affix of the ablative case -тан in structure and function.Also, the indicator -даң/-дең is similar to the structure with the comparative case -тааҕар in the Yakut epic.Example:The comparative structure with the affix -ли/-ти/-ни in the Khakass epic correlates to the substantive adjective comparative assimilative structures of the Yakut epic, namely, to the structures whose adjectival component appears in the form -лаах.For example, samples with these words бадахтаах, холобурдаах, кэриҥнээх.These two ways express the comparison, assimilating, similarity of the volume, the size of the object with another object.Example: 'Ay-Charykh-Khys is my eldest sister, / Aynu became like an eerie, / Why did I go in such a way' verbatim 'A ladle of blood from blush' literally 'From blush, like blood in a ladle'