On the comparative meaning of the word olchaan ‘exactly the same as’, ‘just like’ in the Tuvan language

Abstract

The article describes and analyzes the comparative meaning of the polysemantic lexeme olchaan ‘exactly the same as’, ‘just like’ in the Tuvan language. The research methodology is based on the semantic approach to the comparative description of comparative constructions in the Ural-Altaic languages of Siberia, developed at the Institute of Philology of the SB RAS. This approach distinguishes between the content plane (comparata, parameter base, parameter aspect, exponent, relation) and the expression plane. The material includes selection of examples from fiction and folklore texts, as well as the author’s subjective observations of Tuvan colloquial speech. It has been established that olchaan expresses similative relations, indicating the maximum degree of similarity. This lexeme can function as an adverbial modifier, an attribute, and, most characteristically, as a nominal predicate. As a present-tense predicate, olchaan does not take person-number affixes but combines with the evidential affirmative particle -tyr and the auxiliary verb bol- ‘to be, to become’ to express tense forms. Two main types of constructions are identified: with an explicit and implicit basis for the comparative parameter. Constructions with this word are characterized by a high degree of contextual dependence, regularly realized in the ellipsis of the object of comparison. The lexeme kara ‘black’, as a semantic intensifier, gives the comparison an expressive nuance. The word olchaan occupies a special place in the system of comparative means in the Tuvan language, combining the functions of a comparison marker and a predicate, and participates in the formation of the figurativeness of an utterance.