Defining the structure of the epic <em>Khan Kharangui</em>

Abstract

The article analyzes the syntagmatic and paradigmatic structure of “Khan Kharangui” as the origin of Mongolian epics. In doing so, through syntagmatic and paradigmatic analysis each meaningful narrative in the epic is traced on the sentence level and consolidated in a chart grouping all these narratives. The theoretical and methodological significance of this study is to demonstrate how to apply the techniques of structural and syntagmatic analysis while studying epic poetry. The manuscripts of “Khan Kharangui” from Okin (Buryatia, Russia) and Kyzyl (Tuva, Russia) as well as “Rinchen” (published in Hungary) and “Tod Üseg” (St. Petersburg, Russia) are known to researchers. It was concluded that all the manuscripts of “Khan Kharangui” are originated from one source, namely from the source written in ancient script tod üseg. Since that source was substantially damaged, the other sources are used in this study. The Okin and the Rinchen manuscripts match almost word for word while the Kyzyl manuscript is more literary both in stylistic and orthographic aspects, but some episodes are rendered in a somewhat more shortened form compared to the former manuscripts. There are slight differences in their size, but they are same in terms of substantive functions and structures. When analyzing the syntagmatic structure of the epic by means of the functions described in Vladimir Propp’s “Morphology of the Folktale”, the following functions are not identified in the epic about Khan Kharangui: branding (J), unrecognized arrival (O), unfounded claims (L), difficult task (M), solution (N), recognition (Q) and exposure (Ex). As for the paradigmatic structure of the epic, it could be analyzed by the method proposed in “The Structural Study of Myth” by Claude Lévi-Strauss. A particular feature in the paradigmatic structure of the epic is that it legitimizes how one ripostes and what the ultimate results will be when the established relationships and attitudes are violated. That is why each column on the left constitutes a premise or condition for the column on the right, and each column on the right becomes a consequence or implication for the left one with respect to the two columns on the right and left in the illustrated chart.

Keywords

• mongolian epic
• epic structure
• syntagmatic analysis
• paradigmatic analysis
• legitimation
• binary opposition
• spatial transference