Oriental Studies (Apr 2018)
Kalmyk Tales, Recorded by G. J. Ramstedt: Experience of Quantitative Analisys
Abstract
The article is devoted to the creation of frequency dictionaries on the material of the Kalmyk language. With the help of computer technology, the authors created a frequency list in which they explicated the texts of Kalmyk tales, recorded by Finnish scholar G. J. Ramstedt during his travels in the steppes of the Lower Volga Region. Using the methods of quantitative analysis, frequent and non-frequent elements of the Kalmyk language, collected by several statistical indexes (absolute frequency of word usage, common frequency, the coefficients D and R) were identified in the text. Quantitative indexes can be used to create a structural-probabilistic model of language. The relevance of such model is undeniable. Frequency lists allow you to define the boundaries of the lexical system of fairy tales, which has its own core and peripheral fields, and to use for applied purposes: since teaching begins with the most frequent units and explaining their meaning and how to use them in speech, it will create a theoretical base for the distribution of tokens according to the levels of language learning.
