Verbalization of the semantics of appearance and pretense in Tuvan folklore and modern texts

The article examines grammaticalized comparative constructions of the Tuvan language, identified in texts of different genres. Particular attention is paid to the comparison standard marker. The purpose of the study is to identify and interpret the main means of expressing pretense and appearances in Tuvan texts, both modern and folklore. The relevance of the study is determined by the insufficient knowledge of the semantics of pretense and the increased interest in the study of the traditional and cultural characteristics of the linguistic consciousness of representatives of various ethnic groups. It seems relevant to show what lexical units can verbalize the semantics of appearance. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that for the first time, comparative structures were studied using the material of the Tuvan language and semantic types of markers of the specified semantics in folklore and modern texts were identified. The main research methods are the descriptive method and the structural modeling method. As a result of the study, comparative structures expressing both real and unreal comparison were identified and interpreted. In constructions of unreal comparison, the situation presented to the dependent predicative unit (DPU) does not take place in reality. It is arbitrarily constructed as a subjective interpretation of what is reported in the main predicative unit (GPU). This fictitious, unreal event becomes the standard comparisons for a real event expressed in MPU. The main means of marking modal meanings in the system of real comparison in the Tuvan language are comparatives: yshkash ‘like’; deg ‘like’. The same markers are also noted in unreal structures. Marking of unreal semantics is carried out in Tuvan folklore texts with multifunctional forms from the verb bol = ‘to be’ (boop, boor, etc.). The semantic invariant of such constructions is ‘pretend that...’. In addition, syntactic constructions of the predicate are widely used, expressing the relationship of the communicated or the message itself to reality with the postpositions deg, yshkash. It was established that the folklore texts under consideration use the same methods of expressing comparative relations that have been identified for the modern Tuvan language. However, the qualitative side (the complex of means and the nature of their functioning) and the quantitative side (the frequency of use of these units) are determined by the purpose of communication and depend on specific extralinguistic factor.