Semantics of the lexeme һešxel in the Buryat language

Abstract

The semantics of the Buryat noun һešxel has not been investigated in Buryat linguistics. According to the Buryat-Russian Dictionary, the lexeme under consideration has the single meaning of “conscience.” This study aimed to reveal a holistic picture of the semantics of the lexeme under study. The Electronic Corpus of the Buryat language was chosen as an invaluable source for identifying the other meanings of the lexeme. The corpus contains 2.8 million instances of word usage documented in written texts, primarily of the literary style, accompanied by their meta-descriptions. The word hešxel was formed by the phonetic method of word formation from the word sed’xel “thoughts, intention, soul, heart.” The alternation of root consonants s//һ, d’//š can be traced. The analysis of the Electronic Corpus identified the original meaning of hešxel “soul” later extended to “sympathy, affection,” “sincerity, responsiveness,” “intimate connection” and “wish.” The meaning of “conscience” is believed to have originated from the concepts of “sincerity and responsiveness.” For example, the adverb hešxelgüi could be translated both “half-hearted, indifferent” and “unscrupulous, shameless.” Additionally, the meaning “conscience” is assumed to have appeared influenced by the Russian language, given the absence of a special word for “conscience” in the Khalkha-Mongolian language. Buryat language, at a certain point, probably needed a word to regulate human behavior in society to define moral guidelines. A further study of the Mongolic-language vocabulary characterizing human emotional states may expand the semantic structure of words and uncover the peculiarities of the value system of the Mongolic peoples.