Gradual concepts of temperature and their representation in Kalmyk folklore. Part 1

The article examines gradual concepts of temperature and their representation in Kalmyk folklore. The publication constitutes part one of the study to deal with a binary system of temperature denotations and markings of specific situations with the aid of neutral temperature adjectives. The paper analyzes a variety of multi-genre original Kalmyk and translated Russian texts, both published and unpublished ones, to conclude as follows: Kalmyk folklore is dominated by a binary system of temperature-related concepts with opposite points marked on the scale, the archaic view of the world being distinguished by that it contains no identified neutral characteristics which results from man tends to name somewhat abnormal phenomena - and even if there any lexemes to denote neutral temperatures, the latter serve some certain function within the text, e.g., to comprehensively implement motifs of frontier between the world of the living and that of the dead. Part two of the study to be published in subsequent issues of the journal shall deal with metaphors containing temperature adjectives that prove instrumental in reconstructing a fragment of the Kalmyk linguistic view of the world, as well as in identifying specifics of temperature perceptions to be traced in folklore texts.