Abstract

In Ede’s epics, elephants are the animals which appear with high frequency compared to other animals. Elephants are considered as a model in the material and spiritual life of the Ede people. Therefore, this article will study the sematic fields “elephants”. In order to conduct the study, the first step was to do the statistics about all the datas related to “elephants” in the six epics (Anh em Klu Kla, Dăm Băng Mlan, Sum Lum, Hbia Mlin, Dam Yi cut Calamus Tetradacylus, Mdrong Dăm). When considering the semantic fields of “elephant”, we consider the collection of all words about “elephant” as a symbolism fields: the name associated with elephant’s features, the elephant’s body parts, the elephant’s activities and the effect of human’s activities on elephants. From the result we isolate it into sub-fields, giving quantitative statistics, on the basis of qualitative observations, thereby highlighting the elephant's cultural value of Ede people’s lives.

1. Introduction

So far, many animal vocabulary schools have been studied in different directions:

Duong Thi My Dung, in the project “Knowledge acquisitional characteristics of the Vietnamese through the semantic fields of insects” ² have confirmed that from the category of insects, Vietnamese tri-type and reference to the destination is the category human.

Authors Nguyen Duc Ton in the study “Ethnic cultural characteristics of language and thinking” ³ studied the characteristics of ethnic culture - the identifier based on the animal name and pointed out the semantic structure model of semantic field of animal names.

Do Thi Hoa in the “Animal world in Vietnamese traditional folk song” ⁴ also deciphered the symbolic values of the bird vocabulary field and outlined the meaning of this semantic field.

Nguyen Thuy Khanh in the project “Characteristics of the semantic field - the animal names (referred materials in Vietnamese and Russian)” ⁵ have shown the characteristics of animal names often used in Purely Vietnamese words, not borrow much from other languages if borrowed mainly from Chinese.

Hoang Trong Canh in the study “Characteristics of fisheries in Thanh - Nghe – Tinh” ⁷ have suggested that the main trend in word structure is to focus on constructing words that mean individual, physical. The role of specific semantics is secondary; This element expresses the view, the division reflects the reality of the creator and uses the language.

Tran Hoang Anh in his work on “Derived name of the fish in Dong Thap Muoi” ⁸ concludes that fishery is mainly from grafting (91,8%). The fishery in Dong Thap Muoi has specific characteristics - semantics is specific, high distinction.

The author Nguyen Van No in his work “Logo in Vietnamese proverbs" ¹⁰ conducted a comprehensive study on animal images as one of the symbolic materials of the Vietnamese proverb and gave “Most of the images are used with symbolic meanings. The mechanism for creating this symbolic meaning is based on a similarly linked relationship of character or attribute” [ ¹⁰; p. 107].

Quang Khai in his article: “The image of a buffalo in folk art” ¹⁴ shows the attachment, the intimate relationship of buffalo in cultural life, belief and labor. He said that “in addition to being the second-largest animal in the armor, along with the animals representing twelve years, even in folk beliefs, the buffalo has never been a noble, mystical symbol, they never been separated from normal life. And the creativity of buffaloes has never escaped the simple psychology of the farmer's expression” [ ¹⁴; p.102].

In short, the animal school has many study ways. The first study is the study of phenomenon of trope or contrasting about animal identification units between languages (mainly Vietnamese with English or Russian). According to this trend, the study of authors Nguyen Thuy Khanh; Phan Van Que in comparison with other languages (English, Russian) has resulted in valuable, supplemented the theoretical and practical issues in the study of animals’ Vietnamese names. In the study of the use of identity theory and cognitive in linguistics, there are authors Tran Hoang Anh; Hoang Trong Canh.

The next is a study on the image of some typical animals in folk songs, proverbs of authors Do Thi Hoa, Le Thi Thanh Huyen, Trieu Nguyen, Quang Khai and so on.

Through the collection of materials, and finding the history of research problem, we find that animal field was initially studied on a number of aspects and in different scales. However, there has been no mention of the “elephant” meaning in the Ede epic up to now, so the article would like to study this issue.

2. Content

In Ede epic, elephants are animals that Ede people domesticated for life, especially used to transport people and goods. Elephants are also considered as livestock – home-bread animals, which are said to represent the wealth and prosperity of the village. Elephant is considered as a model in the physical and spiritual life of the Ede people.

Of the 5821 verses containing the word “elephant” and words related to the “elephant” in the six sets of epic (Klu Kla brothers, Dam Bang Mlan, Hbia Mlin, Sum Lum, Hbia Mlin, Dam Yi cut Calamus Tetradacylus, Mdrong Dam), the word “elephant” appeared 3839 times, making up 17.89 %.

Through the survey, we found that the word “elephant” has no variants. In different contexts, Ede people call elephants with the characteristics of breed, color, size...

In subfield about the characteristic of elephant, the feature words have all 27 words with 388 times appearing. We divided this sub-field into 5 second-level sub-field. Their list and frequency of occurrence in each subgroup is broken down as presented in Table 1.

In 5 sub-field level 2 in table above, sub-field about gender has 2 words (masculine and feminine) with the highest number of appearances with 55.91%. In this sub-field about gender, we found that the number of words that pointed male elephant are more than female elephant, specifically “masculine” is 137 times, making up 35.30% and “feminine” is 80 times, making up 20.61%. The division of gender also reflects Ede’s thinking. Ede people think that male elephants are stronger, help them more for life, so they were more likely to treat male elephant than the female. Ede epic expresses this very well:

(11) “They went like Ktong. The elephant tied howdah” [ ¹⁷; 1333].

The next sub-field level 2 is the sub-field about the characteristic of size, with 6 words, appears 54 times, making up 13.89%. In words of this characteristic, Ede people often use the word “to” (6.44%) to indicate the size of the elephant, and use the word “long” (4.12%) to describe the tusk, this shows that Ede people reflect their objective realism around them and pay attention to the elephant’s prominent characteristics.

Another sub-field level 2 that has high rate is the sub-field about the characteristic of origin. With just 2 words, but it appears 50 times, 12.88%. in this sub-field level 2, there is a large of different level, forest elephants are mentioned 48 times, accounting for 12.37%, elephants only appear twice, accounting for 0.51%, this is quite reasonable, because elephants are animals in the forest, Ede people often go hunting forest elephants and domesticating to serve their lives mainly. The ancient history of humans shows that for the beginning, elephant hunting was primarily aimed at obtaining elephant meat for the needs of food. Later, elephants hunted for capturing and domestication, served to human needs such as utilizing traction, transport, means of war, and gifts of tribute. Elephant hunting is also available for ivory, a bone-to-tooth component of the elephant with a special value for handicraft and jewelry. Also, there is a very typical culture in the Ede life that they often evaluate the talent, power of a man through the man into the forest, hunting for elephants to get more ivories. Dak Lak is still celebrating the legacy of Ama Cong, heroic hunting elephants, as well as preserving some of the items that the hero used to hunt elephants such as rope made from buffalo skin, traps...

Two secondary sub-fields with low rates in this sub-field are characterized by their characterization characteristics (8.7%) and sub-field color characteristics (0.51%). For convenience, we compare the frequencies that appear between these fields through Figure 1.

At this sub-field, there are 14 words that are the parts of body with 528 occurrences. The list of words and the occurrences is been statistic and shown in Table 2.

From this table, the elephant's body parts, the "ivory", have the highest frequency of use, with 307 LXH accounting for 58.4%. Words with high ratio after "ivory " are the words: "leg" has 64 times with 12.12%, "head" has 54 times with 10.22%, "back" has 40 times with 7.57% ... Thus, from the vivid visual thinking as well as in the opinion of the Ede, "ivory" is the most precious part of the elephant and is preserved by the Ede. Thus, in Ede, "ivory" is mentioned and described many times. They also have the mindset of valuing precious things in their home like the elephant's ivory. For example:

(15) “If a wicked man robs a rhinoceros horn, robs an elephant, steals a horse, he imprisons a prisoner (the good horse) in a stable” [ ²⁰; 588];

(16) “Making business to have rice, to buy elephant ivory, to buy the gong” [ ²⁰; 588];

(17) “Robbing her like robbing horn rhinoceros, disbuting her like disbuting the ivory” [ ²⁰; 609].

The words "head", "legs" and "back" have a very high rate, indicating that the major body parts involved in the control of the body (head) and in particular the parts involved the movement and transport of elephants (leg, back) are greatly enhanced. From that it can be confirmed that for the Ede outside the important and important parts such as "ivory" and "head", the parts related to the function of moving and transport of elephants are most interested. It’s suitable for the material life of the Ede people that is use the elephants to transport people and goods. Only four words have been said to have accounted for over 88% of the total. In contrast, parts like "ears" and "breasts" have a low incidence. Perhaps for the Ede, the hearing and reproductive functions of the elephant are not much interested.

The elephant in Ede epics is not only mentioned with breed characteristics, but also by their activities. The elephant activity field has 57 words with 195 occurrences, and is detailed in Table 3.

In this field, our statistics are 56 words of elephants, with 195 appearances. From the number of elephants from the operation of shows, Ede describes the activities of elephants quite thoroughly with many different activities, in many different contexts. All elementary schools are divided into Level 2: Activities emit cries: "cheap", "howling", "theater", "roaring", "roaring"...; active move "forward", "backward", "travel", "running", "ice", "Pressure", "look", "touch", "touch",...; transport operations, "drag", "transport" ...; survival activities: "eat", "drink", "break", "bath", "gore"... and other group activities. In elementary schools, the activity factor is spread, there is no distinction, and large differences in the frequencies used between words only work (mostly intransitive verbs). Elements higher rates respectively from "transport" appears 21 times with 10.77%; "Squeal" appears 14 times accounting for 7.18%; "Pull" 11 times with 5.64%; "Eat" and the word "roar" appeared 10 times with 5.13%. In elementary schools, there is a number of not less heading other activities that frequency of use is very low, "and", "illegal", "forward", "back"... This shows that, in life Ede people, the activities associated with the transport function of the elephant is the most important.

We collected only 37 from human activities impact on the elephant with the number of occurrences is 634 times. List of units of words and frequency are shown in Table 4.

In this level, there is a large difference between the factors. The highest proportion was "riding" with 202 appearances, accounting for 31.86%. From this it can be seen that elephants are very close and closely associated with Ede life, elephants are considered as means of transportation in the condition of forest, crossing the stream to go to other villages:

(32) "So elephants ride elephants with dizzy fleas, like black ant colonies" [ ¹⁷; 858].

The high ratio of "riding" (13.8%) to 88 appearances, "winning" (8.51%) with 54 appearances, "pulling" (7.41%) with 47 appearances, "snatch" (5.20%) with 33 appearances. Meanwhile, there are a few verbs appearing, for example: "stab", "shack", "squeeze", "lead"... only appear once.

The above is the general result of the elephant in the Ede epic that we collect from the data and then statistics and analysis into secondary schools and groups of words. Here we give a general overview of four schools in the elephant school with two criteria.

First: The number of occurrences between the primary schools. Comparison of data, rate is presented in Table 5.

We see, in the four sub-levels, elephant activity and elephant activity are the largest numbers. The lower level of the elephant's body is the least. From this data it can be seen that elephant and human activity affecting elephants are activities that are more interested in E De. In contrast, the body parts of the elephants are abundant, but the Ede chiefly depicts the elephant's vital organs and to humans in the use of elephant transport. For a more intuitive look, see Figure 2.

Second: The frequency of occurrence of words between sub-fields (Table 6).

In terms of the number of occurrences between the four sub-levels, the level of human activity affecting the elephant has the highest rate of use, with 634 appearances, accounting for 36.33%. Thus, it is possible to see Ede people interact more often with elephants than with regard to elephant characteristics, activities or organs. Next to the two elephant body subdivisions there were 528 appearances, representing 30.25%, and the elephant field name and elephant characteristics had 388 appearances with 22.23%. The lowest frequencies were elephant activity, with 195 apprises with 11.17% (see Figure 3).

Through the above presentation, the semantic field of “elephant” has 132 words with 1,745 social indicators; we are separated into four sub-fields as presented. However, in addition to the 132 words of the four level, the word "elephant". Although the name elephant is the word chosen as the root for the set of words in the meaning field, but since it is the root word, we do not classify it as a separate field (because the elephant does not have a variation). The goal is to compare the number of occurrences of the word elephant with all occurrences of the whole field. That is, from elephants up to 3,839 appearances while the school has only 1,745 appearances. This shows that the name of an elephant, although it is only a word, has almost appears many times, being acknowledged in many angles, the results of the isolation of the above schools have reflected that. From that, we conclude that the elephant is a familiar animal with many habitats in the Ede ethnic group, which was soon used to serve the Ede people. Through statistics, isolation and description of the school, it can be seen elephants are closely associated with the Ede. Elephant became a close friend, a symbol of wealth and prosperity, is the unique cultural identity of the Ede ethnic people in the Central Highlands.

3. Conclusion

In the epic, the elephant appears many times, being acknowledged in many angles; the results of the isolation of the above schools have reflected that. From that, we conclude that the elephant is a familiar animal with many habitats in the Ede ethnic group, which was soon used to serve the Ede people. Through statistics, isolation and description of the school, it can be seen elephants are closely associated with the Ede. Elephant became a close friend, a symbol of wealth and prosperity, is the unique cultural identity of the Ede ethnic people in the Central Highlands.

References