Cover not available

Article published In: Metaphor and the Social World
Vol. 12:2 (2022) ► pp.270–291

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

The semiotics of family in Kazakh wedding toasts from the perspective of intercultural communication

 | Pavlodar State Pedagogical University
 | S. Seifullin Kazakh Agrotechnical University
 | S. Seifullin Kazakh Agrotechnical University
 | Zielona Gora University
 | Al-Farabi Kazakh National University
 | Toraigyrov Pavlodar State University
 | Nazarbayev Intellectual School
Published online: 21 February 2022
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/msw.19019.tem
Abstract
This article explores the specifics of the semiosis of family in the Kazakh culture. The approaches of Halliday and Malinovsky were used to analyze the semiotics of wedding toasts, as well as the method of analyzing the “cultural metaphor” in Sharifyan’s linguistics. Language units in the texts of Kazakh wedding toasts demonstrate the specific understanding of marriage and family by the Kazakhs. The language contains “traces” of archaic, sacral, mythological ideas, rituals and traditions of the Kazakhs. In particular, the semiotics of marriage reflect the idea of a young family as a new home. The semiotic parts of the Kazakh yurt (shanyrak, kerege, and bosaga) are also sacred signs of marriage, symbolizing happiness, well-being, wealth, and family safety. This is evidenced by the frequent use of names of the yurt – ak otau and its components in the speech of the wedding party guests. The cosmogonic concepts ak jaryk, nur (‘light’, ‘shine’) are important for understanding the semiotics of family. The difficulties in interpreting wedding toasts arise in the intercultural communication due to Kazakh specific ideas about marriage and family presented in the non-equivalent units of the language.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Communicative genres as a culturally and historically determined phenomenon of speech communication
    • 1.2Ethno-pragmatic characteristics of a Kazakh wedding toast
  • 2.Materials and research methodology
  • 3.Results and discussion
    • 3.1Metaphorical-metonymic model a family is a dwelling
    • 3.2Metaphorical submodels with the source domain parts of a yurt
    • 3.3light as a source domain of metaphors in wedding toasts
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (48)
References
Arhipova, E. M. (2010). Tost kak pervichnyi rechevoi janr v sovremennoi kontseptsii naychnogo znaniya [Toast as a primary speech genre in the modern concept of scientific knowledge]. Naychnaya mysl Kavkaza [Scientific thought of the Caucasus], 31, 151–155.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aytmatov, Ch. (1998). I dol’she veka dlitsya den’… [And the day lasts more than a century…]. Hudozhestvennaya literatura [Artistic literature].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bakhtin, M. M. (1986). Estetika slovesnogo tvorchestva [Aesthetics of verbal creativity]. Iskusstvo [Art].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Banerjee, R. (2017). Does Time Matter? – A Study of Participation of Women in Urban Governance. Space and Culture, India, 4(3), 62–76. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bayburin, A. K. (1983). Zhilishche v obryadah i predstavleniyah vostochnyh slavyan [Dwelling in the rites and performances of the Eastern Slavs]. Leningrad.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bekberdinova, G. M. (2018). Vnutrennee prostranstvo i simvolika kazahskoj yurty [Internal space and symbolism of the Kazakh yurt]. Vostochno-Kazakhstanskiy oblastnoy arkhitekturno-etnograficheskiy i prirodno-landshaftnyy muzey [East Kazakhstan Regional Architectural, Ethnographic and Natural Landscape Museum]. Retrieved from [URL], 13/07/2019
Bhatia, V. K. (1993). Analyzing Genre: Language Use in Professional Settings. Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
E-history.kz. Retrieved from [URL], 08/08/2019.
Fatikov, R. R. (1980). K semantike shanyraka [To the semantics of shanyrak], In Problemy izucheniya i ohrany pamyatnikov kul’tury Kazakhstana [Problems of studying and protecting cultural monuments of Kazakhstan] (pp.179–185). Nauka KazSSR [Science of the KSSR].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Foucault, M. (1977). Slova i veshchi. Arheologiya gumanitarnyh nauk [Words and things. Archeology of the Humanities]. Translation by V. P. Vizgin, N. S. Avtonomova. Progress.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gadamer, H. -G. (1988). Istina i metod. Osnovy filosofskoj germenevtiki [Truth and method. Basics of philosophical hermeneutics]. Progress.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goddard, C. & A. Wierzbicka. (1997). Discourse and Culture, In Teun A. van Dijk. (Ed.), Discourse as Social Interaction. Discourse Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction, 2nd edition, (pp.231–259). Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gunthner, S. (2007). Intercultural communication and the relevance cultural specific repertoires of communicative genres, In H. Kotthoff & H. Spencer-Oatey. (Eds.), Handbook Intercultural communication, (pp.127–152). Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grodekov, N. I. (1889). Kirgizy i karakirgizy Syr-Dar’inskoj oblasti. Yuridicheskij byt [Kyrgyz and Karakyrgyz Syr-Darya region. Legal life]. Tashkent, T. 1.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K. (1989). Language, Context, and Text: Aspects of Language in a Social-Semiotic Perspective. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Helpiks.org. Retrieved from [URL], 10/05/2019.
Jung, C. G. (1991). Arhetip i simvol [Archetype and symbol]. Centr gumanitarnyh tekhnologij [Center for Humanitarian Technologies]. Retrieved from [URL], 27/05/2019.
Kotthoff, H. (1995). The social semiotics of Georgian toast performances: Oral genre as cultural activity. Journal of Pragmatics, 24(4), 353–380. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kenesbaev, S. (1977). Frazeologicheskij slovar’ kazahskogo yazyka [Phraseological dictionary of the Kazakh language]. Alma-Ata.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, G. & M. Johnson. (1980). Metaphors We Live By. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, G. (1995). Metaphor, morality, and politics, or, why conservatives have left liberals in the dust. Social Research, 62(2), 177–213.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levinson, S. C. (1979). Activity types and language. Linguistics, 17(5/6), 356–399. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Luckmann, T. (1986). Grundformen der gesellschaftlichen Vermittlung des Wissens: Kommunikative Gattungen [Basic forms of social mediation of knowledge: communicative genres]. Kolner Zeitschrift fur Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie. Sonderheft [Cologne Journal of Sociology and Social Psychology. Special issue], 271, 191–211. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Malinovsky, B. (2005). Nauchnaya teoriya kul’tury [The scientific theory of culture]. OGI.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martin, J. R. (1985). Process and text: two aspects of human semiosis, In J. D. Benson and W. S. Greaves. (Eds), Systemic Perspectives on Discourse: Selected Theoretical Papers from the 9th International Systemic Workshop (pp. 248–274). Ablex.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martin, J. R. & J. Rothery. (1986). What a functional approach to the writing task can show teachers about ‘good writing’. In B. Couture. (Eds.), Functional approaches to writing: Research perspectives (pp. 241–265). Frances Printer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Miller, C. R. (1984). Genre as social action. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 701, 151–167. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Petrovic, T. (2006). Zdravica kod balkanskih Slovena [Toast to the Balkan Slavs]. Balkanoloski institut SANU [Balkanological Institute SANU].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Podosinov, A. V. (1999). Orientaciya po stranam sveta arhaicheskih kul’tur Evrazii [Orientation by countries of the archaic cultures of Eurasia]. Yazyki slavyanskoj kul’tury [Languages of Slavic culture].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sahin, S. S. (2016). Communities and Cultures of Women: A Study of Neighbourhood Groups and Gated Communities in Assam. Space and Culture, India, 4(2), 45–60. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shakhanova, N. Z. (1998). Mir tradicionnoj kul’tury kazahov [The world of traditional culture of the Kazakhs]. Almaty.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sozdik.kz. [Dictionary]. Retrieved from [URL], 02/01/2020.
Stebleva, I. V. (1972). K rekonstrukcii drevnetyurkskoj religiozno-mifologicheskoj sistemy [To the reconstruction of the ancient Türkic religious and mythological system], In Tyurkologicheskij sbornik [Turkological collection] (pp. 213–214). Moscow.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Swales, J. M. (1990). Genre Analysis in English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tannen, D. (1993). What’s in a Frame? Surface Evidence for Underlying Expectations, Framing in Discourse, 14–56. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tasibekov, K. (2015). Situativnyj kazahskij: Mir kazahov [Situational Kazakh: World of Kazakhs]. Almaty.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Temirgazina, Z., Bakhtikireeva, U., Sinyachkin, V. (2017). Artifacts as a source of russian and kazakh Zoological terms. Information, 20, 4(A), 2325–2336. [URL]
Temirgazina, Z., Akosheva, M., Shakaman, Y., Shaharman, A., Kurmanova, Z., Kairova, M. (2019). Metaphors in Anatomical Terminology. Space and Culture, India, 7(1), 143–153. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Temirgazina, Z., Nikolaenko, S., Akosheva, M., Luczyk, M., Khamitov, G. (2020). “Naive anatomy” in the Kazakh language world picture in comparison with English and Russian. XLinguae, 13(2), 3–16. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tokhtabaeva, S. Z. (2017). Etiketnye normy kazahov [Etiquette norms of the Kazakhs]. Almaty.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, A. (1983). Genry mowy [Speech genry]. In T. Dobrzyńska & E. Janus. (Eds.), Tekst i zdanie: Zbiór studiów [Text and sentence: Collection of studies], (pp. 125–137). PAN.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1991). Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: The semantics of human interaction. Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yegizbaeva, M. K. (2018). Yurta i osobennosti mirovospriyatiya kazahov [Yurt and Kazakh worldview features]. Elektronnyj nauchnyj zhurnal «edu.e-history.kz» [Electronic scientific journal “edu.e-history.kz”], 1 (05). Retrieved from [URL], 09/04/2019.
Yu, N. (2017). Life as opera: A cultural metaphor in Chinese, In F. Sharifian. (Eds.). Advances in Cultural Linguistics (pp.65–89). Springer Nature. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (4)

Cited by four other publications

Ekaterina N. Derunova & Zhulduz K. Sagyntaeva
2025. Creolized texts as a tool for developing multimodal literacy of schoolchildren learning Russian in Kazakhstan. Russian Language Studies 23:1 ► pp. 132 ff. DOI logo
House, Juliane, Dániel Z. Kádár & Zongfeng Xia
2025. Offering food and alcohol in Chinese and English: a contrastive pragmatic perspective. Journal of Politeness Research 21:1 ► pp. 95 ff. DOI logo
Nikolaenko, Sergey, Baglan Kul'Bayeva & Gibadat Orynkhanova
2024. The Marriage Status of Women in the Belarusian Literary Language and Northeastern Dialects. Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica 16:3 ► pp. 23 ff. DOI logo
Khassenov, Bolat, Almagul Adilova & Zhanat Rapisheva
2022. Colour Symbolism in Turkic Culture: A New Look in the Reconstruction of Colour Designation. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities 30:4 ► pp. 1753 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue