Article

Name: Smoke metaphor: reconstruction of cultural meanings (a case study of Yakut linguoculture)

Authors: Luiza L. Gabysheva

M. K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University, Yakutsk, Russian Federation

In the section Linguistics

Abstract:

The paper examines the linguistic and cultural semantics of the Yakut word buruo (smoke) by exploring its metaphorical manifestations in vocabulary, phraseology, and folklore. The folklore text is analyzed using a structural-semiotic approach to examine language as a cultural verbal code. For the first time, the smoke metaphor is recognized as a source of riddles, proverbs, good wishes, incantations, euphemisms, and others. Otherwise, the metaphor is found to have meaning- and text-forming functions. In the Yakut linguoculture, the smoke metaphor creates a micro paradigm of linguistic units with the general semantics of “descendants, a continuation of the family.” The metaphor under study is suggested to be a cultural element of the Sakha people’s folklore, specifically related to the patriarchal family structure and the roles of sons and daughters in procreation. The smoke metaphor, a tool for creating new concepts and pictorial means in language and culture, proves to be an element of the informational structures of oral collective memory. It preserves the principle of patrilineage, gender stereotypes, and traditional ideas of the Sakha people about the succession of generations and procreation, understood as “development, advancement through stages of development.”

A significant finding is that a polysemous word, phraseology, paremy, epithet, folklore formula, symbol, and others can preserve considerable information in a coiled form and serve as an optimal way of its oral transmission in time and space. To conclude, folklore text metaphors are not only emotionally rich but also involve “condensed” meaning, with a symbol representing the information compression.

Keywords: oral memory, Yakut linguoculture, metaphor, semantics, folklore, gender stereotypes

Bibliography:

Ala-Bulkun: Yakutskoe olonkho [Ala-Bulkun: Yakut Olonkho]. Zakharov-Cheebiy T. V. (Storyteller). Yakutsk, 1994, 101 p.

Altayskiye poslovitsy i pogovorki [Altai proverbs and sayings]. S. S. Surazakov (Comp.). Gorno-Altaysk, 1956, 42 p.

Artemenko E. B. Fol’klornaya formula i ustnopoeticheskaya traditsiya [Folklore formula and oral-poetic tradition]. In: Problemy izucheniya zhivogo russkogo slova na rubezhe tysyacheletiy. Materialy 3 Vserossiyskoy nauchno-prakticheskoy konferentsii [Problems of studying the living Russian word at the turn of the millennium. Materials of the 3rd All-Russian sci.-pract. conf.]. Voronezh, VSPU, 2005, pt. 2, pp. 99–108.

Eliade M. Shamanizm: Arkhaicheskie tekhniki ekstaza [Shamanism: Archaic techniques of ecstasy]. Kiev, 1998, 384 p.

Fedorova E. P. Terminy rodstva i svoystva v yakutskom yazyke: strukturno-semanticheskoye opisaniye [Terms of kinship and properties in the Yakut language: structural and semantic description]. Abstract of Cand. philol. sci. diss. Yakutsk, NEFU, 2012, 16 p.

Gabysheva L. L. Slovo v kontekste mifopoeticheskoi kartiny mira (na materiale yazyka i kultury yakutov [The word in the context of the mythopoetic worldview (based on the language and culture of the Yakuts]. Moscow, RSHU, 2003. (Chteniya po istorii i teorii kul’tury [Readings on the history and theory of culture]. Iss. 38). 192 p.

Gabysheva L. L. Fol’klornyy tekst: semioticheskiye mekhanizmy ustnoy pamyati [Folklore text: semiotic mechanisms of oral memory]. Novosibirsk, Nauka, 2009, 187 p.

Istoricheskie predaniya i rasskazy yakutov: V 2 ch. [Historical legends and stories of the Yakuts: In 2 pts.]. Moscow, Leningrad, AN SSSR, 1960, 432 p.

Kyys Debeliye: Yakutskiy geroicheskiy epos [Kyys Debeliye: Yakut heroic epic]. Burnashev N. P. (Storyteller). Novosibirsk, Nauka, 1993. (Pamyatniki fol’klora narodov Sibiri i Dal’nego Vostoka) [Monuments of folklore of the peoples of Siberia and the Far East]. 330 p.

Losev A. F. Znak, simvol, mif. Trudy po yazykoznaniyu [Sign, symbol, myth. Works on linguistics]. Moscow, 1982, 480 p.

Lotman Yu. M. Vnutri myslyashchikh mirov. Chelovek – tekst – semiosfera – istoriya [Inside thinking worlds. Man – text – semiosphere – history]. Moscow, LRC Publishing House, 1996, 464 p.

L’vova E. L., Oktyabr’skaya I. V., Sagalayev A. M., Usmanova M. S. Traditsionnoe mirovozzrenie tyurkov Yuzhnoi Sibiri. Prostranstvo i vremya. Veshny mir [Traditional worldview of the Turks of Southern Siberia. Space and time. The material world]. Novosibirsk, Nauka, 1988, 225 p.

Nelunov A. G. Yakutsko-russkiy frazeologicheskiy slovar’ [Yakutsk-Russian phraseological dictionary]. Novosibirsk, SB RAS Publ., 1998, vol. 1, 287 p.; 2002, vol. 2, 298 p.

Obryadovaya poeziya sakha (yakutov) [Ritual poetry of Sakha (Yakuts)]. Novosibirsk, Nauka, 2003, 512 p.

Omunnaah-tөlөnnөөh Uol Jer Soҕotoh [Furious-Ardent Jer Soҕotoh]. Tagrov N. G (Storyteller); Illarionov V. V. (Comp.). Yakutsk, SEFU, 2012. (Seriya (“Sakha oloҥkhoto” [Yakut epic series]). 368 p.

Pekarsky E. K. Slovar yakutskogo yazyka: V 3 t. [Dictionary of the Yakut language: In 3 vols]. Yakutsk, 1958, vol. 1, pp. 1–1280; 1959, vol. 2, pp. 1281–2508; vol. 3, pp. 2509–3858.

Popov A. A. Kamlaniya shamanov [Shamans’ kamlan’e]. Novosibirsk, Nauka, 2006, 464 p.

Potebnya A. A. Estetika i poetika [Aesthetics and Poetics]. Moscow, Iskusstvo, 1976, 614 p.

Seroshevsky V. L. Yakuty. Opyt etnograficheskogo issledovaniya [Yakuts. The experience of ethnographic research]. St. Petersburg, 1896, 736 p.

Sleptsov P. A. Traditsionnaya sem’ya i obryadnost’ u yakutov (19 – nachalo 20 v.) [Traditional family and rituals among the Yakuts (19th – early 20th centuries)]. Yakutsk, 1989, 159 p.

Slavyanskiye drevnosti: Etnolingvisticheskiy slovar’ [Slavic antiquities: Ethnolinguistic dictionary: In 5 vols.]. Tolstoy N. I. (Ed.). Moscow, Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya, 1999, vol. 2: D–K. 697 p.

Tenishev E. R., Blagova G. F., Dobrodomov I. G., Dybo A. V. Sravnitelno-istoricheskaya grammatika tyurkskikh yazykov. Leksika [Comparative-historical grammar of the Turkic languages. Vocabulary]. Moscow, Nauka, 1997, 800 p.

Tolkovyy slovar’ yakutskogo yazyka: V 15 t. [Explanatory dictionary of the Yakut language: In 15 vols]. P. A. Sleptsov (Ed.). Novosibirsk, Nauka, 2004, vol. 1 (Bukva A [Letter A]). 680 p.; 2005, vol. 2 (Bukva B [Letter B]). 912 p.; 2008, vol. 5 (Bukva K [Letter K]). 910 p.; 2009, vol. 6 (Bukvy L–N [Letters L–N]). 519 p.; 2015, vol. 12 (Bukvy U, Ү [Letters U, Ү]). 598 p.

Vladimirtsov B. Ya. Obshchestvennyy stroy mongolov [The social system of the Mongols]. Leningrad, 1934, 224 p.

Yakutskie narodnye pesni: V 4 ch. [Yakut folk songs: in 4 pts.]. Yakutsk, 1977, pt. 2: Pesni o trude i byte [Songs about work and life]. 422 p.

Yakutskiye poslovitsy i pogovorki [Yakut proverbs and sayings]. Emelyanov N. V. (Comp.). Yakutsk, 1962, 246 p.

Yakutskiye zagadki. Sakha taabyrynnara [Yakut riddles]. Oyunskaya S. P. (Comp.). Yakutsk, 1975, 375 p.