Теория языка | Филологический аспект №02 (70) Февраль 2021

Национально-специфическая характеристика концепта «судьба» в казахской языковой картине мира

Маукеева Айгуль Орынбасарқызы
магистр педагогических наук, старший преподаватель, Казахский национальный университет имени аль-Фараби, Казахстан, Алматы, maukeeva2012@mail.ru
Хайрушева Елена Есенбековна
докторант, старший преподаватель, Казахский национальный университет имени аль-Фараби, Казахстан, Алматы, khairusheva@mail.ru

Аннотация: В статье рассматривается национально-специфическая характеристика концепта «судьба» в казахской языковой картине мира. Одним из наиболее эффективных методов исследования концептов признается психолингвистический эксперимент. Результаты проведенных психолингвистических экспериментов показали, что содержание концепта «Судьба» в языковом сознании казахов значительно шире и изменилось в сравнении с данными лексикографических источников. В языковой картине мира казахов судьба у людей ассоциируется с участью, неизбежностью, предназначением; судьба – миссия, судьба – смирение, судьба – долг, искупление, миссия на земле, образ жизни. Эти образные и понятийные категории, образующие смысловое пространство концепта «судьба», в итоге определяют особую картину мира и менталитета казахского народа, художественный мир, особенностями которого являются коллективизм, психологизм и мистицизм.
Ключевые слова: психолингвистический эксперимент, концепт, судьба, картина мира.

Maukeyeva Aigul Orynbasarkyzy
master of pedagogical sciences, Senior Lecturer, al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Kazakhstan, Almaty
Khairusheva Yelena Yesenbekovna
doctor, Senior Lecturer, al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Kazakhstan, Almaty

Abstract: The article considers the national – specific characteristic of the concept «fate» in the Kazakh linguistic world image. One of the most effective methods of research of concepts is psycholinguistic experiment. The results of psycholinguistic experiments showed that the content of the concept «Fate» in the linguistic consciousness of Kazakhs is much wider and has changed in comparison with the data of lexicographical sources. In the language picture of the world of Kazakhs the plight of people is associated with the fate, inevitability, purpose; destiny as mission, destiny as resignation, destiny as duty, as atonement, as mission on Earth, as lifestyle. Based on the analysis of conceptual and figurative elements of the«fate» concept, we can conclude that there are such features of the Kazakh mentality as collectivism, mysticism, psychologism.
Keywords: psycholinguistic experiment, concept, fate, world view.

Currently, national science discusses problems of national and ethnic nature: the interaction of language and culture, national mentality, ethnic and linguistic identity.

The actualization of this study is a reflection of the fact that in recently times, in the period of globalization, the development of modern anthropocentric research related to national and cultural features of people: linguistic, cultural and cognitive approaches to the study of language, a manifestation of the ecological crisis and the crisis of culture, largely associated with the world crisis of our times, the problem of human destiny allows you to understand the ways of further development of mankind.

The choice of the concept of fate is determined by the fact that it is one of the key and unique concepts in the Kazakh picture of the world. The peculiarity of the phenomenon lies in the complexity of its deep content, which includes both general mental principles and attitudes, and a personal-individual worldview.

The scientific novelty of the research is that the study of the specific features of the development of the concept of fate in the Kazakh language consciousness was first conducted using the data of philosophy, cognitive linguistics, cultural studies, historical lexicology and lexicography, artistic creativity by German, Kazakh and Russian authors.

The concept of fate is one of the fundamental concepts in the cultures of many people, but each nation has its own basic universal concepts that are reflected in the language. The great Spaniard Cervantes, the author of the immortal "Don Quixote", said that one cannot enter the science other than through the door of language. Paraphrasing this statement, we can say that the content of a literary text can be understood only by means of knowledge of the national linguistic picture of the world and its cultural and ethnic constants.

The introduction of the concept of "language picture of the world" to the scientific terminology is the merit of J.L. Weisgerber. The language picture of the world determines the attitude of a person to the world around him and to himself as a part of this world sets the norms of human behavior in the world, so it can be argued that the language picture of the world is a kind of worldview through the prism of language. This definition was addressed by Yu.N. Karaulov [1], V.A. Maslova [2], D.N. Shmelev [3]  and others. "When studying culture through language, a person in culture and language, the key words, the reference points of the mentality of the people, which largely determine the subject-semantic content of the language picture of the world, are studied. The language picture of the world is formed by a system of basic concepts and invariant ideas connecting them. The basic concepts serve as a kind of key to understanding the important features of the culture of the people" [3, p. 11].

The national picture of the world is revealed in the uniformity of human behavior in common situations, in the general people’s sense of reality, in statements and "general opinions", in reality judgements, proverbs, sayings and aphorisms. Since language is inextricably linked to thinking and is a repository of spiritual values, the nature of the concept can be determined through language. A native speaker develops a concept sphere, a worldview from a set of concepts. It should be noted that an important role in the national historiography in this process, as well as in the analysis of realities of our times, was played by the works of Kazakh scientists on various problems of Kazakh history, ethnography, philosophy, law, aesthetics, cultural studies and art studies: Akatayev S.N., Akishev A.K., Auezov M.O., Auezov M.M., Akhinzhanov S.M.

The world of nomadism, which is ancient and authentic and has history of more than three thousand years, was a mystery until recently. And although the earliest Chinese written records of the nomads date back to the 9^th century B.C. and to the era of antiquity (Herodotus),  its reflection grew more fantastic, sometimes even primitive and vulgar not only in scientific, but also artistic, and even in common mindset.

In the worldview of any nation symbols-concepts play an important role. All the diverse manifestations of human culture – in ideology and religion, politics and literature – are represented as a system of various symbols-concepts that embody the ideas and meanings that people live by and that determine the memory and continuity of culture itself.

The concept of fate (as one of the main, defining worldview concepts, the cornerstone of the concept sphere of all comparable languages) has existed for thousands of years as a representation of a higher power, which, in whatever forms and in whatever languages it occurs, always contains the element of mystery. The study of the fate concept was reduced to the study of the scope of different understanding of this phenomenon among different people. The geopolitical living conditions, beliefs and religions, history and ethnic priorities have indeed put their own shades into understanding the concept of "fate". The researcher Postovalova V.I. notes the special role of the fate concept among other words of culture and social life, highlighting the following ability, which lies in "attempt of the human mind to find the last base of life - the forces that rule the world and human behavior" [4, p. 11].

As repeatedly stated, the area of the fate concept includes a vast sphere of related concepts in the language culture of the people, which through the polysemy of dictionary articles, synonymous lines, semantic and phraseological word combinations, associative and conceptual taxonomic fields, etc., in some cases was presented in the form of the systematized conceptual lines for the Kazakh language.

Basic individual concepts and unique concepts, that are innate only to the Kazakh people, are generalized by the historical experience of the ethnic group and give its world-picture an unforgettable colour, national content specifics of phenomena, objects and processes.

According to the dictionary data, artworks of classics and contemporaries, the main components of the fate concept in the conceptual sphere of the Kazakh people are the synonymous lines that characterize different aspects of fate ("coincidence of circumstances", "plight", "fortune", "powers of heaven"), most often found in three languages as an active or passive force.

Fate is the most significant category of consciousness, with the help of which a conceptual picture of the world of nation is built. The understanding of fate as a higher power is reflected in the explanatory dictionaries. For example, in a four-volume academic dictionary there are three values of the word ‘destiny’ , the main one of which is the following one: 1) the course of events, circumstances (for superstitious ideas - force that determines everything that happens in life), emerging irrespectively of the human will - to submit to his fate, the blows of fate [5, p. 153]. Dal V.I. places the word fate in the word-formation nest of the verb judge and defines fate as "inevitability in the earthly life".

Let us turn to the Russian-Kazakh explanatory dictionary. Here, the words taǵdyr and jasmis come first. The term jasmis is translated as “destined by someone, written”. Kazakhs are considered to be a nation whose life is closely connected to religion. In a passage from the Quran, it is said: ...The fate becomes known even before birth "Allah wrote down the fate of all creatures for fifty thousand years before the creation of the heavens and the earth, and His Throne was already on the water." "Indeed, each of you is formed in the womb of your mother for forty days in the form of a drop of semen (semen). Then he stays there as long as a clot, and as long as a piece of flesh. After that, an Angel is sent to him, who blows the spirit into him. And he receives a command to write down four things: the lot (material wealth of a person), his term (life), his deeds, and whether he will be happy or unhappy… So, according to the above, every person is born and lives as he is destined by fate.

Kazakh concepts of "submission", "humility", "the will of God" (Allah), "submission to the powers of heaven" are characterized by a number of almost equivalent ideas:

The Kazakh perception of the fate concept as the meaning of “predetermination”, "a combination of circumstances irrespective of the will of a person" occupies a quarter of the concept (25 %); in this sense Kazakhs are close to the Russian worldview. We believe that objective tranquillity, unfussiness in the perception of events underlie the tolerance intrinsic  of  Russians and Kazakhs, which allows Russian and Kazakh people to relive the events of the last three decades without significant social upheaval and losses. In this we see a strong intention, the ability of Kazakhs and Russians to understand other people’s worldview. Gumilev L.N. called it a complementarity [6].

In the Kazakhs' point of view, the fate of a person is predetermined even before one’s the birth – these are the main moments of life, the presence of happiness or misfortune in it, its duration. Fate is inevitable. But man has the right to choose a path – to go to the right or to the left and thereby to influence the fate. One also decides whether a path is good or bad.

Omens and superstitions are a whole system, an important part of the spiritual culture of the Kazakh people. They were passed down from one generation to another, being kept in the memory of the nation. Traditions are one of the major components of the spiritual culture of the Kazakhs. All of them are closely related to the religious traditions.

The unique colour of the national mentality is reflected in the communicative behavior of Kazakhs.

The component of zaman (zaman) – "time, epoch, era, century, fate" – is unique for the Kazakh mentality in terms of perception of the fate concept. This meaning has a global, milestone connotation, which distinguishes it from the Russian use of the meaning of the fate concept. It means "time" with a tinge of predestination.

This concept, which conventionally can be translated in Russian as "a mysterious force", is perceived as one of the main components only in the language world picture of Kazakhs.

Bolashak – "future"– occupies a significant place in the concept of fate in Russian language, as well: "the future is something what will happen". In Kazakh, as in Russian, the meaning of the game is also present, but its meaning is passive, close to " the God's will". In contrast to Russians, the Kazakhs are the object of the game, not the player: "A man's head is a ball in the hands of Allah."

Belger admits that sometimes circumstances can be stronger than a person, and he expresses this predestination in Kazakh diret, byyrany bolar (it will be what is destined), although sometimes he also uses the main Kazakh term of the concept of fate – taǵdyr [7, p. 92].

In our opinion, it is very important that in modern society the concept of fate is one of the most frequent key concepts, which is actively used by him in both fiction and publicistic works, when the writer shares his own thoughts or includes it in the monologues of the characters. You cannot choose the fate. What is meant to be will be. Everyone has his own destiny. Fate plays the man. Allah disposes of the fate of man, etc.

The analysis of phraseological units and proverbs allows us to identify some additional features of the fate concept. Here is an example of the famous folk sayings of Kazakhs:

1. Túıe jukten qashyp qutylmas, at arbadan qashyp qutylmas. – Camel cannot run away from the pack and the horse from the cart. In this proverb, it comes to the fact that everyone has his own purpose.

2. Kóresіndі kórmeı, kórge kіrmeısіń. – Without experiencing the measured fate, you will not go to the other world.

3. Bіreýdіn ajaly – ottan, bіreýdіń ajaly – sýdan. – One is killed by fire, the other one by water.

4. Ajaldy tashqanǵa ash mysyq tap bolar. – The doomed mouse meets a hungry cat.

5. Júgіrgen jetpes, buıyrǵan ketpes. – What you can't catch, will not be catched even if you run.

6. Aıdalaǵa atqan oq, ajaldyǵa tıedі. – A bullet fired in the air hits the doomed man to death.

7. Túımenіń ınesіz kúnі joq. – A button without a needle has no life.

Thus, the above proverbs and sayings most fully and accurately reflect the specific national features of the fate concept. In the language world picture of Kazakhs, people associate fate with plight, inevitability, destiny; fate-mission, fate-humility, fate-duty, redemption, mission on earth, way of life. Based on the analysis of the conceptual and figurative elements of the concept of "fate", we can conclude that there are such features of the Kazakh mentality as collectivism, mysticism, and psychologism.

This article provides a brief overview of the history of the study of the concept representation. As a result of the analysis of the concept of Fate in the Kazakh national consciousness, we came to the following conclusions: First, as a result of the analysis of the collected data, the concept of Fate was divided into two main groups: animate and inanimate. Secondly, in the Kazakh worldview of the concept of Fate is intertwined with fatality. Although in their consciousness Fate is sometimes presented in a positive way, sometimes in a negative way. In our opinion, the quantitative analysis has revealed that Kazakhs are rather passive, pessimistic than optimistic about their Fate. Most of the Kazakhs feel powerless, helpless in front of the Fate. Third, we have also explored the association of Fate with Happiness. Both concepts have a very great influence on the worldview and actions of the Kazakh people.

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