Basic Conceptual Metaphors in the Context of Chechen Linguopoetics

Lidiya Makhmudovna Dovletkireeva

1,2

, Alisa Inalovna Magomadova

and Sovdat Vakhidovna Baydarova

Chechen State University Named After A.A. Kadyrov, Grozny, Russia

Institute of the Chechen Language, Grozny, Russia

Keywords: Сoncept, Metaphor, Image, World Picture, National, Worldview, Poetry, Symbol.

Abstract: The article examines the basic ethnomental metaphors and their representation in the poetic works of the

classics of Chechen literature: Mahomet Mamakaev, Arbi Mamakaev, Bilal Saidov, Yamlikhan Khasbulatov,

Raisa Akhmatova and others. The authors analyze the relationship between the imaginative thinking of an

ethnic group, literary tradition and mentally significant abstract concepts, identify key symbols and their

meanings, determining their place in the semiotic system of the linguistic worldview of the Chechen nation.

The metaphor is viewed from three angles: from the point of view of stylistics – as a figurative means of

language, from the position of cognitive linguistics – as a way of thinking, in the representation of literary

criticism – as an element of the artistic system of a literary work. The authors also correlate between

axeological concepts and the concrete world of "things" - natural facts and cultural artifacts. In the eyepiece

of the study are the concepts-symbols "mountain", "tower", "eagle" and others and the corresponding abstract

concepts "Homeland", "courage", "freedom".

1 INTRODUCTION

In the late XX-early XXI centuries, philological

science has increased interest in the study of linguistic

and literary categories in the context of national

worldview at the intersection of interdisciplinary

research. The interrelation of language and thinking

in the actively developing direction of cognitivism is

considered synergetically with the involvement of

data not only from linguistics, but also from

psychoanalysis, ethnology, philosophy.

Metaphor, which is studied in literary studies and

stylistics as a vivid figurative means, is one of the key

concepts of cognitive linguistics.

From the position of cognitivism, a metaphor is a

way of thinking in which a phenomenon or object

being metaphorized is the domain of the goal, and

concepts-lexemes used to describe, comprehend,

understand and feel it are referred to the domain of

the source. That is, the metaphor is considered in

relation to the mental mechanisms of speech

generation and perception. Abstract concepts of

"love", "honor", "dignity", "death" and others are

difficult to understand, so with the help of metaphor

they are mastered by comparison or analogy with the

concrete. As a rule, specific concepts act as the source

domain, and the goal domains are concepts that are

difficult to feel in physical experience. Thus, the

metaphor forms a kind of cognitive cultural-thinking

model that "defines the picture of the world of a

certain linguistic community" (Kiseleva, 2013) and

represents a "stereotypical image with which

experience is organized" (Pimenova, 2004).

The object of this research is the basic

ethnomental metaphors of the Chechen linguistic

picture of the world.

The subject is nationally significant metaphors-

natural facts, artifacts and anthropomorphs that

convey ethno-cultural meanings in the artistic picture

of the world of Chechen classical poets.

The relevance of the undertaken research, in our

opinion, lies in the description and analysis of

concepts-metaphors of the Chechen national picture

of the world, establishing links between the mentality

of the ethnic group and its imaginative thinking.

The scientific novelty is determined by the fact

that the basic concepts-metaphors of the Chechen

linguistic picture of the world are considered in the

context of the individual author's stylistics of the

Chechen classical poets, that is, we operate with the

categories of cognitive linguistics and literary studies

Dovletkireeva, L., Magomadova, A. and Baydarova, S.

Basic Conceptual Metaphors in the Context of Chechen Linguopoetics.

DOI: 10.5220/0011637300003577

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Actual Issues of Linguistics, Linguodidactics and Intercultural Communication (TLLIC 2022), pages 207-211

ISBN: 978-989-758-655-2

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

207

to identify the uniqueness of the Chechen ethnic

worldview.

The purpose of the research is to identify and

analyze key concepts-metaphors based on the

material of Chechen classical poetry, to establish

links between complex abstract axeological concepts

relevant to the Chechen ethnos (goal domains) and

the concrete world of "things" (source domains),

represented metaphorically in the space of

linguopoetics.

In the context of cognitivism, metaphor was

studied, first of all, by M. Black, D. Davidson, J. А.

Miller, J. Lakoff, in Russian science – by N.D.

Arutyunova, V.V. Petrova, T.G. Popova, V.N. Telia

et al. As initial theoretical prerequisites, we also

proceed from the works of psychologists, cultural

scientists, anthropologists who have dealt with the

problems of metaphorization, among them both

domestic and foreign scientists: L.S. Vygotsky, V.V.

Ivanov, A.A. Leontiev, Y.M. Lotman, A.R. Luria,

V.N. Toporov, O.M. Freudenberg et al.

In this study, we rely on the idea expressed by

Lakoff and Johnson that "a metaphor reflects the

qualities and properties of objects that are most

significant and culturally conditioned for the society

in whose language this metaphor exists" (Kiselyova,

2013).

Metaphor is considered by us as a psychological

and speech mechanism that allows the transfer of a

name from one subject to another on the basis of

common features, by analogy, as one of the leading

tropes in artistic stylistics that form a figuratively

expressive picture of a literary text and have an

aesthetic effect on the reader. The artists of the word

are carriers of a certain national and linguistic picture

of the world, fragments of which are somehow

reflected in their work, therefore, the reproducibility

of the image in the works of various authors and

genres and its mental fullness, in our opinion, signal

the fact that this metaphor is the result of collective

ethnomental thinking and enters the national

conceptual sphere. After all, the transfer of names is

based in this case on "mythologems", "linguistic

associative stereotypes", "the pragmatics of the life of

a particular people, which determine the axiological

nature of the figurative analogy" (Gridina, 2018).

We use the methodology of literary studies,

stylistics and cognitive linguistics: structural and

semantic analysis of a literary text, establishing a

connection between language and thinking,

identifying key concepts of the national picture of the

world based on poetry, determining logical abstract-

figurative correlations between categories of being

and categories of consciousness.

2 MAIN PART

The ethnic identity of the figurative system of literary

and artistic text is determined by various

extralinguistic factors: the nature of the native land,

material and spiritual culture, historical vicissitudes

in the life of the ethnic community, ethical values,

traditions, customs (

Gachev, 2011). After all, thinking,

including national thinking, is mediated by concrete

life experience, therefore, the basis of associative

connections is, first of all, bodily experience.

Therefore, in order to interpret artistic images, the

reader must possess a certain set of background

knowledge, only in this case he will be able to

perceive the text in the plane of the author's national

worldview, undistorted. The non-native reader needs

to separate his own worldview from the author's,

correlated with his national mentality.

Chechen linguoculture, like any other, is a

complex semiotic system consisting of numerous

mental-figurative codes and based on folklore texts,

mythology, religious and household practices,

literary and artistic creativity

(Kusaev, 2005).

In our opinion, the analysis of the poetic works of

Chechen authors shows that they, mostly

unconsciously, operate with these figurative signs,

including them in the artistic space of their texts. We

say "unconsciously" because the repetition of the

same image in the texts of different poets testifies to

the ethnopsychic nature of this process, the influence

of the national picture of the world. Nevertheless,

since the master of the word always strives for

originality and individualization of the metaphor,

being immersed in a new literary context, the

common language symbol is filled with additional

meanings, gets a brighter sound, while remaining at

the same time a specific national-mental marker of

the author's artistic consciousness.

The national imaginative thinking of the

Highlanders is characterized by "vertical

consciousness", or, according to the definition of Z.A.

Kuchukova, "the philosophy of the vertical"

(Kuchukova, 2005), that is, the geographical location

determines the presence of vertical symbols with a

positive connotation. First of all, these are mountains,

plane trees, eagles, sky, blade, kindjal, towers…

Mountains in the mental representation of

Chechens are associated with the idea of spiritual

elevation, striving for the ideal, wisdom, because they

are directed by their pointed peaks to the sky and rise

above all things. They are also a kind of amulet of the

ethnos in the literal and figurative senses, since it is

the mountains that protect from enemies, as well as

protect age-old customs and mores from external

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influences, therefore, in the figurative and poetic

picture of the world, the symbols accompanying the

mountains are the papakha and burka – elements of

the national dress of the highlander, his external

identifiers.

In the Legend of the Highlanders, Mahomet

Mamakaev explains why the mountains have become

the key symbol of the Caucasian poets, they embody

the Motherland, its past and present, the need to

protect the laws of antiquity, formed "at the foot of

the mountains – the homes of eagles" by "gray-haired

great-grandfathers and grandfathers" and based on

"love for the Motherland, conscience, duty and

honor" (Dykhaev, 1980). A valuable quality of a

highlander is courage, which the future defender is

taught from the cradle:

Love for the Motherland,

Conscience,

Duty and honor

Here the sons were inspired from the cradle

And, before being taught to drink and eat,

Songs were sung about courage to them.

(Dykhaev, 1980).

The mother's curse awaits the cowardly, which is

also warned by the harsh lullaby: "Let the milk of my

breast / Kill you like poison" (Dykhaev, 1980). The

poet uses a folklore curse, which is still actively

reproduced in the speech of native speakers of the

Chechen language, being a phraseological unit. The

names of the heroes in the mountains are passed down

from generation to generation in legends and tales,

not allowing the chain to be interrupted and

preserving the continuity of generations:

Among the family of mountains gone into the

clouds,

They were passed from mouth to mouth,

From heart to heart, from centuries to centuries,

And as the years passed, the legends remained.

And I am full of the legends of the past days,

The covenants of a bitter and great life,

And forever merged in my soul

The concept of the mountains with the concept of

the Motherland! (Dykhaev, 1980). Of the

geographical objects, another popular symbol in

Chechen poetry is the river, and not abstract and

typed, but specific rivers flowing in Chechnya – the

Terek and Argun. Their violent temper conveys the

impetuous, assertive, strong, courageous character of

the inhabitants of these places. As it often happens,

several symbols-metaphors, epithets, comparisons -

are intertwined in one poem, complementing each

other. So, in the poem "Terek" by Arbi Mamakaev,

these are mountains, a wolf, clouds:

From the mountains high, where the clouds swirl,

You run down, my turbulent Terek,

I am stunned on the the bank,

You howl like a wolf when you roll. (Dykhaev,

1980).

Most of the metaphor symbols, including those

listed above, are also associated with the enduring

value of the national microcosm – freedom. Arbi

Mamakaev, dedicating his pathetic lines to the

Ossetian classic Kosta Khetagurov, recalls that the

mission of Caucasian poets is to glorify freedom,

therefore the entire semiotic system of Caucasian

lyrics is built around this constant – geographical

objects, animalistic metaphors, elements of culture

and everyday life – all of them are designed to defend

the right of mountaineers to their own way of life and

thoughts.

Mountains, gorges, customs, and rivers,

Rocks, and your villages, my Caucasus,

Happiness and loyalty to freedom forever –

All the poets have sung more than once!

(Dykhaev, 1980).

Noting the superiority of Kosta Khetagurov over

all other freedom singers, the Chechen poet compares

him to the highest mountain peak:

Like Kazbek among the mountains, with his head

Above the others was your son, your singer!

(Dykhaev, 1980).

The continuity of the symbolism of the mountain

with the concepts of freedom, honor, courage,

inflexibility of character and will is also emphasized

by the lines from the poem by A. Mamakayev "In the

mountains of Chechnya": "Mother Nature taught

them / To be harder than inaccessible mountains. /

Freedom is dearer to them. / Shame is most terrible

for them." (Dykhaev, 1980).

The wolf and the horse are two important symbols

that organize and fill the semantic field of the concept

"kyonah" with multidimensional meanings

(translated into Russian – dzhigit, although this

lexeme is not equivalent to this deep concept)

(

Ismailov, 2005). In the Chechen view, a kyonah is not

just a man, brave and strong, he is, first of all, a noble

fellow who sees the meaning of his existence in the

defense of the motherland and the pursuit of freedom,

he observes the unwritten code of honor of the

kyonah, in the Chechen language it corresponds to a

non-equivalent unit of speech – kyonahalla – a set of

certain norms, rules and ideas hat are characteristic

for the understanding of the world and the way of life

of a worthy man. The core component of this system

is the concept of honor.

In the poem "On the grave of his father" A.

Mamakaev, using folklore motifs and rehashes, cites

several unshakable formulas from this code, which

Basic Conceptual Metaphors in the Context of Chechen Linguopoetics

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focus on the concept of honor: "A bitter honest death

is better than a dishonorable name", "So that honor

does not leave you, be you brave and steadfast", "Let

a son not be born if he is not of the brave" (Dykhaev,

1980).

The semantic field of the concept "dzhigit"

("kyonah)" is formed using metaphors-symbols

"mountain", "wolf", "horse", "eagle", "falcon",

"leopard", "lion", "dagger", "papakha", "burka", "will

(freedom)"... For example, A. Mamakaev has such

metaphors: "In blood and spirit I am close to the

mountains..." (Dykhaev, 1980), "And I wander with

wolves on a par" (Dykhaev, 1980), "Dzhigit-boy

without a horse" (Dykhaev, 1980). Sometimes several

animalistic symbols in one context are designed to

enhance the impression, as in Akhmat Nazhaev:

"Horses rushed forward, proud as lions" (Dykhaev,

1980). Kyonah's vocation is to defend the

independence of his people, this is his voluntary

choice, he has absolute inner freedom, so even the

nature of his native land, the air breathes it: "Days and

nights they flew like birds, / Breathing with

uncompromising will" (Dykhaev, 1980).

The music of the pondar, a Chechen musical

instrument, also embodies the aspiration of the

Chechens for freedom. Chechen epic songs of Illi

have a powerful influence on listeners, telling about

real heroes of Chechen history and calling them by

name, allowing to preserve the memory of worthy

ancestors.

Bilal Saidov sees the purpose of the poet-singer of

his native land in "being an eagle in the heavenly

nests" (Dykhaev, 1980), that is, to be free and

towering, soaring above the vanity of the world, he

calls the mountains "bearded" (Dykhaev, 1980),

which once again emphasizes the fact that most

authors associate the symbolism of the mountains

with the historical past, the guardians of which they

act, the wisdom and unshakable fortitude of their

ancestors.

The Ingush poet Khamzat Osmiev writes about

the continuity of generations, the magical power of

his native land, which transmits their freedom–loving

spirit from grandfathers to fathers and from fathers to

sons in the poem "Night in the Vedeno Mountains",

dedicated to the Chechen national hero - Abrek

Zelimkhan Kharachoevsky. The mountain in the

lyrical lines is personified and appears in the image of

an enchanted giant towering over the world. The

water of the stream gives it strength, symbolizing the

interconnection of all things and the role played by

the nature of the native land in the formation of

national character and psychology. With the water of

the stream, everyone who drinks from it acquires

special powers, because this is "the stream from

which Zelimkhan drank" (Dykhaev, 1980). The same

motif can be traced in Yamlikhan Khasbulatov's

poem "Chakhchar" ("Waterfall"): "Zelimkhan

himself, leaving Harachoy <...> drank your waters"

(Dykhaev, 1980). In this work, the waterfall acts as a

guardian of historical memory, a link between the

past and the present, a symbol of power and greatness.

Synonymous in its semantics with a waterfall and a

mountain is also a wild pear in the poem "Old Pear"

by Ya. Khasbulatov, it also personifies the native

land, every rustle of its foliage is the focus of memory

of the events of bygone years, the legacy and precepts

of ancestors, the continuity of generations of

kyonahs: "How many past events can live in rustles

and creaks", "You didn't break under the storm

because you have dzhigits behind you" (Dykhaev,

1980). Eagles, mountains and towers are symbols that

are inextricably linked with each other, often interact

in one artistic text, enriching its space with various

semantic shades that convey the general idea of the

greatness of historical ideals and aspirations of an

ethnic group. Mountains and towers (their cultural

copies) are guardians of generations, keepers of

historical memory, Raisa Akhmatova's "mountains

do not age/ They are as powerful as the flight of an

eagle", "Here the blood of the fathers on the rocks has

hardened, and their glory has gained immortality"

(Dykhaev, 1980). Despite the fact that, in general, the

symbolism of Raisa Akhmatova is saturated with

concepts and ideas typical of the Chechen worldview,

sometimes the gender factor influences the fact that

the images in question are woven into a purely

feminine lyrical metaphor, acquiring an

uncharacteristic tenderness and purity of sound. This

happens due to the use of feminally labeled

metaphors, personifications and comparisons in one

context, for example: "The sky has dropped the starry

shawl", "the beauty of modest Chechnya", "our

mountains will bring you hundreds of thousands of

legends about love" (Dykhaev, 1980), "The cloud has

clung to the chest of the mountain" (Dykhaev, 1980),

about woman mountaineer – "she looked at the world

like a wounded deer" (Dykhaev, 1980). And yet the

vertical symbols in the poetics of Raisa Akhmatova

convey, first of all, the strength of the spirit and the

unwavering desire to overcome the age-old

unfreedoms: "O woman of the mountains! Where did

you get the strength / To climb to the mountain peak?"

(Dykhaev, 1980). In the poetic picture of the world of

Chechen authors, the key concepts-metaphors realize

their expressive beginning not only in philosophical

pictures of being, but also in simple landscape

sketches. It is obvious that this happens

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unconsciously, poets think with national metaphors

easily and naturally, without even noticing it, because

otherwise they would strive for maximum

individualization of the image, its uniqueness. We are

talking about such expressions as "the papakha of

heaven", "the snowy papakha of the mountains", "the

wind roamed like a free wolf" (Dykhaev, 1980) and

others in which involuntary repetition is traced. They

also cannot be attributed to the category of

"permanent" epithets or metaphors characteristic of

folklore works, since they are not reproduced in a

ready-made form, but are used in various variations,

organically entering into the figurative system of

author's texts along with individual stylistic tropes

and figures.

3 CONCLUSIONS

We came to the conclusion that metaphor as a way of

thinking and an element of the conceptual sphere

allows us to explain complex and conceptually

significant abstract concepts for the ethnos with the

help of clearer and more accessible names of

phenomena and objects. Writers, being carriers of a

certain linguistic picture of the world, unconsciously

include national concepts-metaphors in the artistic

system of their works along with means of individual

imagery, therefore texts saturated with ethnic signs

are able to actively transmit ethnocultural information

to the reader. Metaphors-symbols of the linguistic

picture of the world of an ethnic group act in this case

as peculiar codes of national mentality, which,

without having certain background knowledge, can

be deciphered, but the representation may be

incomplete or distorted.

Despite the fact that basic conceptual metaphors

are included in the space of various poetic or prose

texts, they cannot be considered as stencil images,

since writers use diverse combinations of their

creative realization, which is due to the peculiarities

of their idiostyle. The semantics of metaphors are

expanded and supplemented by the fact that the

authors do not use them in isolation, but in semantic

combination with other metaphors. The key national

metaphor, therefore, is not only a means of expressive

and aesthetic impact on the reader, but also constructs

mental meanings, since it is based on historical,

cultural, natural phenomena.

From the analysis, in our opinion, it follows that

Chechen poetry is characterized by the

implementation of a stable metaphorical paradigm

based on the key elements of the conceptual sphere of

language. We have revealed that in the texts under

consideration, the most frequent concepts are

significant for the Chechen meta-code: "spiritual

elevation", "freedom", "honor", "dignity", "word",

"courage", "love for the motherland and readiness to

defend it at the cost of life", "death", "continuity of

generations", "historical memory", "duty", "wisdom"

(from the point of view of cognitive science, they are

goal domains), represented by means of metaphor-

symbols (source domains): "kindjal", "burka",

"papakha", "dzhigit" ("kyonah"), "mountain",

"tower", "plane tree", "pear", "eagle", "wolf", "lion",

"earth", "horse", "leopard", "falcon", "deer", "fallow

deer", "water", "stream", "spring", "waterfall", Terek,

Argun, "son", "father", "mother", "handkerchief",

"pondar", etc. Thematically and according to the

method of explication, they can be designated as

metaphors-artifacts, natural facts and

anthropomorphs. They are in rather subtle and veiled

interweaving of denotative-connotative connections

and associations, stringing and layering on each other

in the artistic picture of the world of Chechen poetry,

which leads to the expansion and deepening of the

semantic field of metaphorical transfers, enlarges the

idea of the national mentality, contributes to the

creation of a multifaceted and multi-focus model of

the Chechen worldview.

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Pimenova, M. V. 2004. Soul and spirit: Features of

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Gridina, T. A., Konovalova, N. E., 2018. National

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131-141.

Kuchukova, Z. A., 2005. Ontological metacode as the core

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Dykhaev, V. A., 1980. Anthology of Chechen-Ingush

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