Proverbial conceptualization of the common Turkic zoolexeme аt ‘horse’ (based on the material of the Khakass language)

Abstract

The article provides a semantic-cognitive analysis of the ethnocultural components of the common Turkic zoolex-eme ат ‘horse’, as a unit of the proverbial picture of the world. The proverbial picture of the world is a fragment of the linguistic picture of the world, which is a linguoculturological and cognitive model of various thematic proverbial groups. The structure of Khakassian proverbs and sayings has phonostylistic features: the obligatory presence of rhyme, assessment of various characteristics of a person and other phenomena of everyday life, figuratively associative com-parison of any properties of a person with objects of nature, including the endowment of animals with traits of a per-son’s character. Thus, the structure of all the proverbs and sayings we analyze is different in using the method of com-parative parallelism, for example, a child and a foal, a man and a horse. In the Khakass worldview philosophy, en-shrined in paremias, ат ‘horse’ is perceived as a true friend, ally and assistant of a person, in particular a man. The proverbs and sayings emphasize the relationship between man and horse, draw a figurative parallel of the positive and negative qualities of their characters, the careful and respectful attitude of man to the horse. In the Khakass national worldview, the horse is also a symbol of prosperity, well-being, therefore, it can also appear in traditional well-wishes, in reflections on the themes of eternity, time, life and death, for example, Ат öлзе, изері халар (Mudroe, 2014, p. 6) ‘Nothing disappears without a trace (lit. if a horse dies, a saddle remains)’. This proverb implies the idea that even if a person leaves this world, his good deeds will remain. The study showed the interconnection of the language and worldview culture of the Khakass ethnic group, which takes a basis in the everyday life of a nomadic society and mani-fests itself in fixed sayings, where the acting character is one of the main symbols of the Turkic world – ат ‘horse’. As far as we know, such signs are broadcast in the proverbial picture of the world and other Turkic peoples, thereby we can note the universality of the peculiarities of updating the ат ‘horse’ concept.