Abstract
The article deals with one of the varieties of metaphor – synaesthesia which is used by the Kazakhstani Russianspeaking bilingual writer in creating literary images. The most frequent types of synaesthesia combinations are singled out here. On the basis of the analysis of images of language consciousness of A.Zhaksylykov attempt to define is made, whether the law of a generality of the big paradigms and identity of small paradigms of art-poetic images operates in various cultures. The images created by synthetic means are the result of cognitive processing of socially significant information and the author's intention, as well as the phenomenon, fixing the dynamics of change and consciousness of society imposes special imprint on the linguistic picture of the world of the people in accordance with the changing features of his world view and outlook. Synesthesia of Kazakh bilingual - artistic means to create a holistic psychological portrait of the hero, for an understanding of the depth of the content of the novel.
Keywords: Metaphorsynaesthesiainter-sensitive transfertactileaudorative
Introduction
In linguistics, synaesthesia is considered to be a linguistic universal, with the help of which
communication of feelings and emotions is expressed in words (Belyaeva, 1989); “in literary criticism,
synaesthesia represents specific figures of speech and stylistic figures relating to inter-sensitive
transfers and comparisons” (Galeyev, 1998). We agree with A. N. Smolina (2009) who says that
synaesthesia is “a kind of stylistic marker that opens to the reader the specifics of the world perception
and attitudes of the writer and the poet, his vision of reality” . At the same time it should be noted that
the phenomenon of the synaesthetic perception is that the impression corresponding to one sense organ
(hearing, sight, etc.) is followed by another, additional feeling characteristic of another modality.
Scientists distinguish between various types of synaesthesia, first of all, by the nature of arising
additional senses: optical or visual, acoustic or auditory, tactile or haptic, olfactory or audorative and
gustative.
In science there has been a particular interest in this phenomenon – the “confusion of senses.” It is
obvious that to a greater extent, this phenomenon is inherent in the literary verbal creativity – literature,
where literary and expressive aspects of the language not only dominate the purely pragmatic, the
rational, but perform a meaningful function in the long run. That is why literature, in the first place, is
not a display of events, not a story about something where the language is only an aid, but a creation of
new words and an aesthetic space of the language.
At the same time it should be noted that the word creation of a bilingual person, brought up in two
cultures, may be of particular interest. As “in the basis of the world view and outlook of each nation
there is its own system of substantive values, social stereotypes, cognitive schemes, human
consciousness is always conditioned ethnically” (Leontiev, 2000). The anthropocentric nature of
linguistic consciousness phenomenon is undeniable, as the mental structures do not exist
independently, and the arising picture of the world includes actions and behavior of the subject. “The
image of the world varies from one culture to another” (Leontiev,1994), and therefore, there are no two
absolutely identical ethnic-linguistic cultures and no two identical images of the world.
Problem statement
In the past two decades, a special interest of researchers has been attracted to the Russian language
works of bicultural authors from the perspective of cognitive linguistics and psycholinguistics.
It is noteworthy that after the collapse of the Union and the formation on its basis of new states
bilingualism phenomenon has not disappeared, indicating its rather persistent vitality, and we must
accept this fact as an objective reality. In Soviet times, bilinguals were united by one ideology, which
they reflected in their writings. In the former Soviet space they all indulge in history, traditions and
mentality of their peoples which is objectively justified and requires scientific understanding. In the
creative mind of the same creative person, views of the world in which we live, on the one hand,
refract, on the other hand, exist in tandem.
Kazakh and Russian peoples are not just geographical neighbours, but are linked politically,
economically, and their community has been reflected in the language, mentality, culture of
communication. Natural bilinguals encounter a problem of “choosing their own shore”, involuntary
domestic opposition of the two (Kazakh and Russian) non-native, but close worlds. A bilingual person
organizes the content of their statements in accordance with their particular picture. “To live poetically
on the boundary of two cultures and bilingualism – is always fruitful for the writer – who as a rule
writes more often in one language, but has attitudes based on two layers – initially alien, but
connecting and merging into the poet’s soul – they become both overlapping and, of course same,
mutually enriching” (Kairbekov, 2008). This demonstrates the specificity of the human perception of
the world, documented in speech and text.
Any analysis of a literary text fixes the representation of the content of cognitive processes of its
creator and reflects the state of their dynamic cognitive system in a given period of time. Verbal-
cogitative activities, specifics of the structure of a bilingual consciousness can be seen in the works of
the Kazakhstan Russian-speaking writer-bilingual, bright bicultural person A. Zhaksylykov. The
subject of this article appears to be synaesthetic metaphors that create images of the linguistic
consciousness.
Research methods
The methodological basis of research are philosophical provisions of phenomenon and essence,
language and thought, consciousness and underconsciousness; provisions of culture and semiotics on
projectivity of mental structures in the socio-cultural activities of the individual, stage system of the
cultural development and distant community of associative thinking.
Research questions
Synaesthesia is one of the most vivid colors in the literary palette of the poet, the writer, but,
surprisingly, the artist himself “does not notice” that fact, as we see it, – A. Zhaksylykov as well as M.
Gorky, B. M. Galeyev wrote about. Apparently, they see, think and feel that way, it is their way of
perceiving the world.
How, why, what for – are these synaesthesias in Zhaksylykov’s works? What is their point? What is
the place they occupy in the system of his figurative means? What is the difference between a
bilingual’s figurative means and synaesthesias of other monolinguals, in particular, Russian artists of
the word? Of course, the issues raised cannot be resolved in a single article. Synaesthetic phenomena in
A. Zhaksylykov’s texts sparked our interest, above all, as a magnificent natural “laboratory material”
that helps to clarify the nature of synaesthesia and identify “what goes with what” in the audio-visual,
tactile-audorative and other comparisons.
Purpose of the study
As part of the cultural paradigm of XX century, during the seventy years of the “cultural
community united on the basis of the Russian language”, there began a “rapprochement of Russian and
national cultures”, which contributed to the “unusual”, newly created written literature. “Belles-letters
texts of writers-bilinguals in Russian were conveyed to the Russian culture ... filling the missing link in
its development, namely, the portrayal of the literary image” from the point of view of the
representative of a particular nationality (Bahtikireeva, 2009).
The study of synaesthesia which is characteristic of the language of a specific spatial and temporal
level provides rich material for the study of the mentality of the respective writers and poets, and
through them of the whole society at a given period of time. Disclosure of the psychological state of
the character, his experiences and reflections by creating synaesthetic metaphors is based on the
specifics of the linguistic consciousness of the author.
Findings
Synaesthetic associations can be quite bizarre, unpredictable and fantastic, even supernatural.
However, the mechanism of the formation of all these “equivalents” has not yet been fully identified.
Undoubtedly, speech synaesthetic metaphors, being unique and authored, are more expressive and
create more brilliant and original images. Depending on what kind of inter-sensitive transfer underlies
the synaesthetic figure we can distinguish its different types.
The most frequent in Zhaksylykov’s works is the visual type of synaesthesia,
quick
(Zhaksylykov, 2005).
Within one sentence the author paradoxically combines several experiences, and they are so
recognizable, they plunge the reader directly into the environment of the character. These are visually-
audorative combinations, “It (the cow) is offended but its
disgusting
and sometimes even visually-audorative-auditory, “... we love sometimes... to be satisfied, like a
character of a fairy tale, only by the
In some cases, the visual type of synaesthesia becomes a means of creating a bright image,
performing not only the representational function, but creating a psychological portrait of the character,
“Your horse ... is out, caresses flowers with its wet
and appreciated by the father. The positive image of the horse shows the author’s attitude to its owner.
Pets feel the state of the host and that is why the cow is sad with
In the description of the appearance, condition and behavior of the character the author often uses
different types of synaesthetic combinations: visual,
the throat, suck like a tick – and in all that my bottomless
tactile, “... Your
tactile: “... I see
women’s
night as feathery, deep-eyed,
The image of the space can also be characterized by the visual type of synaesthesia,
has fallen upon me like a
(Zhaksylykov, 2005).
The audorative-tactile type is used by the author when displaying various experiences related to the
reality around the character, “I embrace the crumbling walls, I kiss the old
the harsh sheep dungy
(Zhaksylykov, 2005).
The collected factual material gives reason to believe that combinations with tactile metaphors are
used for simultaneous creation of the surrounding and a harmonious inner state of the character, for
example, audio-tactile type, “I distinctly
visual, “This
distance when you are completely satisfied and pleased with leaving the room”. Very unexpected, at
first glance, seems to be the combination of the audio-tactile type,
(Zhaksylykov, 2005); however, we see that the author emphasizes the empathy, co-involvement,
harmony of living beings, various phenomena of reality and states of the nature.
Thus, the “paradigm of the image – is an invariant of a number of similar images which consists of
two stable meanings which are connected by identification or comparison ratios.” The left member of
the paradigm – is something that can be identified, and the right member of the paradigm – is
something with which there is a comparison (Pavlovich, 2004).
The more there are members of a paradigm, as the collected factual material shows, the deeper is
the understanding of the image. And this understanding is not so much the basis for comparison (which
can be absent), but is its paradigm. There are different types of paradigms (of names, actions, situations
and mixed).
Data obtained in the analysis of A. Zhaksylykov’s novel allow us to agree with N.V. Pavlovich’s
statement, that the most productive paradigms are name paradigms. Name paradigms of images creted
by Russian classics of the past three centuries have much in common with the images created by the
Kazakh author. The minds of the Russian writers words actively created images: light – body, light –
being, plant – body, light – instrument, plant – being, light – precious, plant – tissue, light – tissue,
water – substance, water – being.
It was interesting to observe that in fact the same images are created by the Kazakh writer, only in
a particular frame, with a kind of specific lexis. And, of course, there is a significant difference in the
productivity of the created images. Obviously, the images created by A. Zhaksylykov (2005) are now
more relevant, specific to this stage of history, for a given ethnic group, but it should be noted that they
are clear to Russian readers, since such paradigms are found in their native literature.
Let us dwell a little more on the verbal images of the “mental” nominee. Thus, according to our
collected data base, the most productive are the next big visual (optical) and acoustic or audio
paradigms. The left member of the visual paradigm is lexical series:
darkness, dark oblivion, purple. Such as: But the lives of these people can be arranged differently,
without sneering at them, without driving them into the
...cherish my grief and sunset happiness, spill enjoyment,
of the
The left member of the acoustic paradigm is lexical series:
and the right of the acoustic paradigm is lexical series:
snuffled, stridently. For example: Baksy is asleep and in their
(Zhaksylykov, 2005; 334), In the depth of the memory there were melting
(Zhaksylykov, 2005: 32).,
river backwater, populated with graylings and cheerful lapwings (Zhaksylykov, 2005; 414), In the pot
of the wade there boiled time, faces flashed, gestures, and
relentlessly like
whistled through the cracks, and scuttled with fast shadows (Zhaksylykov, 2005; 35).
There are sensitive and audorative paradigms much less in the novel:
have a feeling that there, beyond the last limit, I will be
it failed in open its tenacious
grass, plastered with strands and tissues of the
afraid that the thread that connects my head and the earth will break off and
break out of through blood and
Gustative: For many years, this
remembering that night, I feel devastating
The mental sphere of the author is marked very clearly in the text. For its verbal representation we
have chosen particular language tools specific to a bicultural creative personality.
N.V. Pavlovich (2004) in his analysis of the images created by the Russian classical authors of the
past three centuries, discovered the fact that in the literary-poetic images in addition to the unique there
is something wonderful, in their kaleidoscopic diversity there is something unifying, “each poetic
image does not exist by itself”. The scientist asks the question, “Really, why, despite all the uniqueness
of imagery texts, do we still understand them? And why, despite all the differences, a common cultural
space still exists”?
The associative organization of relations represents a model of storing knowledge in human
memory. It means that there is a kind of paradigm of semantic relationships, and it is always in the
conscience. The scientist makes the assumption that in a profound meaning of similar images there is
an implemented law, rule, or, as he calls it, a paradigm, due to which there is still a common cultural
space.
“To find a paradigm, to determine the invariants of the left and right members of (describe the
relevant lexical groups), specify properties of the paradigm (how productive and sustainable it is), and
most important – to understand its role among other paradigms – which means to describe a small
semantic law in force in the language”, according to N.V. Pavlovich (2004).
In this article we intend to determine whether the law is valid in a different national literature.
Mental causes of many speech “violations”, “defections” that are not explained in the traditional
classification, can be associated with the specificity of the native language.
Conclusions
Synaesthesia in its broadest sense is necessarily present in the work of any poet and many prose
writers, with which they create their own unique aesthetic space. Images created by synaesthetic means
are the result of a cognitive processing of socially significant information and the author’s intention, as
well as a phenomenon that fixes the dynamics of changes in the consciousness of the society and
imposes a special imprint on the linguistic picture of the world of that people in accordance with the
changing features of their world view and outlook.
Thus, verbal synaesthesia is something much more than simple sensitive mismatching modal
equivalents, expressed in the language. Synaesthesic manifestations in a Kazakh bilingual represent a
literary means to create a holistic psychological portrait of the character that does not put up with the
bourgeois view of life, full of materialism, faced with the destruction of the dream of a great purity as
well as to understand the depth of the content of the novel.
It is possible that some of the phenomena observed today are short-lived, not fixed as a norm, but in
this case, it is interesting and important to fix them and study at a certain stage of the development of
the language, because each step in the transformation and change of the language deserves attention
and study. It would be quite interesting to learn whether synaesthetic combinations have an ethnic
character. Hopefully this will be the subject of further research.
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Cite this article as:
Yermekova, Z., & Nurtazina, M. (2016). Synesthesia in the minds of bilingual. In Z. Bekirogullari, M. Y. Minas, & R. X. Thambusamy (Eds.), Cognitive - Social, and Behavioural Sciences - icCSBs 2016, May, vol 8. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 59-65). Future Academy. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2016.05.7