LINGUISTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF SCRIPTONYMS (BASED ON THE NAMES OF NATIONAL GAMES)

Abstract

The article discusses the linguistic and semantic features of scriptonyms with secondary meanings, formed from sacred linguistic units associated with national games. The interconnections, similarities, and differences between games and ritual ceremonies as socially significant phenomena are identified. Considering the opinions of linguists and ethnographers, national games are analyzed on par with ritual ceremonies.

National games and ritual ceremonies, as well as their interrelationship, continue to be comprehensively studied by ethnographers, cultural researchers, and linguists. However, the source of national identity, spiritual and cultural uniqueness, and values—linguistic units with secondary meanings, known as «scriptonyms» remains outside the focus of researchers.

In this regard, national games are considered as evidence of a people's centuries-old experience, a repository and carrier of key values, and as a cultural text with coded elements. It has been established that national games serve as a foundation for the formation of sacred-symbolic coded units in the language, including actional, object-related, verbal, and temporal scriptonyms. The study also revealed that scriptonyms with secondary meanings, formed on the basis of national games, retain a semantic connection with their "natural" prototypes. In the article, linguistic expressions related to national games are analyzed using descriptive and etymological approaches, as well as methods of conceptual and linguistic-cultural interpretation. The proposed theoretical conclusions are supported by examples from works on Kazakh traditions, traditional names, literary works, and media materials.