Oriental Studies (Apr 2018)
Socio-Cultural Basis for Euphemisms in the “Language of Kalmyk Women”
Abstract
Euphemisms in the “language of Kalmyk women”, occurring due to taboos on mentioning the names of elder relatives of the husband, are an important aspect of Kalmyk women’s conversational etiquette and have a certain impact on the functions and development of the language. Such euphemisms are part of the whole system of ethical behavioral norms for Kalmyk women. The research results show that they have been created with due regard to the social and cultural conditions characteristic of the Kalmyks’ nomadic mode of life. Euphemisms are, like the system of ethical behavioral norms for women in general, supposed to strengthen the most important part of society - the family with the housewife / wife being its central figure, and tend to serve as means of fostering children, the future generations of the family and society. The paper presents a short critical review of the conducted research that dealt with euphemisms in the “language of Kalmyk women”. The first part of the review presents an analysis of a strictly linguistic aspect of the issue. The examples and their description show that those euphemisms, their structure and the way they form constitute a broad functional sphere in Kalmyk speech. This is the absolute character of the taboos on names that give rise to euphemisms, namely the names of older relatives are subjects to permanent taboos. Firstly, it does not matter whether the person the mention of whose name is tabooed is present or not at the moment of a woman’s speech. According to the second rule, taboos are applied not only to the names of living elder relatives of the husband but also those who had passed away long time ago, down to the tenth generation. Thirdly, the names of complete strangers are tabooed if those are identical to or resemble the names of the husband’s elder relatives. Fourthly, since many Kalmyk names comprise common words denoting household items, plants, minerals, the latter take a wide range of forms. The second part of the paper presents quotations that illustrate different opinions regarding the social and cultural judgments of euphemisms. Some respondents characterize euphemisms as a means to subjugate women designating them as vestiges of the past. The respondents are public persons. There is also a presentation of opinions regarding moral and ethical behavioral norms for women, traditional behavior for men and women in daily life, e.g. during dancing events and outdoor meetings. Those characterize people’s behavior in personal daily and social life that used to (and still do) take forms of high culture. The critical analysis of the existing research studies as well as the independent research of definite materials allow to conclude that euphemisms in the “language of Kalmyk women” are a cultural phenomenon and constitute a part of the system of ethical behavioral norms for Kalmyk women.
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