Features Of Goodwill Toast As Type Of Nonlinear Text

Abstract

The article presents the results of analyzing the Karachai-Balkarian goodwill in their discursive implementation in the form of table toasts. For the first time the Karachai-Balkarian language is the bases of considering a goodwill toast as a type of nonlinear text and revealing the peculiarities of the correlation of conventionality and nonlinearity in its compositional and structural-semantic organization. The toast was studied in relation to such communicative units as “discourse”, “hypertext”, “intertext”. It is noted that the text of the toast is characterized not only by the typological features being characteristic for this genre but also by the cultural characteristics of a particular ethnic community and the ones adopted in it traditions of communication, which ensures its multilayerness. It is substantiated that the conventional way of organizing the text of a goodwill toast is not a rigidly fixed model but an open dynamic system having a variety of implementations. It was revealed that the Karachai-Balkarian toast unites the speech events of different communicative and pragmatic nature. The toast text polymorphism is revealed both in its ability to combine the features of texts of different stylistic attribution, for example, the text of a solemn speech and everyday narration, and the potential opportunity to receive various unpredictable directions of semantic development. The nonlinearity of the toast text in the Karachai-Balkarian language is also manifested in intertextual lacunary elements that require linguoculturological commentary as well as in the various cultural layers presented in its structure and related to different periods.

Keywords: Goodwill toast, non-linear text, conventionality, rhizome, intertext, hypertext

Introduction

It is known that good wishes are among the most ancient signs in different linguistic cultures. Despite their archaic nature, nowadays they are characterized by functional activity to adapt to various communicative situations. Therefore, the undiminishing interest in their multidimensional development based on the material of different languages is not accidental (Halimbekova, 2014; Yartseva, 2015, etc.).

Initially, these verbal formulas were studied in ethnographic works within the framework of oral folk art as small genres of folklore (Khadzhieva, 1996), as texts functioning in a “sacred situation” (Tolstoy, 1995).

The linguistic aspect of studying a good wish has been actualized only in recent decades. In modern linguistics the status of good wishes is also defined in different ways. Specifically, they are called genres of communication (Arutyunova, 1999), genres of speech (Bakhtin, 1979), discursive space (Gelyaeva et al., 2018, p. 86), special genres of oral discourse (Kremshokalova, 2015). Despite their diverse study in linguistics and a lot of works, the issue of the specifics of the good wishes text itself, its differences from other types of texts cannot be considered resolved. In this regard, it is necessary to analyze good wishes in a broad theoretical and linguistic context, from the viewpoint of text linguistics and discourse theory, and to determine the role of good wishes as a type of nonlinear text in the general typology of texts. Studying the specifics of a goodwill-toast as a type of a nonlinear text is relevant not only for the Karachai-Balkarian language being the basis of this study but also for the general theory of text and discourse in terms of defining various types of text and creating a universal typology of texts. In addition, this approach will make it possible to actualize the paradoxical phenomenon that the sign of linearity or nonlinearity of the text as a criterion is not taken into account in any of the existing classification of text types. All of the above determines the relevance of studying good wishes wih this regard.

Problem Statement

The object of analysis in this article is the Karachai-Balkarian good wishes in their discursive implementation in the form of table toasts. The definition of discourse that meets the goal of our research is as follows: “a space of a communicative-cognitive nature that arises in the process of speech interaction between people as a set of facets of a linguistic and extra-linguistic nature constituting it ...” (Alefirenko, 2009, p. 57). In addition, discourse is called “conventionally established forms of communication ... their results in the form of texts” (Kubryakova, 2005, p. 28). Such forms of communication and texts include good wishes and toasts. It seems that the texts of good wishes are interesting not only from the viewpoint of various linguistic means presented in them but also as an independent linguistic phenomenon characterized by the specificity of the toast text itself and possessing a combinatorics of features relevant for a given unit, which, in our opinion, includes nonlinearity as well.

Since goodwill toast belongs to epideictic genres, it should be distinguished by an ethnoculturally determined and conventional way of organizing the text. Does this conventional way of organizing a goodwill toast text represent a rigidly deterministic pattern, a standard, or is it some general theoretical model that receives a variety of implementations enabling to characterize goodwill toast as a non-linear type of text? The answer to this question determines the target of this article.

Research Questions

Like any rhetorical genre, the toast text is built in accordance with the genre canon and is characterized by historically determined compositional and content features being the so-called text conventions, and linguistic and structural organization. A preliminary analysis of the this genre definitions presented both in folklore and in lexicography makes it possible to single out such universal conceptual signs of toast as “short speech” and “dinner wish”, “short speech with some kind of wish and an offer to drink wine in honor of someone” (Ozhegov, 1978, p. 309); “a table wish, an offer to drink in honor of someone or something, health wishing speech” (Dictionary of the Russian language, 1984). In the dictionaries of the Karachai-Balkarian language, good wish “algysh” is also defined as “Good wish, toast, greeting / Verbal formulas, requests, wishes for good” (Explanatory dictionary of the Karachay-Balkar language, 1996). However, a goodwill toast differs not only in typological features of it as a genre but also in characteristics stipulated by cultural peculiarities of an ethnic community and the traditions of communication adopted in it. Karachai-Balkarian toasts pronounced at various celebrations are the most demonstrative in this regard. In this article, we are interested in the features of the combinatorics of the toast text structural parts related to the text level, which determine its originality as well as the features of the ratio of standard and variable features of the toast genre.

The Karachay-Balkarian table rhetoric is distinguished by its correlation with the rhizome model, which is “a fundamentally non-linear way of organizing the integrity (of the text), giving the possibility of both internal immanent mobility and interpretive pluralism” (Latest philosophical dictionary, 1999, p. 501). If the standard composition of the text is a scheme with parts of the text arranged linearly, then the Karachai-Balkarian toast is an open dynamic structure. This is a rhizome structure of the text, characterized by the freedom of development and addition in different directions, because “the rhizome is not a root, but a “tuber” or “bulb” radically different from the roots as a potential infinity, implicitly containing a “hidden stem”. The fundamental difference lies in the fact that this stem can develop anywhere and take any configuration because the rhizome is absolutely nonlinear” (Latest philosophical dictionary, 1999, p. 720). As a unit with a rhizome structure, Karachai-Balkarian toast can be studied using frame analysis (Goffman, 1974; Nikonova, 2007; Tannen, 1993).

The Karachay-Balkar toast begins in such a way that it is sometimes difficult to predict what event is being discussed: Ha, zhashla, chygayik biz akhshy zholga. / Tolu kolga kush qonady. / Bolayik biz tolu kyollu, / Adam suer kerti munglu. / Keliyubuz mingi taudan. / Alyp barlykbyz altyn sauga (Karachay-Balkar folklore. Chrestomathy, 1996) “Hey, guys, let us go on a good journey, / Eagle goes to generous hands / Let us be so generous / Let people love us. / We are going from Elbrus / We will bring gold as a gift”. This is the beginning (opening sentence) of a toast text pronounced at the wedding. As can be seen from its content, there is no talk about the communicative situation within which the toast is made. If at the beginning of the toast, according to genre canons, it is customary to report the occasion (wedding, birth of a child, housewarming, etc.), then the distinctive feature of the Karachai-Balkarian toast is that, to mention a specific solemn occasion or names in honor of which the toast is pronounced, its author speaks in a roundabout way. He informs about the events not directly related to this communicative situation: Bek bitsinle surgen sabanla, / Ashamasynla aylanngan kabanla, / Zhashamasynla khalkiny buzgan amanla! (Karachay-Balkar folklore. Chrestomathy, 1996) “Let the fields be fruitful, / Let the wild boars not poison the crops, / Let the people who flurry the others disappear.” Further, the author of the toast can include various information in the toast text depending on his ethnocultural and individual experience and creativity of thinking. This information is associated with various factors, first of all, with life in society, nature, a harvest, etc. “Kyshybyz karly bolsun, / Dushmanbyz zarly bolsun, / Ystauatybyz mally bolsun, / Zhazybyz zhauunlu bolsun, ... / Khalkybyz bir tilly bolsun!” (Karachay-Balkar folklore. Chrestomathy, 1996). “Let our winter be snowy, / Let our enemies be poor, / Let our camps be full of cattle, / Let our spring be rainy ... / Let our people have mutual understanding”. Secondly, with certain attributes of this celebration, for example, a bowl with boza raised by a person making a toast. “Kyolubuzdagy bozady, / Korp ichgileden ozady ...” (Karachay-Balkar folklore. Chrestomathy, 1996). “Boza is in our hands, / It is superior to other drinks ...”. Thirdly, with participants in the communicative situation. “Ulludu bu ayakiny khurmeti, / Zharyk bolsun munu etgenni beti. / Bu bozany suzgen biicheni / On barmagyndan baly tamsyn ... (Karachay-Balkar folklore. Chrestomathy, 1996) “High honor of this healthy bowl, / Let the face of the one who made this drink shine. / The lady who squeezed this boze has golden hands (literally, let honey drip from her fingers)”.

So, the beginning of a toast is often characterized by lengthy descriptions that are realized in the toast text with a whole palette of discourses within the framework of a single genre discursive space of toast.

The analyzed material of only one fragment of the toast text being its opening sentence leads to the conclusion that although goodwishe as a lexeme in its internal form conceptually implies the monothematic nature and sets a certain way of its compositional and semantic implementation, the Karachai-Balkarian toast combining speech events of different communicative and pragmatic nature acts as a complex system, a polythematic text formed by individual “small” discourses. Such a model for the discourse text implementation is determined by the ability of the toast creator to improvise. The toast creator responding to various momentary changes in the environment, settings within a given situation, arrival and departure of participants and taking into account the cultural scenarios adopted in this linguocultural community verbalizes this dynamic communicative situation thereby ensuring the polymorphism of the toast text he creates. Bu Kuuuancha kelding yes, / Bizge berding mound yes, “You have come to this celebration, / You gave us happiness” (Karachay-Balkar folklore. Chrestomathy, 1996); Kart da, zhash da kelgenbiz, / Kelirge da kereklibiz (Karachay-Balkar folklore. Chrestomathy, 1996) “Both old and young came here / And had to come”. The polymorphism of the toast text opening sentence is manifested, on the one hand, in its ability to combine features of texts of different stylistic attribution (for example, the text of a solemn speech and everyday narration) in its structure and, on the other hand, in the potential ability to “branch out” and have various unpredictable directions of semantic development.

Analysis of the next block being the main part of the toast from the viewpoint of the cognitive approach enables to characterize it as a process of creating a toast, and a text as a result of this discursive activity. In this fragment of the toast, the addressee is objectified, which is the defining sign of any good wish and determines its dialogic nature. However, a specific feature of a traditional toast in the Karachai-Balkarian linguistic culture is its obligatory polylogicality, which is realized through certain discursive actions. They are as follows: “1) an appeal to supernatural power with a request for the wish fulfillment; 2) actualization: a) the communicative intention of the speaker (wishes, wishes-requests in prayer form, magic spells), b) the addressee of the discourse (listeners, whom the speech is directed to); c) the addressee of a good wish (for example, family, child, bride, groom) ...” (Gelyaeva, Khuchinaeva, Sabanchieva, 2018, p. 429). In accordance with these discursive actions, the genre composition of the text is supplemented by separate “small texts”, causing its multidirectional development, specifically, in the form of a text-appeal to the divinity Teiri. Zhokdan bar etgen, Teiri, / Bardan jock etgen, Teiri, / Har zatkha khyuchung zhetgen, Teiri, / Zharatkhan zhanynga yryskhy berese, Teiri! ... Karachay-Balkar folklore. Chrestomathy, 1996) “Teiri, who created (us) out of nothing, / Teiri, turning (us) into nothing, / Everything is in your power, Teiri, / All, whom you created, you endow with fortune, Teiri! ...”, in the form of a text-appeal to a young man serving a feast: Munu manga berding ese, / Tamatan kyordyung ese ... / Hey yulush ete kelgin sen a, / El teresin bilgin sen a, / Gitche, ullunu esgere da, / Kuru byy bere turgun (Karachay-Balkar folklore. Chrestomathy, 1996) “If you have given me this (food), / If you have respected the toastmaster ... / I wish you do this (for a long time), / I wish you know the traditions of the people / Without depriving the attention of both the younger and the elders, / In what way to behave today”.

The main storyline of the toast is associated with the addressee of a good wish, with the event or the individual person to whom the good wishes are addressed. Above, we noted that the compositional structure of the good wish text has a rhizome structure. Thus, we consider the main storyline of the goodwill toast as a “tuber” or “bulb”, containing the implicit potential for the text to develop in any direction. New branching texts within the main “body” of the toast text ensure the dynamic composition and the divergence of its structure, and the main storyline being its convergence.

Thus, the polylogic nature of the Karachai-Balkarian traditional toast determines the multilayer nature of the text and objectification in its compositional space, along with a genre-determined set of stable characteristics, and such layers that ensure the nonlinearity of the text.

In addition to the peculiarities of the combination of conventional and variable characteristics of the composition, the nonlinearity of the toast text in the Karachai-Balkarian language is manifested in its saturation with intertextual elements requiring linguistic and cultural commentary. For example, such ethno-labeled units in the analyzed toast texts as “a fried lamb carcass prepared for a certain celebration”, “gifts that the groom’s house sends to the bride’s house after the wedding”, “the main divinity in Karachai-Balkarian pagan pantheon”, “the hero of the epos “Narts”, the blacksmith, the ancestor of the Narts”, “the beautiful heroine of the epos “Narts”, acting as the archetype of motherhood” and others are commented on. Such lacunar units and their comments determine the nonlinearity of the text of the toast and enable to characterize it as a linguistic hypertext.

The modern Karachai-Balkarian toast is only a slight transformation of the folklore text, which, as a result of the author’s creative approach, turns into a “text in a text” that combines a variety of cultural layers belonging to different time periods.

Purpose of the Study

The objective of the article is to reveal the specifics of the correlation between the signs of conventionality and nonlinearity in the compositional and structural-semantic organization of a goodwill toast in the Karachai-Balkarian linguistic culture. In this regard, we present our understanding of nonlinear text on the basis of a critical analysis of works on the problem of hypertextuality.

Despite the fact that the concepts of “nonlinear text” and “hypertext” are among the intensively studied objects of modern linguistics (Masalova, 2003; Mineeva, 2017; Stroykov, 2016, etc.), these concepts have not yet received an unambiguous interpretation. The existing divergence of opinions on the status of nonlinear text indicates that a consistent linguistic concept of hypertext has not been developed yet.

Having analyzed the existing definitions of hypertext, we can name the following one to be the most adequate: “a special form of organization and presentation of text material, which is mastered with regards to many interrelationships between its elements and is characterized by nonlinearity, dispersion, multilevel hierarchy, interactivity, infinity, heterogeneity” (Treneva, 2011, p. 73). By nonlinear text, we mean a text that is formed by the interaction of several narrative plans (several texts), which is in dialogical relations with other texts and represents a text structure that provides connections-transitions and changes of topics and contributes to the inclusion of various semantic layers in the framework of a single text that are not related to the main storyline and are all sorts of directions sometimes unpredictable for the development of the text.

Research Methods

The analysis of nonlinear text requires the use of various methods and approaches. The most adequate for the purpose of our research are those traditional and non-traditional methods of text and discourse analysis being cognitively oriented ones and involving the study of the text with regards to the correlation of the following concepts: “text”, “discourse”, “hypertext”, “intertext”. This is a discourse analysis associated with the study of the text production process (Angermuller & Macmillan, 2014; Van Dijk, 1998), frame analysis, which acts as a generalized structure for presenting information as well as compositional analysis aimed at identifying the features of the integral structure elements arrangement. Discourse analysis makes it possible to analyze the text as a product of speech activity, revealing the specifics of the structure, content and intertextual connections. The use of discourse analysis in this work is due to the study of the toast text in the linguo-social, linguocultural and cognitive aspects (Jager, 2009; Shiryaeva et al., 2018). The use of frame analysis is determined by the peculiarity of a toast as a nonlinear text and a complex structured object.

Findings

For the first time toast is considered as a type of nonlinear text, compositional features of a goodwill toast are revealed on the material of the Karachai-Balkarian language. It happens due to the specifics of ethnoculture and communication traditions and determining the rhizome structure of toast. The nonlinearity of the toast text in the Karachai-Balkarian language is also manifested in its saturation with intertextual lacunar elements that require linguoculturological commentary.

Conclusion

A goodwill toast is distinguished by the complexity and multi-layered nature of its organization. The Karachai-Balkarian toast, uniting speech events of a different communicative and pragmatic nature in addition to the historically, ethnoculturally and structurally determined text conventions characteristic of this genre, acts as a polymorphic text that unites various blocks of information. The harmonious combination of the characteristics of conventionality and nonlinearity in the toast text makes it possible to characterize it as a linguistic hypertext.

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