MAIASP. 2025. No. 20 Aizhan Baigazh (Astana, Kazakhstan), Aida Nurbayeva (Almaty, Kazakhstan) Weapon terminology in the turko-mongolic area: a lexico-semantic typology DOI: 10.53737/2713-2021.2025.75.28.004 Access this article (PDF File) Pages: 49—74 |
The study develops a lexico-semantic typology of weapon terminology across the Turko-Mongolic area. The aim is to build a verifiable “term ↔ artifact” mapping and demonstrate its explanatory power. We combine comparative-historical, cognitive-semantic, typological-structural and corpus methods, drawing on Old Turkic and Mongolic texts, lexicography and archaeological reports. A four-criterion validation (semantic, constructive, chronological, areal-cultural) with an A/B/C confidence scale is introduced. A five-class functional typology (offensive, defensive, ranged, cavalry/horse gear, ritual-status) is established, revealing a core-periphery structure; key sets (qılış, nayza, sadaq/jebe, qalqan, sawyt, dūlyğa; nöker, olja, köbe) are analyzed via derivation and collocations. Findings show the “hard core” terms consistently align with artifact morphology, while the periphery captures metaphorization and socio-ritual shifts. The results support lexicography, museum attribution, and digital ontologies of arms. |
Key words: Turko-Mongolic lexicon, loanwords, weapon terminology, semantic typology, corpus validation, archaeolinguistic |
Received October 1, 2025 Accepted for publication October 14, 2025 |
About the authors: Baigazh Aizhan (Astana, Kazakhstan). PhD Doctoral student, L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University. E-mail: aika4280@mail.ru Nurbayeva Aida (Almaty, Kazakhstan). PhD (Philology), Acting Associate Professor, Abai University. E-mail: aika4280@mail.ru |