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Article In: Review of Cognitive Linguistics: Online-First Articles

Cultural conceptualizations of horse phraseology

A comparative analysis of Hungarian and Kazakh

ORCiD logo with link | University of Pannonia
 | independent researcher
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Abstract
This study compares the cultural conceptualizations of horse in Hungarian and Kazakh societies, focusing on how a shared steppe-nomadic heritage has developed into distinct figurative systems. Using the frameworks of Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Cultural Linguistics, the analysis examines three source-domain areas: the lexeme horse, horse body parts, and horse tack. The findings show that Kazakh phraseology is more practice-based and predominantly metonymic, grounded in everyday riding and mobility, whereas Hungarian displays stronger metaphorical abstraction related to power, control, and social position. A further difference concerns horse equipment: Kazakh uses only a limited set of tack-related expressions, while Hungarian develops a richer system conceptualizing authority, discipline, restriction, and burden. The comparison suggests that Kazakh reflects ongoing, practice-based human–horse interaction in nomadic culture, while Hungarian reflects its later transformation in a sedentary context, showing how similar cultural experiences can yield divergent metaphorical and metonymic patterns.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background
    • 2.1Animals in culture and cognition
    • 2.2Horse cultures of the Eurasian Steppes
    • 2.3Continuity and transformation in horse culture: Kazakh nomadism versus Hungarian sedentism
  • 3.Data and methodology
  • 4.Cultural conceptualizations based on horse
    • 4.1Horse as a source domain for human-related conceptualizations
      • 4.1.1Horse as human appearance
      • 4.1.2Horse as human age/age of maturity
      • 4.1.3Horse as character traits
      • 4.1.4Horse as human behaviour
    • 4.2Horse as a source domain for abstract concepts
  • 5.Cultural conceptualizations based on horse body parts
  • 6.Cultural conceptualizations based on horse tack / equipment
  • 7.Discussion
  • 8.Conclusions
  • Ethics statement
  • Notes
  • Author queries
  • References
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