The Traditional Kazakh Female Headdress Characteristics Of Words And Their Associated Cultural Connotations

Nomadic life-based Kazakh people formed a unique grassland culture. As one of the carrier of this cultureclothing also reflects the uniqueness of this culture. Clothing is an invention of human intelligence, as well asa special skill unique to humans. Kazakh clothing is unique not only in the sewing style, but is also differentfrom other ethnic apparel in that it is distinguishable according to the wearer’s age, gender, occupation, andstatus differences, especially the headgears. They not only have practical value which can not be replaced,but also, in a sense, reflects a nation’s inherent quality, honor, courtesy, moral and aesthetic awareness.This thesis focuses on the traditional Kazakh female headdress characteristics of words and theirassociated cultural connotations through internal linguistic structure, and historical and cultural point of view.Moreover it is aimed at thoroughly combing the traditional terminologies about the Kazakh female headdressculture in order to enrich the literature in this field of research. From the linguistic point of view, this thesissummarizes the characteristics of terminologies in order to reveal the structural types and related linguisticand cultural phenomena. With the mission of preserving the intangible cultural heritage, the thesis also aimsat contributing to the rescue, protection, inheritance an application of the culture.The unique Kazakh female headdress is a sign of Kazakh’s traditional culture and points directly to thecore of this culture. Through probing into the culture, this paper serves in providing intellectual support to theunique minority cultural tourism.The author adopted methodologies including fieldwork study, cultural background, perspective andintegrated linguistics, culture, folklore, sociology of knowledge, and cultural characteristics inherent in theKazakh culture to form a systemic study of the traditional headdress of Kazakh women and related words.Studying the cultural connotation of the traditional Kazakh women-specific words and their headdress fromthe vocabulary and cultural point of view not only enriches the domestic study of traditional Kazakh femaleheaddress, it also aids the intangible cultural heritage with its rescue, protection, inheritance and applicationin a unique way.The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part is an introduction on the purpose and significance ofthis thesis and briefly summarizes the studies carried out, both home and abroad, on the subject of traditionalheaddress of the Kazakh women. It also covers the methodologies of this research and innovation.The second part is the body, which is divided into three chapters. Chapter one outlines the Kazakh ethnicgroup, the Kazakh culture (spiritual and material culture) and female headdress. The headdress overviewincludes the origin, classification and components of Kazakh female headdress. Chapter two consists of thestudy on terminologies related to headdress. This chapter not only studies headdress terminologies and theirstructural classification from the point of view of lexicology, but also encompasses a detailed discussion ofthe rational for the terminologies from the perspective of semantics. Meanwhile, it also analyzes the fixedphrases, slangs and taboos related to the female headdress and it attempts the interpretation of these aspects.Chapter three is made up of a deep probe into the nomadic cultural identity, moral values and nationalaesthetic characteristics reflected by the terminologies.The third part of the thesis is the conclusion which summarizes the content of this thesis.