Semantically Equivalent Representatives of the Concept “Custom/Adat” in Russian and Kyrgyz Languages

This paper conducts a semantic study of the concept “custom/adat” and its representatives in the Russian and Kyrgyz languages. The conceptual content of the concept “custom/adat” is determined based on the study of relevant articles in explanatory, translated (bilingual), cultural, encyclopedic and other dictionaries. An analysis of Russian and Kyrgyz linguistic units denoting customs, rites, ceremonies and other elements of traditional practice of ethnic groups has been carried out. The study identifies the semantic dominant that organizes the functional-semantic field “custom”; in this regard, some central and peripheral nominees of the concept “custom” are identified and characterized on the basis of the lexicographic, literary, artistic, colloquial and folklore spaces of the two languages ​​being compared. The unity and differences in the linguoethnocultural ideas of native speakers of the Russian and Kyrgyz languages ​​about custom, its types and manifestations are shown, and explicit and implicit types of its nominees are identified. This work fills a small gap in the branches of linguistics that are actively developing in Kyrgyzstan — in cognitive linguistics, ethnolinguistics, linguoculturology, linguistic conceptology and the theory of intercultural communication.