The Influence of Allusive Names on the Perception of Artistic Text

M. M. Kurbanova

and M. F. Xomidova

†

National University of Uzbekistan named after Mirzo Ulugbek, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Keywords: Alisher Navoi, Verse, Intertextuality, Allusion, Perception, Artistic Text, Nationality.

Abstract: Allusive names are the most common intertextual units in literary texts. When using allusive names, the author

must take into account the reader factor and the audience. Because in any historical period, in one or another

country, culture, individuals, religious, mythological, and literary heroes, with their distinctive characters,

occupy a place in the linguistic foundation of language users, thus become allusions. Over time, they are

formed in the form of stable lexical units, and the person who hears or reads them has associations with these

names. The author, who is able to use this in harmony with his text, communicates indirectly with the reader.

That is, the author communicates with the existing information in the mind of the reader. The function of

allusion as an intertext is visible here. Allusion is actively used both in classical artistic and modern texts. In

particular, this type of intertextuality is very active in Alisher Navoi’s works. In this article, we analyze the

effect of allusion as an intertext on the meaningful perception of the text based on experimental materials.

1 INTRODUCTION

Allusion (Latin - hint, joke) is a stylistic method

based on referring to real political, historical-

domestic, or literary facts that are considered familiar

to everyone. In essence, it is close to the art of talmeh,

which is widely used in Eastern poetry. The

difference is that in talmeh more historical and artistic

facts are referred to, while in allusion the creator can

also refer to political, domestic or artistic facts of his

time. That is, in allusion, the scope of the hint object

is wider [Kurbanova M., Yuldoshev M. (2014)].

The abundance of different precedent names and

allusive expressions in the samples of artistic texts

created in recent years has showed that there is a need

to analyze them based on the principle of

intertextuality. Because in order to understand the

implicit content beneath the allusive names given as

intertext in the text, we analyze the effect of allusion

as an intertext on the meaningful perception of the

text based on experimental materials. For example:

Usman Azim's poem "Secret letter to my poet friend

about Alpomish" begins with the following lines.

These lines can easily be understood by the Uzbek

reader. Because it contains lexical units, i.e. allusive

names, taken from the Alpomish epic, a common

cultural code for Uzbeks. If this poetic text is read by

Corresponding author

an English or a Swedish person, the meaningful

perception of the text becomes more complicated.

Because the social origin and cultural commonality of

the author and the reader are not the same. In Alisher

Navoi's ghazals, epics, tuyuq and verse (a four-line

poem), allusive names play an active role as an

intertext. We selected Navoi's allusive names as an

intertext from the verses for the experiment. The main

reason for our choice is that the brevity of the form

and the completeness of the thought in the verses help

to make a general, overall summary about the text.

2 EXPERIMENTAL PART

The fourth rubai of Navai, included in the "Badoe ul-

wasat" devon, is about generosity and miserliness,

and it refers to one of the famous hadiths. It is known

that miserliness, a miser, is strongly condemned in

Islam. There are even authentic hadiths in this regard.

The literary version of the hadith in this context is

presented in the text:

In the text, there is a key word that helps to understand

the content of the hadith: intertextual unity, allusion.

Qurashi is the name of the tribe to which our Prophet

Muhammad (pbuh) belonged. This word refers to our

Prophet (pbuh). If we pay attention to the wording,

188

Kurbanova, M. and Xomidova, M.

The Inﬂuence of Allusive Names on the Perception of Artistic Text.

DOI: 10.5220/0012481800003792

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 1st Pamir Transboundary Conference for Sustainable Societies (PAMIR 2023), pages 188-191

ISBN: 978-989-758-687-3

the content of the hadith will be even more clear.

Sayyidi Qurashi, i.e. the ummah of Muhammad

(pbuh), Muslims. The word Sayid is explained in the

explanatory dictionary of the Uzbek language as

follows:

By a single allusive name, it is possible to tell the

reader that whoever is stingy, even if he is a Muslim

from the descendants of Muhammad (pbuh), a

Muslim, will not enter heaven, on the contrary, an

Abyssinian, that is, an ordinary person (kafir The

meaning of the hadith, which states that if a person is

generous, he will not be near the gates of hell, is

understandable. The author opens a wide way to his

meaningful understanding by introducing a lexical

unit familiar to both the reader and himself, i.e. an

allusive name in the verse, which contains such

themes as historicity and nationality.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

After the participants of the experiment have read the

verse from the text for 30 minutes, they explained in

writing what they understood. The first results of the

experiment are general statements. Two of the

participants interpreted the allusive name Qurayshi in

the text in a general way, that is, they understood it as

they read it in the text. One responded to the text that

even if he is a Quraysh, and the other, even if he is a

Sayyid, if he is stingy, he will not enter heaven. In this

case, the Sayyidi Qurayshi combination was

understood by the two recipients as separate words,

without paying attention to its underlying meaning.

That is, the meaning indicated by the intertext was not

well understood by the participants. A conclusion was

drawn based only on the word itself. This, of course,

is a process related to the reader's knowledge and

outlook.

There are five statements that are understood by

connecting the intertextual unity in the verse to its

general content, i.e. statements based on intertext, and

the examinees directly perceived the text in the same

way as the meaning intended by the author. That is,

the combination Sayyidi Qurayshi was able to

understand as the ummah of our Prophet Muhammad

(pbuh), that is, as a Muslim person, and connected it

with the general meaning of the text. This process

shows the importance of the intertext for the reader in

the meaningful perception of the artistic text and the

existence of background knowledge regarding the

given allusion.

We defined the third level of understanding the

allusive combination as interpreting intertext. At this

stage, the participants of the experiment tried to

interpret only the intertext without connecting the

intertext and the general content of the text in

understanding the text. That is, the reader first tried to

understand and explain the allusion, the most familiar

unit in the text. His attention was drawn to the

intertext in the text and he began decoding the text by

interpreting it. The Qurayshi lexeme was shown as a

stimulus for the reader in understanding the text. In

the statements, the comments "Qurayshi - the name

of the offspring to which our Prophet belonged" and

"Qurayshi - the name of the tribe to which our Prophet

belonged" were specified separately. It can be

concluded that in the process of text perception, some

recipients pay attention to the intertextual texts in it,

and the background knowledge related to the intertext

is activated in the first place in their minds. In most

cases, this activated knowledge is combined with the

general content of the text, while in some cases the

reader's attention remains in the intertext, that is, he

receives and understands the text separately, without

connecting it to the general meaning of the text. This

is also one of the unique features of intertext.

What we define as the fourth stage of understanding

the intertext with the text is the acceptance of the

allusive name as a lexical unit and the statements that

are understood by replacing it with other synonyms.

The participants of the experiment replaced the

allusion of Sayyidi Qurayshi with lexical units such

as scientist, scholar, like Qurayshi, and used these

words to understand the text. In general, this process

did not negatively impact the meaningful perception

of the text.

Our final classification includes statements given

without the intertext participating in the

understanding of the text at all. Two of the

participants did not pay attention to the intertext when

explaining what they understood based on the text,

that is, they did not explain the word Sayyid or the

word Qurayshi, they left it as if these words did not

exist in the text. In this case, the extralinguistic

knowledge related to the intertext was not activated

in the thinking of the participants, so they were

content to simply leave out this combination. This

process slightly hindered the understanding of the

general content of the text; that is, the idea that the

author wanted to convey had a significant level of

impact with this intertext. Not understanding it has

slightly diluted the general content that can be derived

from the text. In general, intertext as a stimulus for

the reader had a positive effect on the understanding

and perception of the verse.

The second verse is taken from Navoi's book ‘Badoe

ul-Bidaya’. This is an intertext chosen in harmony

with the content of the text, with the word Qarun,

The Inﬂuence of Allusive Names on the Perception of Artistic Text

189

famous in the East, used as an allusive name for this

verse. Qarun is a legendary figure known for his

boundless wealth and greed. It is often portrayed in

fiction as a symbol of wealth and greed. he legend of

Qarun originates directly from the holy book of our

religion, the Holy Qur'an. Verses 76-81 of the Qasas

(Saga) chapter of the Holy Qur'an mention the story

of Qarun, with future generations being instructed to

learn from it.

76. Indeed, Qarun was from the people of Moses, but

he tyrannized them. And We gave him of treasures

whose keys would burden a band of strong men;

thereupon his people said to him, “Do not exult.

Indeed, Allah does not like the exultant!

77. They said: “Don't forget what God has given you

and your desire for the hereafter and your share in this

world. "Don't want to make mischief on earth,

because Allah does not punish the mischief makers””.

79. hen Qarun appeared before the crowd, those who

sought amusement, and they said, "Oh, if only we had

what (wealth) was given to Qarun. He is truly the

possessor of great fortune."

80. And those bestowed with knowledge said, "Let

death be the reward of Allah for the one who believes

and does good deeds! Only the patient will attain it."

81. So we destroyed him and his courtyard. There was

no helper for him except Allah, and he himself was

not among the successful [Xomidova, M. F. (2019)].

Qarun was an extremely wealthy individual from the

family of Musa alayhissalam. Allah had given him a

lot of wealth or property to test him. His possessions

were so great that carrying the keys to his treasures

was a burden even for a group of strong men. He

showed off his state to everyone, wore expensive

clothes, and tried to arouse the envy and enmity of

others. However, he was ungrateful and rebelled

against God, who had bestowed upon him these

riches. In claiming, "I have acquired these things

through my own learning and talent", pride and

arrogance have taken hold. Having such vast wealth

at that time would drive him mad. As a result, he

displayed arrogance and violence towards his people.

Eventually, the Earth swallowed him and all the

wealth he had accumulated. Based on this story in the

Qur'an, the legend about Qarun's wealth and greed

and the fact that he was swallowed by the earth

became very popular among the people. This theme

has been widely incorporated into fiction, with

creators using combinations like 'Qarun ganji', 'Karun

Karunni yer yutishi' for various purposes in their

works. Through these references, they aimed to

convey their ideas and artistic intentions to the

readers, drawing upon the famous legend.

This image is very common in the works of Alisher

Navoi. As well as, the poets and writers who created

after him used this myth as an intertext in their works

very productively.

In his works, Alisher Navoi, while evaluating

humanity as the crown of the universe, extols the

dignity of man, elevates it to the sky, and interprets

the concepts of honor, honor and pride in beautiful

ways. At the first level, most of the participants of the

experiment tried to understand the general content of

the text by replacing the word ganj with words such

as wealth and treasure. It is clear from their statement

that the myth of Qarun did not play a very important

role for the participants in the process of perception

of the artistic text. They relate to the content of the

text by replacing the historical ganj lexeme with its

current cognates.

At the second level, namely intertext-based

meaningful perception, the participants understood

the original content of the given text and correctly

interpreted it. They directly perceived the aspect of

the legend of Qarun related to the given text. As an

intertext, general knowledge about Qarun's greed for

wealth and the owner of countless treasures was

activated in the minds of the participants of the

experiment, and they correctly understood what the

text was used for and what the author wanted to say.

"The earth swallowed him up because he was greedy

for the wealth of the world. "Sentences such as

"wealth that blinded the eyes of the soul" are

connected in accordance with the general content of

the text. In short, the allusive unit used by the author

in the text was correctly perceived by the reader.

Our third level of results obtained from the

understanding of the given text is the statements

based on the interpretation of the intertext itself,

where the recipient only commented on 1 intertext,

which he could not relate to the general content of the

text. In the statements of this type of participants

about the text, there are specific signs of intertext. The

statements of the participants of the experiment

contain the following points: In this process, the main

focus of the participants is on the intertext. Because

the text contains a well-known word - intertext.

Therefore, they focused not on the original content of

the text, but on the explanation of the unit familiar to

them. That is, the information in their mind was

activated and associated as soon as they saw the

Qarun lexeme in the text. It can be concluded that the

Qarun lexeme as an allusive name has already entered

the readers' linguistic memory, and when they hear

this word, first of all, they associate knowledge

related to it. Full understanding of the text is the

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second stage. This is one of the main functions of

intertextual units in the artistic text.

4 CONCLUSION

In general, such allusive units are very diverse in the

works of Alisher Navoi, and we analyzed only some

of them on the basis of experience. As a result, we

observed that in the poems, images of mainly

religious nature are often used as intertext. On the one

hand, this is related to the worldview of the author,

and on the other hand, it is explained by their

popularity among the people. Today, in order to

understand the language of Navoi's works, to

understand their original content, it is very important

to correctly perceive intertextual units, more

precisely, allusive units, which are a type of it.

Therefore, identifying and analyzing intertextual

units in Navoi's works is one of the important tasks

for linguistics. Because the correct understanding of

intertextual units in Navoi's works opens a wide way

to understand Navoi's work. The use of allusive

names is also very common in examples of fiction

from Navoi to today. Creators ahead of themselves

referring to famous works, their heroes, socio-

historical events, they try to incorporate them into

their new texts. In conclusion, allusive names as

intertexts serve as the primary tool for creating

intertextuality in the artistic text. They enhance the

aesthetic impact of the artistic text, influence its

content perception, and further reinforce its value and

encyclopedic nature.

REFERENCES

Kurbanova M., Yuldoshev M. (2014)Text Linguistics.

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Kurbanova, M., Sayfullina, F., & Karimova, Z. (2021).

Pragmatic Interpretation of Word-Sentences in Uzbek

Language. Annals of the Romanian Society for Cell

Biology, 623-632.

Xomidova, M. F. (2019) "The problem of intertextuality in

modern linguistics." Central Asian Problems of

Modern Science and Education 3.4: 259-263.

Gulamkodirovna, K. Z. (2022). Gender use of word-

sentences. Web of Scientist: International Scientific

Research Journal, 3(3), 547-553.

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