Communicative values of respect and straightforwardness in the multicultural environment of Kazakhstan: A sociolinguistic perspective
Коммуникативные ценности «уважение» и «прямолинейность» в поликультурной среде Казахстана: социолингвистический аспект
Zhakupova A.D. Omarova N.G.
2025Tomsk State University
Vestnik Tomskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta, Filologiya
2025#2025Issue 9875 - 106 pp.
The article explores the communicative values of respect and straight-forwardness as moral and ethical regulators of verbal behavior in the multicultural society of Kazakhstan. The purpose of the study is to determine how these values are perceived, conceptualized, and interpreted in the linguistic consciousness of Kazakhstani speakers, and to identify the factors influencing their axiological and pragmatic significance. The empirical basis of the research consists of data from a sociolinguistic questionnaire conducted among 157 citizens of Kazakhstan representing different ethnic, age, and educational groups. The questionnaire included scenario-based tasks that modeled typical communicative situations (home, friends, workplace, negotiations, communication with elderly people) and evaluative questions aimed at identifying the degree of importance (normative status) and appropriateness (pragmatic relevance) of the analyzed values. The study is comprehensive in nature and draws upon axiological, cognitive-pragmatic, and sociolinguistic approaches. Methodologically, the research combines quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis. Ordinal and binary logistic regression were employed to test the statistical significance of ethnic, age, and educational factors affecting the perception of respect and straightforwardness. The qualitative analysis of open-ended responses complemented the quantitative findings, allowing for a reconstruction of respondents metalinguistic reflection on speech norms and for the identification of interpretative clusters. The results demonstrate that respect occupies a stable position in the system of communicative values and is perceived as a basic cultural and normative category regulating social harmony and balance in communication. High ratings of respect are characteristic of all respondent groups, especially in intergenerational and professional contexts. Straightforwardness, in contrast, shows situational and axiologically ambivalent properties. A comparison of quantitative and qualitative results revealed the complementarity of these values: respect ensures moral and social stability in communication, while straightforwardness provides cognitive transparency and sincerity. Their interaction forms a value-pragmatic balance that defines a culturally acceptable degree of openness in interethnic communication. The study concludes that even universal communicative values acquire specific forms of manifestation depending on sociocultural and situational factors. Respect maintains the status of a cultural invariant, whereas straightforwardness tends to adapt and undergo contextual re-evaluation, reflecting the distinctive Kazakhstani model of communication, which combines traditional and modernized norms of verbal interaction.
cognitive-pragmatic approach , communicative values , interethnic communication , metalinguistic consciousness , multicultural environment of Kazakhstan , respect , sociolinguistic survey , speech behavior , straightforwardness
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Sh. Ualikhanov Kokshetau University, Kokshetau, Kazakhstan
Sh. Ualikhanov Kokshetau University
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