LEXICAL SEMANTICS OF HONOR AND SHAME IN SOUTH ASIAN LANGUAGES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Abstract

Honor and shame are core elements of moral and cultural systems across South Asia, shaping societal norms, gender expectations, and interpersonal dynamics. This study offers a comparative lexical-semantic analysis of these concepts across four major South Asian languages—Hindi-Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali, and Nepali—focusing on the linguistic manifestations of izzat (honor), sharam (shame), ghairat (self-respect), lajja (modesty), and latthṇa (to fall, as metaphor). Drawing upon corpus linguistics, ethnolinguistic field interviews, and conceptual metaphor theory, the research explores how these lexemes function not merely as words but as tools of moral governance. Findings reveal both shared metaphorical frameworks (e.g., shame as physical weight, honor as spatial elevation) and culturally specific constructions shaped by gender, caste, and regional variation. The paper also discusses the implications of these semantic structures for policy and education, particularly in the domains of gender equity, mental health, and culturally sensitive language pedagogy.

Keywords: lexical semantics, izzat, sharam, ghairat, honor, shame, South Asia, gender, euphemism, metaphor, Punjabi, Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, Nepali