A word in the context of a cultural and historical universe: Some case studies from the US political discourse

Abstract

The article examines cultural semantics of lexical units of the English language through the prism of Anna Wierzbicka’s views. The article focuses on the lexical units like whistle-blower, kangaroo ticket, log cabin president, Camelot presidency, redneck, etc., which along with the lexical meaning fixed in the dictionary, are able to generate various cultural meanings. The analysis of lexical units is made in accordance with the concept of the cultural-historical universe by Anna Wierzbicka. The approach to the analysis of lexical units within the framework of this concept stems from the understanding of the lexical unit as a sign of culture. Accordingly, the semantic analysis of lexical units is based on different levels of culture. A variety of subcultures and countercultures are also taken into account (everyday, political, industrial; gender, age, professional; dominant, elitist, mass, folk, marginal). The cultural universe is treated as a sort of intertext, i.e., an open cultural space with mobile boundaries. The analysis takes into account the dynamics of the cultural universe by comparing the data of different historical sections. This procedure of interpreting the meanings makes it possible to reach the core of the culture of the linguistic cultural community, on the one hand, and on the other to reveal its dynamics. The analysis discloses later semantic layers in word semantics that reflect the formation of new values in society. The search for cultural meanings is of undoubted interest for linguists working in the field of lexical semantics, linguoculturology, discourse analysis, since it exposes cultural practices and cultural codes of a certain linguistic and cultural community .