Cognitive Mechanisms in the British Stereotypical Perception of Western Europe Countries: Linguistic and Cultural Dimensions

Abstract

The article presents the cognitive instruments in the British perception of Western European countries. The problem set is rather topical since it reflects verbal, communicative and cognitive perspectives of intercultural communication. Fiction text fragments by modern authentic British writers serve as research material. Being a representative of the definite ethnocultural group the author verbalizes his personal as well as collectivist ideas about other nations. To single out the imaginings of the British about Europeans the following methods have been involved: cognitive interpretation, discourse and semantic analysis.
 Culture defines the subjective reality thus reflecting an individual’s perception of native and foreign behavior. Determined by the cultural context of interaction, generalized perceptual experience is reflected in the ethnic stereotypes of the British cognitive space. Perception of the environment is filtered through the organized system of categories, values, importance of the information, expectations, interests, feelings, character traits etc. The mental process of categorizing the world explains the 'simplification' of reality organized in the minds of the representatives of Great Britain in the context of the stereotyped representation. Belgians are represented as brave in modern English fiction. Spain is associated by the British with rest and pleasure. France, Germany and Austria are viewed as respectful, luxurious, while Germans are considered to be trustworthy and the French – the most arrogant. Dominating positive attitude to Europeans is accounted by their close location. Categorical peculiarities of the perception of other peoples form cultural meaningful knowledge within the communicative competence of the interlocutors. The future perspective of the investigation is seen in learning autosterotyped perception in British worldimage.