Abstract
The studies devoted to the issues of conceptualisation and categorisation of reality prove that language plays a key role in these two interrelated and interdependent processes. The purpose of the article is to analyse the structure of the conceptual category PERSON and the means of its verbal presentation in the fantasy genre. The data is collected from 85 fantasy novels written by British and American writers within the period from 1997 to 2012. The data includes 5890 nominative units (innovations, phrases, word combinations, sentences) either to name or characterise people of possible worlds presented in fantasy novels. The methods applied in this research are chosen considering the aim, objectives, and data. The contextual analysis, the analysis of definitions provided in the lexicographical sources and fantasy texts, and the morphemic analysis are used to analyse the data collected. According to the results of the research, the conceptual category PERSON has a complex hierarchical structure. Two sub-categories – the Name of a Person and the Group of People – are determined in the structure of this conceptual category. The sub-category Name of a Person comprises about 63% (3730) of nominative units. Innovations are created by the writers to name or describe people of possible worlds, which comprise 79% (4653) of all the data collected. Peculiar features of fantasy discourse, in general, may be the focus of further research. It is also planned to contribute to online dictionaries devoted to fantasy novels.
Highlights
In modern linguistics, the processes of conceptualisation and categorisation of the world and the role of language in these processes have been the focus of research for many decades
In accordance with the set aim, the objectives are as follows: to choose the means that verbalise the concept PERSON; to determine the structure of the conceptual category PERSON; to analyse structural, semantic, etymological and cognitive characteristics of nominative units that are used or created by American and British writers to name and describe people of possible worlds presented in their fantasy novels
The data of the research comprises 5890 nominative units that are utilised by American and British writers to name and describe people of possible worlds presented in their fantasy novels
Summary
The processes of conceptualisation and categorisation of the world and the role of language in these processes have been the focus of research for many decades. It should be noted that there is a slight difference between the processes of conceptualisation and categorisation The former is aimed at establishing the minimal meaningful units of the mental level, which are the result of human’s practical experience that leads to the formation of concepts, conceptual structures, and the whole conceptual system in the consciousness of a human (Cruse, 2006; Croft & Cruse, 2004; Zhanalina & Ordahanova, 2015). Conceptual categories are referred to as cognitive instruments that perform certain functions, such as the function of cognition when the conceptual category is utilised a basis for comparing new and previous experience (Cruse, 2006; Kövecses, 2015; Sharifan, 2017); the function of cognitive economy (Győri, 2013), which allows identifying either the members of a specific category by a certain set of categorical features or the categories by one member only; and the communicative function, which enables the exchange of information from the writer to the reader (Croft & Cruse, 2004)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
