Conceptualization of ideas about Russian culture and the culture of Russia in the Russian language

Abstract

The authors discuss the issues of conceptualization of ideas about Russian culture and the culture of Russia (RF) in the Russian language. The chosen issue is relevant not only in the light of linguistic-culturological and cognitive research, but also in connection with its social significance in modern geopolitical situation. The working hypothesis was the assumption that Russian culture and the culture of the Russian Federation are perceived differently by Russian speakers: Russian culture remains in the field of traditional and folklorized ideas, while Russian culture is perceived as modern and industrial. The aim of the research is to make up a cognitive matrix of the fields “Russian culture” and “Culture of the Russian Federation” and identify the conceptual components of verbalized ideas about culture among its bearers. The study is based on empirical data collected with representational and mini-essay techniques. The received corpus materials were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed with structural-grammatical and lexical-semantic analysis, categorial-formal model of narrative analysis, clustering and visualization of verbalized cognitive fields. It was found that there are no fundamental differences in the ideas of Russian speakers about Russian culture and the culture of Russia, however, ideas about Russian culture have greater sensibility, involvement, which is reflected both at lexical-semantic and syntactic levels, while culture of Russia is perceived as more dynamic one and built through the prism of other cultures. The created cognitive matrix and the developed methodological approach in studies with new target groups will provide new data not only for cognitive theory and cultural linguistics, but also for planning the state cultural policy.