Terminology at the border of linguistics and psychology: to the problem of strict definitions

Abstract

The article is devoted to an analytical review of ambiguously defined terms and commonly used lexical units related to the mental sphere, which linguists use to some extent. The article reveals in detail the problem of the importance of the strictest possible definitions for such vocabulary when it is used both in linguistic texts and in general in the texts of humanitarian studies. In order to accurately formulate definitions for the twenty lexical units listed in the introduction, the main part of the article provides an independent analysis of basic psychological and semiotic concepts based on current anthropological knowledge. For each of the twenty lexical units, a strict definition is independently formulated. In a number of cases, detailed comments are given on the expected degree of accuracy of the definition, on the shortcomings of possible alternative definitions, on the ambiguity of the lexical unit, etc. In addition to independent definitions of some lexical units, definitions already existing in scientific circulation are given, which are evaluated in the article as successful. At the end of the analytical review, a model of speech communication is formulated in the form of a scheme, based on the conclusions made in the review. The practical orientation of the review is the preparation of a fundamental theoretical basis for a Ph.D. research devoted to the compilation of an original lexical thesaurus for machine sentiment analysis.