THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS AND DIRECTIONS OF RESEARSH CONCEPTS IN LANGUAGE

Abstract

This article is devoted to theoretical principles and directions of concepts research in linguistics, which is the key notion of cognitive linguistics. The multifaceted variable understanding of the term “linguistic picture of the world” is analyzed. The cognitive picture of the world and the linguistic picture of the world are interconnected as primary and secondary, as the content of a concept and a means of the researcher’s access to this concept. This article examines the notion of “concept” in research of various scientists. It is indicated that there is still no clear interpretation of the term “concept”. There is a significant number of controversial issues related to the theory of concepts: about the status of the concept, its structure, features of verbalization, as well as about the typology of concepts. In modern linguistics, the following main approaches to the study of concepts are distinguished: semantico-cognitive, conceptual studies, linguoculturology, linguocultural conceptology. But despite the existing differences in understanding of concepts, representatives of these schools believe that concept is the main unit of consciousness, capable of verbalization through linguistic units, having a multidimensional complex structure. At the moment, we can talk about two trends in the study of concepts. Firstly, this is the study of the features of concepts and their functioning in different texts. Secondly, the experimental study of concepts by method of free associative experiment and receptive experiment. The article also considers the linguocultural perception of the concept and notes that the linguocultural direction, in our opinion, is a base.