VERBAL REPRESENTATIONS OF WEAPONS: A UNIVERSALIA-ORIENTED ANALYSIS

Abstract

This paper explores the verbal representations of the WEAPON concept in Old English and Old Icelandic texts, examining how irrational knowledge structures, or "nano-myths," are embedded within the inner form of the concept's names through etymological analysis and interdisciplinary comparisons. These "nano-myths" serve as interpretational and categorizational filters, providing insight into the conceptual underpinnings of these language units. The study emphasizes the role of cognitive models as the basis for these conceptual verbalizations. The analytical approach used in this research is rooted in the theory of myth-oriented semiosis, which forms a key component of the interdisciplinary methodology known as "M-logic." This approach involves reconstructing the cognitive premises underlying these language units and mapping them against a universal model of an open system to identify patterns and variations. The identified models are then compared to ascertain the differences and similarities in conceptual representation between Old English and Old Icelandic. The paper's synthetic interpretations suggest that the set of conceptualized semantic features, organized within the hierarchical plane of the universal model, helps define the allomorphic contours of the respective semantic spaces in the two worldviews. The instrumental component of the isomorphic frame-type structure, which reflects the synergetic dynamics of these semantic spaces, is extended in distinct ways in the Old English and Old Icelandic contexts. This differentiation contributes to the allomorphic structure observed in these worldviews, indicating a unique approach to the concept of weapons in each linguistic tradition.