Linguistic Worldview Research Articles

Analiza metaforycznych nazw roślin w ramach trzech modeli kognitywnych: gramatyki kognitywnej, teorii metafory pojęciowej i teorii integracji pojęciowej

The aim of the article is to examine the applicability of three theoretical frameworks developed within Anglophone cognitive linguistics, Ronald Langacker’s Cognitive Grammar, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory, and Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner’s Conceptual Blending Theory, in the study of semantic motivation behind folk plant names. Even though none of the theories has been originally developed as a tool for reconstruction what Jerzy Bartmiński terms the linguistic worldview, the theories may help to capture semantic nuances behind folk names and contribute to in-depth and comprehensive descriptions of folk conceptualizations. Since the scope of applicability of the three frameworks overlaps on conceptual metaphors, the article demonstrates the analysis of the metaphoric name gęsi pępek (lit. ‘goose navel’; daisy, Bellis perennis) and discusses strengths and weaknesses of the three frameworks in the task of reconstructing conventional folk imagery encoded in the name.

Językowy obraz Kozaka na podstawie polskich pieśni historycznych i folkloru (na tle wybranych tekstów ukraińskich i rosyjskich)

The article analyzes the linguistic view of the Cossack in Polish, Ukrainian and Russian folklore and historical songs. The methodology applied is based on Jerzy Bartmiński’s linguistic worldview conception. The aim of this article is to explore the main tendencies in cognitive portrayal of the Cossack. The article compares the data from Polish, Ukrainian and Russian texts. Given the nature of the sources used, the analysis is not strictly chronological.

Structural models of the paremiological units with the modality component in Spanish, English, and Tatar language

This present study is focused on the comparative analysis of the grammatical and structural characteristics of paremiological units (PUs) with a modality element in Spanish, English, as well as the Tatar language. PUs with that element is absorbing for analyzing the linguistics worldview of Spanish, English, and Tatar language. This study’s relevance is defined by the reality that PUs are among the most contradictory and complex notions in linguistics. The subject of the study is related to linguistics to recognize the structure and features of PUs of Spanish, English, and also Tatar language. To fulfil the study’s aims, a descriptive-analytical method is utilized. This study revolves around the structural - lexical and structural - grammatical characteristics of the PUs expression of the compared tongues. The particular and general sorts utilizing the modality component of the linguistic worldview are determined, and their classification as well. The study outcomes provided are highly interesting to scientists examining the notions of PUs in Spanish, English, and Tatar language. The results have the capacity to be employed in the analysis and study of research and cultural issues and language learning procedure.

Домінанти мовної картини світу в новелах Богдана Мельничука (на прикладі аналізу збірки „Суд без суду”)

The article analyses the novels from the Trial without Trial collection by Bohdan Melnychuk in order to identify the features of the artistic realisation of the dominants of the linguistic worldview. As a result of research carried out using descriptive, comparative-typological methods, component, semantic, conceptual and contextual analysis, it was found that the linguistic worldview in Melnychuk’s novels appears as a result of perception and understanding of the world and man in it, realised by the speech of the protagonists. It is characterised by a complex intertwining of table expressions, metaphors, metaphorised images that acquire the meaning of symbols, and of semantically related concepts and concepts that are marked by psychological complexity and are designed to reflect the inner states of man, their behaviour, which indicates the anthropocentrism of the linguistic worldview in the novels of the writer.

Ценностный концепт LOYALTY/ПРЕДАННОСТЬ в английской и русской лингвокультурах (на материале современных медиатекстов)

The aim of the study is a contrast-comparative analysis of the concept LOYALTY/ПРЕДАННОСТЬ in the English and Russian linguistic cultures, which allows us to identify the similarities and ethno-specific features of this phenomenon, representing the mentality and culture of the studied societies. The scientific novelty of this work is substantiated by the fact that the concept LOYALTY/ПРЕДАННОСТЬ has not been previously studied as a spiritual value of modern society on the basis of media texts with its subsequent comparison in the studied linguocultures. The paper presents the results of a contrast-comparative analysis of the field structures of the concept LOYALTY/ПРЕДАННОСТЬ, highlights its common and distinctive components in the English and Russian linguistic worldview.

EVALUATED PREDICATES AS A MECHANISM OF REALIZATION ASSESSMENTS IN MODERN CHINESE LANGUAGE

The article deals with the description of the evaluative predicates as a mechanism for realizing evaluation in Modern Chinese. In order to fundamentally define and systematize the means of realization of the category of evaluation and evaluative predicates in Chinese, the research considers such concepts as “evaluation”, “linguistic picture of the world”, “evaluative predicate”. The author analyzes a wide range of investigations by foreign, Chinese in particular, and domestic sinologists, aimed at highlighting the features of the evaluative predicates, as it has helped to make a thorough systematization of the research of evaluative predicates and a mechanism for realizing evaluation in Modern Chinese. The study determines that the concept of evaluation should be considered inseparable from the Chinese linguistic worldview, which is the result of the process of learning about the surrounding reality (history, culture, language, etc.) of a certain people. The cultural heritage of China covers all spheres of activity of the Chinese and has a significant influence on the process of forming the worldview of the Chinese people, in particular, on their thinking. The author concludes that the evaluative predicate represents the most meaningful and informatively loaded part of the judgment, which contains the evaluation of a person (speaker or nominal group specified in the sentence) in relation to the objective world (situation or person). The research classifies evaluative predicates that determine a person’s subjective evaluation of an object from the objective world. It considers the mechanisms of evaluation implementation in Modern Chinese and systematizes the classification of evaluation means.

Образное содержание в структуре концепта ВЕСНА в эвенской лингвокультуре

The aim of the study is to determine the particular qualities of the verbalization of the SPRING concept figurative features in the Evenks’ linguistic worldview. The article deals with the figurative features in the structure of the SPRING concept in the national worldview objectified in the form of conceptual metaphors and comparative constructions formed with the help of similarity and comparison formants. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that for the first time the cognitive features of one of the key concepts in the Evenk language speakers’ minds are singled out and described. As a result of the study, the figurative components of the SPRING concept differentiated by various cognitive features are identified and characterized, the predominant of which are vital, anthropomorphic and objective features. It is determined in the content of the figurative structure of the SPRING concept that in the ethnic vision of the world, the spring season is most often associated with youth and is expressed by conceptual temporal metaphors.

Анализ английских пословиц, вербализующих концепт MONEY в современной языковой картине мира

The aim of the paper is to identify the culturally specific component composition of the MONEY concept based on the analysis of the English proverbs selected from the Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs by J. Speake. The author pays the main attention to the definition of the notions of the concept and the linguistic worldview, the practical study of the MONEY concept based on the English proverbs. The scientific novelty of the work lies in researching the model of a specific linguistic vision of the world fragment called “money”: the means of expressing the MONEY concept in the lexical and phraseological system of the language are revealed, the semantic groups of money involved in the representation of this concept in the modern linguistic worldview are studied. The results make it possible to classify the MONEY concept in proverbs into nine semantic groups.

Оценочное высказывание в англоязычном художественном дискурсе XIX и первой половины XX века

The article addresses evaluative utterance, which is considered in terms of its subject-matter, semantics and structure on the material of British and American fictional discourse of the 19 th and the first half of the 20th centuries. The classification of value-related objects of evaluation as reflected in the fictional discourse of the selected periods is presented. The suggested classification incorporates evaluative utterances describing two thematic spheres, i.e. "Human being" and "Surrounding world". The dynamics of positive and negative evaluative utterance types in the period under study is described. The proportion of emotional and rational components in the complex meaning of evaluative utterances is determined. Trends in evolution of semantic types of evaluative utterances in the English fictional discourse of the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries are brought into the open. Structural types of sentences, in which evaluative attitude is verbalized, are singled out, with their communicative productivity being identified and compared. The structural components of the evaluative predicate are outlined. Frequency value of morphological-and-semantic evaluative means and means of a mixed type is identified in the fictional discourse under analysis. Means of modifying the expressiveness degree in the evaluative utterances are described. The suggested approach to the evaluative utterances in the fictional discourse demonstrates the dynamics of axiological worldview of the speaking community. The growing trends for communicative compression and transparency, for the increase in emotiveness of evaluative utterances and a greater degree of gradation of the evaluative attribute, as well as the corresponding language changes, related to the phenomenon of evaluative utterance, are reflected in the linguistic worldview.

Внутренняя форма языковой единицы как мотиватор ее значения (на материале английского и русского языков)

The aim of the study is to clarify the nature of the relationship between the notions “literal meaning”, “transposed meaning”, “real meaning”, “figurative basis”, “internal form” of a language unit, “linguistic worldview” thereby eliminating the existing inconsistencies in their interpretations. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that the work highlights the functional aspect of the internal form of language units, namely the mechanism of motivating meanings with the help of the internal form. The obtained results have shown that the internal form of a language unit is not its literal meaning as such, but the relationship between its literal and real meanings which underlies the semantic motivation of its real meaning. The study has been conducted by the material of the English and Russian languages.

PAREMIOLOGICAL UNITS WITH THE COMPONENT OF MODALITY WITH AN ANIMALISTIC CHARACTER

The article deals with a comparative analysis of the semantic characteristics of paremiological units (PU) with a modality element, explaining an animalistic feature in Spanish, English, and Tatar languages. PU with that factor is of tremendous interest for examining the linguistic world-view of the Spanish, English, as well as Tatar languages. The significance of this study lies in the fact that phraseological units are complicated and controversial notions in linguistics. A descriptive-analytical method is utilized to meet the study’s aims. This research topic is substantial to modern linguistic sciences so as to detect the characteristics and structure of the PU of the Tatar languages, Spanish, and English. This paper examines the animalistic character of the paremiological units with the modality element in the various comparative languages. The common and specific types utilizing the modality element in linguistics and also in their classification are taken into consideration. The study’s results obtained are of utmost importance for scientists who study the phraseological units’ concepts in Tatar languages, Spanish, as well as English. These outcomes can be applied to the inspection and the examination of research and cultural problems and also to the procedures of language learning.

Oh, Sport! You are a Metaphor! On Sportization of Languages and Cultures

The article deals with cases of using sports metaphors in different discourse types in the Russian (linguistic) worldview. Metaphor is considered to be the main mechanism to conceptualize the reality and the culture code, which helps to identify peculiarities in the view of the world by various nationalities. The sports met-
 aphor is defined as a basic cognitive model built in the collective linguistic consciousness; it helps to comprehend phenomena from the sphere of politics, economics, education, medicine, and many other conceptual spheres of our life. Being a source domain, sport supports interdiscursive links, and sports metaphors perform nominat-
 ing, cognitive, decorative, declaratory, evaluative and other functions depending on
 the pragmatic intension of the author of the utterance.
 In addition to Russian sports metaphors, other examples are included in illustrating the usage of sports terms in non-sports discourses of other languages (German, English, Polish, Italian). Thus, it demonstrates their universal nature. A conclusion can be made about a global tendency in the development of many languages – their sportization, a specific role and function of sports vocabulary
 in (intercultural) communication. As a perspective for further research, the author suggests studying this issue in the quantitative aspect – determining the frequency of using football, baseball, chess and other types of sports metaphors to identify their linguistic and culturological potential.

Лингвокогнитивная репрезентация оппозитивных концептов РУССКИЙ МИР - CANCEL CULTURE

The aim of the study is to reveal the specifics of the linguo-cognitive explication of the concepts RUSSIAN WORLD, CANCEL CULTURE. The author analyses the axiological component of the concept RUSSIAN WORLD. The stages of emergence and dynamics of the actualization of the concept CANCEL CULTURE are determined. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the definition of the concepts RUSSIAN WORLD, CANCEL CULTURE as oppositive components-concepts. The author has for the first time identified the stable features that testify to their inclusion in the national cognitive and linguistic worldview. As a result of the study, the polarity of the axiological values transmitted by the representatives of the concepts RUSSIAN WORLD - CANCEL CULTURE participating in the formation of the Russian and Anglo-American conceptual spheres has been determined.

러시아 민속문학에서 신체어 ‘코’의 언어문화적 함의 연구: 관용구와 속담을 중심으로

Somatism, which refers to human body parts, forms the basis of universal basic vocabulary in any language along with human history, and at the same time contains the linguistic and cultural specificity of a language. Humans understands the world through the sensory functions of body organs, and conceptualize objects of the external world by projecting them onto body lexicon. The human body was the most accessible means of self-observation, the basic measure for understanding the surrounding objects, and the most primitive form of expression of opinion. The human body was able to overcome limitations of the body by constructing a cognitive system based on accumulated experiences and fully transferring the linguistic function of memory and knowledge. Somatism is a basic vocabulary that exists in all languages. Folk literature texts are meaningful materials that show the historical and customary usage of somatism, various aspects of derivation, and the unique linguistic image of a nation. Somatism reflects the universal psychological characteristics of the language subject, the way of recognizing the world, the way of acting or thinking, and the way of expressing emotions. Therefore, idiomatic expressions including somatism are worthy linguistic phenomena that can examine the universality and specificity of a language. Somatism refers to human external body organs (faces, head, hands, nose, ears, etc.) as well as internal organs (heart, blood vessels, nerves, liver, etc.). This paper examines aspects of meaning expansion focusing on somatism used as a component of proverbs and idioms in folk literature texts that consider the communicative aspect of the language subject. We will analyze in depth the semantic structure of idioms and proverbs and examine the specificity of metaphorical and metonymic mechanisms and cultural variants of somatic idioms that reflect the unique Russian linguistic world view.

ANALYSIS OF SEMANTIC-STYLISTIC COMPOSITION OF SPEECH VERBS IN ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN (based on novel by E. Bronte “Wuthering heighs” and translations by N. Vol’pin and U. Saptsina)

The article is devoted to the analysis of semantic variability of speech verbs as well as their functioning in the novel by Emily Bronte “Wuthering Heights”. The article presents lexical- semantic classifications of speech verbs and ways of explicating the additional connotations in their meaning by adding dependent words and descriptive structures. In the course of study the key relevance is given to the valency theory due to differences in combinability of Russian and English. The study reveals major problems that occur during translation of verb lexis into Russian сonsidering the differences in linguistic worldviews. During the first stage of research the frequency of verbs occurrence was analyzed. Verb frequency count showed that the majority of the representatives can be identified as characterizing acoustic and physiological speech aspects of the utterer. The initial meaning of this group is not related to speech and gains the speech seme in context due to the process of metaphorization. The mentioned lexical layer appears to be stylistically marked and carries expressive connotations. Some speech verb occurrences were not fixed in the dictionaries and identified as author’s individual usage. Stylisticly neutral verbs are surrounded by verbal extensions actualizing the evaluative function of characters’ speech. These compounds are also included into the semantic field of speech verbs. During the second stage the comparative analysis of two translation versions given by N. Vol’pin and U. Saptsina was performed. It revealed the occurrence of dissonance in stylistics and semantic volume of a word in some cases. As a result of the study, speech verb occurrences were classified according to differential semes found in their meaning. The findings demonstrated the significant role of the given lexical-semantic group for depicting figurative and conceptual creativity of the novel.

The Influence of the Semiotic Type of Stimuli on the Extraction of Information from Language Consciousness

The contemporary communicative environment is mostly visual, which means that traditional linguistic techniques of concept formation studies have to be revised. The concept COVID-19 pandemic has been unfolding in the language consciousness of the global community for about three years. It is valuable material for a psycholinguistic experiment since it allows researchers to study the initial stage of concept formation, whereas associative experiments based on words that denote familiar phenomena or concepts are strongly affected by linguo-cultural environment. The present psycholinguistic experiment features a modified continuous associative test based on the concept COVID-19 with a total of 1,122 verbal reactions. The experiment consisted of three parts and involved 100 respondents. The first test featured the verbal stimulus “coronavirus infection (COVID-19)” and produced 356 reactions; the second one was based on a media-popularized image of the virus (380 reactions), and the third one introduced a combined visual-verbal stimulus (386), i.e. a picture and its verbal description. The obtained data were processed with the help of the semantic gestalt method developed by Yu. N. Karaulov. In the first test, featuring the verbal stimulus, the respondents tried to disclose the essence of the phenomenon, while in the second test the visual stimulus triggered associations with shape and appearance. The third visual-verbal stimulus produced more neutral reactions. These results confirm the assumption that the visual stimulus is mostly related to shape, color, texture, and other physical characteristics. The verbal stimulus evoking mostly negative associations, confirms the direct connection of the verbal stimulus and the essence of the phenomenon (the referent). So, the concept COVID-19 finds the following description in the linguistic worldview of Russian youth: coronavirus is a dangerous lethal disease that causes much fear, is characterized by fever, cough and loss of smell and can be prevented by such measures as wearing face masks, quarantine, self-isolation, social distancing, and using QR-codes. The virus resembles a planet, a ball, a flower or a fungus. The modified verbal-visual continuous associative test proved to have an increased information potential, which provides a greater amount of linguo-cognitive information than the conventional experiment based on a verbal stimulus.

Национальная ментальность в зеркале происхождения репрезентантов орнитологических концептов в русском языке

This article presents a conceptual analysis of individual components of the structure of ornithological concepts important for the Russian linguistic worldview. The concepts SWALLOW (lastochka), STORK (aist) and SWAN (lebed’) are studied from the perspective of considering the motivating signs that form the basis for naming the representatives of these concepts as fragments of Russian national worldview and mentality. A concept originates upon the appearance of the primary sign – the inner, initial form of a word that objectifies a concept in a language. An overview of modern scholarly literature has shown that the abovementioned ornithological concepts have not been previously investigated in terms of the origin of their names in the Russian language. This constitutes the novelty of the article. The analysis identified 4 motivating signs of the concept SWALLOW (‘flying/to fly/to flutter’, ‘love/caress’, ‘fast’, ‘to jump’), 2 signs of the concept STORK (‘chernoguz stork’, ‘grey heron’) and 5 signs of the concept SWAN (‘white’, ‘white spot’, ‘dove’, ‘the Elbe’, ‘light/whitish’). All of the signs point to the primary national ideas about the concepts under study in the linguistic consciousness of the Russian people. These signs reflect the attitude of humans toward the birds and the idea of their place in each other’s lives. The identified motivating signs already contain “future” conceptual and symbolic signs. Turning to the National Corpus of the Russian Language for examples, the paper demonstrates the relevance of these motivating signs. Having studied the original meanings of these ornithological concepts in Russian linguoculture, the author concludes that the swallow is most often associated with humans, while the swan personifies God, and the stork is identified with the heron.

The theory of the aspectuality of the Russian school in the focus of the Chinese linguistic school

The subject of the research is the theory of aspectuality in Russian and Chinese languages: this theory defines the main ways to prevent linguistic interference (the consequences of the influence of one language on another) among students. The object of the study is the theoretical study of the verb of the Russian and Chinese languages. The author examines in detail the functional characteristics of the category of aspectuality in Russian and Chinese languages. In addition, he explores the meaning of aspectual forms in the system of Russian and Chinese languages, etc. Particular attention is paid to identifying patterns in the Russian and Chinese grammar, defining verbal grammatical semantics, comparing the languages with further description and systematization of aspectual meanings and means of their transmission. The main conclusions of the study are related to the specificity of the theory of aspectuality of the Russian school in the focus of the Chinese linguistic school. The Russian verb is the central section of the grammatical system, acting as the core of the sentence and denoting the variability of reality. In Chinese language, the verb serves as an important component of the part-speech system, correlates with the subject, expressed pronoun or noun. The author's special contribution to the study of the topic is to identify the functional and semantic characteristics of the category of aspectuality in Russian and Chinese languages. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that for the first time, within the framework of the typological approach, a comparative analysis of the problems is made: the problems are connected with the category of aspectuality in Russian and Chinese languages, with the category of the aspect of the verb, with its internal form as a specific way of displaying and presenting knowledge about the world, a special «linguistic worldview».

Ассоциативное поле концепта ЗДОРОВЬЕ в языковом сознании студентов в период пандемии

The paper aims at studying the specifics of the association field of the HEALTH concept in the language consciousness of students in the linguo-cognitive aspect. Scientific novelty of the research lies in the application of a free association experiment method to identify the features of this concept representation in the perception of students living in the era of the pandemic by analyzing reactions to the word-stimulus HEALTH and determining the dominants of the association field in their linguistic worldview. As a result of the research, a qualitative and quantitative description of reaction words has been carried out, the association field of the HEALTH concept has been constructed, the specifics of objectification of its nuclear and peripheral zones has been revealed. It has been proved that the HEALTH concept is of great importance in the linguistic consciousness of students and reflects the events of the present time.

Linguistic interpretation of "ugliness" of the characters of Russian and Chinese fairy tales

The article examines the interpretation of the concept of the ugliness of the external appearance of the characters of the Russian and Chinese fairy tales; analyzes and compares the similarities and differences of the named concept in different linguistic pictures of the world. Ugliness is considered as a basic universal concept of the aesthetic category inherent in the utilitarian and spiritual needs of people of different nationalities. The object of the study is the concept of ugliness in the linguistic picture of the world, reflected in a fairy tale. The subject of the study was the attributive means characterizing the characters of Russian and Chinese fairy tales; the creation of a semantic classification of representative lexemes, their cultural meanings and connotations. Classical conceptual analysis, which includes etymological, definitional, semantic, comparative types of analysis of key adjectives representing the concept of ugliness, is chosen as methods of practical research. The main conclusions of the conducted linguistic research are that the etymological analysis of the concept of ugliness allowed us to identify the following lexical and semantic groups of adjectives united by the theme "ugliness": ugliness as unattractiveness, ugliness as old age, ugliness as weakness. Based on the analysis of adjectives, it is concluded that the content of the Russian and Chinese concepts of ugliness essentially coincides, but as a result of the influence of national cultures has specific features. Consideration of the concept of "ugliness" in fairy tales in a comparative aspect makes it possible to identify national specifics reflected in the folklore picture of the world. And the novelty of the research lies in the fact that for the first time an attempt was made to analyze the concept of "ugliness" using the material of Russian and Chinese fairy tales. The results of the analysis can be used to study the national folklore and linguistic worldviews of the two peoples.