Филологические науки

Shalajeva A.V.

The Chair of Foreign Languages,Higher State Educational Establishment of

Ukraine „Bukovinian State Medical University“, Chernivtsi (Ukraine)

THE USE OF PRECEDENT SITUATIONS FOR DESIGNATING

SYNDROMS OF MENTAL DISORDERS

It is the fact of common knowledge that the representative of Russian linguistics Yu. N. Karaulov was the first to introduce the concept of precedence in 1986 within the framework of the theory of the language personality. According to this theory Yu. Karaulov pointed out three levels in the language personality structure: semantic, cognitive and pragmatic. The stereotypes of the higher third level were named by him “precedent texts”, having laid, thus, the foundation for the new term and a new concept in science. His term "precedent text" was introduced into scientific practice and is now widely used by many researchers. According to Yu. Karaulov's definition the texts which may be referred to the precedent texts must:

– be significant for this or that particular personality in the informative and emotional relation;

– have superpersonal character, i.e. well-known to a wide environment of this personality, including both predecessors and contemporaries;

– be such texts, reference to which renews repeatedly in a discourse of this language personality.

V.V.Krasnyh, D.B.Gudkov and other researchers have extended the theory of precedence of Yu.Karaulov, modified it and transferred his definition of the precedent text to all precedent phenomena in general.

Followers of Yu. Karaulov’s theory made a further addition to the theory of precedence: in their viewpoint, the precedent phenomena can be verbal (texts) and nonverbal (paintings, sculptures, etc.). Verbal precedent phenomena are subdivided in their turn into proper verbal and those that are verbalized. The former include precedent names and precedent statements, and the second include precedent situations and precedent texts.

Actually any precedent name, statement or text in cognitive base is connected with certain potentially precedent situation.

Precedent texts and precedent situations can’t usually be used in speech, since they are stored in the cognitive base of the representative of this or that linguocultural community in the form of invariant perception and are phenomena of rather cognitive than linguistic character. It is unlikely that at least one representative of any linguocultural community can reproduce in full any literary text or situation.

Precedent situations were discussed in the papers of D.B.Gudkov, I.V. Zakharenko, V.V.Krasnyh, D.V.Bagaeva and others. 

The researchers of precedence theory proposed many different types of classification of precedent phenomena. Most often conceptual spheres-sources to which precedent phenomena in their fundamental values belong are assumed as a basis for classification. The question of sources of precedent phenomena was first raised in Yu. Karaulov's monograph, later many other linguists gave more or less similar typologies of spheres-sources for precedent texts.

Nakhimova E.A. distinguishes more generalized spheres of precedent texts sources: social area ( politics, economics, education, entertainments, medicine, war, crime, sport); field of arts (literature, theater, cinema, fine arts, music, architecture, mythology and folklore); branch of science; the area of religion. Popadinets R.V. already points out 5 original sources of precedent names: folklore, mythology, classical literature, children's literature, history and reality.

Besides spheres-sources of precedent phenomena linguists pick out spheres- targets of precedence, to which precedent names belong. Among these spheres- targets an advertising and politics take the first place. The field of medicine, in which terminological precedent names and situations from various spheres of communication of health care workers are used, may be referred to less spread spheres- targets.

The names of precedent situations in medicine may be compared with the eponymous names of different diseases where the generic name or determinatum

(syndrome in our case) is proceded by a toponym ( the geographical name of the place in which the phenomenon was first observed.) The difference lies in the following: the eponymous terms have a proper name of an individual, who was affected by the disease which was described or identified by a medical scientist. In our case we have the name of an individual who was affected by a mental disorder but the disease was not named after him. The syndromes are named after the place, where the situations occurred. Such situations are widely known to the speakers and are considered to be precedent situations. They are few, but they serve as a source of emergence of syndromes, designating various mental disorders. The term "syndrome" is commonly understood in the professional language of medicine as a set of symptoms with common pathogenesis. In other words, it is a phenomenon, one of the characteristics of which prevails over the other features and thus allows to characterize an overall picture of the disease.

The main syndrome of the precedent situation called “Jerusalem syndrome” is mania. It is a kind of religious psychosis, which is caused by visiting Jerusalem. It was first clinically described in 1930^th by the Israeli psychiatrist Heinz Hermann, though the first manifestations of a syndrome were recorded in the Middle Ages. The Jerusalem syndrome is rather rare mental disease and is characterized by the mental phenomena which include megalomania which is accompanied by the other less pronounced symptoms. The essence of the disorder is that while travelling in the holiest city on the planet Earth a mentally unstable person begins to consider himself a prophet, so that he may establish his own religion and to demand that sinners must repent of their sins. In this precedent situation we know the name of the psychiatrist who described this syndrome, though it is not named in his honour.

The other precedent situation is connected with Florence and is called Florence syndrome (its alternative name is “Stendhal Syndrome”).The French author Henri-Marie Beyle known by his penname “Stendhal” wrote novels and books describing sights. When Stendhal visited Florence’s Santa Croce Cathedral and first witnessed Giotto's famous ceiling frescoes he experienced an unusual feeling and was the first who described it in detail in his book “Naples and Florence: A Journey from Milan to Reggio”. This condition is characterized by the experience a wide range of symptoms including physical and emotional anxiety, temporary amnesia, paranoia, sometimes even hallucinations. Specialists in psychology defined this state as a psychosomatic disorder, arising in perception at once in a short time a very large number of objects which strongly influence the psyche of sensitive people. There have been hundreds of cases of people experiencing similar effects. The syndrome was described in 1979 by Italian psychiatrist Graziella Magerini, who investigated more than 100 similar cases among tourists in Florence and gave the description of her observations in the book “Graziella Magherini: La Sindrome di Stendhal”. Florence syndrome is dangerous both for the person and for the people around. Doctors are concerned that it may have serious consequences for the patient, who has to undergo a long course of antidepressants. For the people around this symptom is dangerous because a person in a burst of feelings may try to destroy the works of art.

For most people India is primarily associated with yoga and meditation. Since the 60^th meditation, which is a part of spiritual practice in many religious traditions, especially Buddhism and Hinduism, has interested Europeans and Americans, and today is widely used as a psychotherapeutic means to relieve mental stress, physical pain, and even as a method of fight against stress. People started travelling around this country at the end of the 19^th century. Especially they tried to visit the state Uttarhand, where Rishikesh is located, with the aim to see religious center, where people master the Hindu philosophy, meditation and yoga. But nowadays travellers on arriving to India often do not find what they were seeking for. They find an overcrowded country filled with loud noises, pollution, heavy unruled traffic and putrid vomit-inducing smells. The difference between reality and the expectations for these visitors can result in mental sufferings and attacks of schizophrenia. Some of them may even be admitted to psychiatric hospitals. In 2000, the French psychiatrist Régis Airault who treated his countrymen whose spiritual journeys had taken tragic turns wrote the definitive book on the phenomenon, where he described this syndrome and called it “India syndrome”. Régis Airault wrote: “India syndrome hits people from developed Western countries who are looking for a cultural space that is pure and exotic, where real values have been preserved. It's as if we're trying to go back in time.” The problem of "India Syndrome" was raised again recently when a 28-year-old Irishman called Jonathan Spollen went mysteriously missing in February 2012 from Rishikesh. And this is not a single case. Every year thousands of westerners flock to India to meditate, practice yoga, and seek spiritual transcendence. Some of them find what they're looking for. Others give up and go home. A few become so consumed with their quest for godliness that it kills them. Nobody knows where they go missing, because nobody can find them.

Jerusalem syndrome, Florence syndrome and India syndrome are not officially recognized in the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders", published by the American Psychiatric Association, used by mental health professionals and containing clinical criteria for the diagnosis of mental illness, but many doctors nevertheless are convinced they do exist and are real.

In the above described precedent situations it is exactly known who of the psychiatrists described the medical syndromes, though these syndroms are not named in their honour. This phenomenon is characteristic of most precedent situations.

Literature:

1.Караулов Ю.Н. Русский язык и языковая личность /Отв. ред. Д.Н. Шмелев; АН СССР, Отд-ние лит. и яз.. - М. : Наука, 1987. – C. 53.

2.Нахимова Е. А. Прецедентные имена в массовой коммуникации [Текст] : монография / Е. А. Нахимова ; ГОУ ВПО «Урал. гос. пед. ун-т» ; Ин-т социального образования.–Екатеринбург,2007.—C.89. URL: http://politlinguist.ru /materials/mono/Нахимова%20Прецедентные%20имена-2007.pdf

3.Попадинец Р.В. Прецедентное имя в сознании носителя русского языка: опыт психолингвистического исследования/Р.В.Попадинец – Курск: Курск. Гос.техн. ун-т, Курск, 2010. – C.50. URL: http://cheloveknauka.com/pretsedentnye-imena-v-soznanii-nositelya-russkogo-yazyka

4. Редкие синдромы в психиатрической практике. URL:

http://neuronews.com.ua/page/redkie-sindromy-v-psihiatricheskoj-praktike

5. Having an Art Attack. URL: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/in-excess/201403/having-art-attack