«Филологические науки»/7. Язык, речь, речевая коммуникация

Шейка Н.О.

Буковинська державна фінансова академія, Україна

Notion of the Language World View

The process of the development of linguistics is based on the successive change of conceptions and methods of linguistic research. In spite of vigorous criticism, and even complete rejection of certain views every stage and approach in linguistic research have left a unique trace in the history of science. That helped to solve the issue concerning the essence of language as a phenomenon. It appears in the address to the phenomenon’s research, named „the language world view”.

Language world view is a part of the conceptual world view. It is a more inclusive notion of culture and includes the following notions: 1) universal features, common for the whole humankind; 2) cultural features "a kind of a cultural core common for all members of a society" and 3) individual features immanent to a certain person [4, p. 119].

Y.D. Apresyan assumes that every language is represented by a certain method of world conceptualization (perception and / or systematization), herewith meanings expressed in a language form a unique system of views, which shows by itself certain „joint philosophy” and it becomes obligatory for all users of this language [2, p. 18].

Three closely interrelated phenomena are important for the language world view: man-world-language, although from the point of view of real relations the world should have taken the first place, man as a creator and user of language – the second and language itself – the third. However, from the anthropological point of view man represents the starting point in the establishing of the language world view, he cognizes the objective reality and creates facilities of fixing and handing on the torches of learning about it to other people. Accordingly, man is the key factor in the construction of the language world view. Consequently, in linguistics the conceptual and language world views are distinguished. The first operates with concepts and the second – with word meanings. However, for the right understanding of the phenomena and processes which take place in language world view a third component is vitally important, i.e. the pre-verbal world view, the idea of the world that in a counterbalance to a concept does not have an overt linguistic expression, but is its source. The structure of the language world view represents the trinomial paradigm: preverbal (psychical), conceptual (logical) and lingual. These three paradigms, as was mentioned before, are interrelated and influence each other. According to V. von Humboldt, language does not only reflect and express the spirit of people but also influences its formation. The following terms correspond to the above-mentioned three levels: concept as a preverbal image of the phenomenon, which is based in our consciousness on numerous signs and associations, notion as a linguistic-logical item, which is the generalization result of the most substantial features of a concept and has a linguistic expression, and meaning of the word which contains the concept basis [5, p. 39]. According to A. Vezhbytska word meaning is anthropocentric, that is, represents properties of human nature; moreover, it is ethnocentric, that is, oriented on its ethnos. It is impossible to describe „the world as it is” by verbal means: first of all language imposes a certain world view on its users, besides each language sets its own [2, p. 285].

V.A. Kukharenko analyzes those „blocks” (conceptual, notional and figurative) that determine people’s comprehension of outward, perception of the surrounding reality, that stipulate national specificity of stereotypes (communicative and linguistic). These „ blocks” are implicit and imperceptible; they are difficult to perceive like the air which is plentiful and to which we are accustomed. But as soon as we breathe the air, it changes its quality and amount; we at once start „thinking of” its existence. The same occurs when we communicate with the representatives of other ethnic cultures [2, p. 286]. All stereotypes of the language world view perception include three components: cognitive (as knowledge about something), emotional (as treatment of something) and conduct (as ability to act in a certain way). When referring a person to one or another social community it is being ascribed a certain world view. The ethno-cultural and professional images of the world may be the examples of such world view invariants.

Neither the stereotype nor prototype is given once and for all but it changes in the course of time and in space (though these changes need much time): the prototype changes under the influence of science and the stereotype under the influence of culture. First of all the content of the stereotype alters and the changes can be quantitative and qualitative as well. The core of the stereotype remains comparatively unchangeable. In language stereotypes are studied as elements of the language world view [3].

The concept of worldview refers to the 'wide worldview' or 'wide world perception' of a people, family, or person. The worldview of a people originates from their unique world experience, which they accumulated over several millennia. The language of a people reflects the worldview of that people in the form of its syntactic structures and untranslatable connotations and its denotations.

Cultural concept is the basic ethno-cultural category, a complicated semantic entity, which contains conceptual, objective-figurative and value constituents. V.I. Karasyk distinguishes ethno-, socio- and individual cultural concepts. Being exceptionally complex phenomena, they may be generalized to form more abstract, global concepts as „life”, „nature”, and „existence” and are variously expressed through lexical and phraseological units, etiquette formulas, proverbs, sayings etc. [1, pp. 127-134]. The many-faceted nature of cultural concepts causes considerable difficulties in attempts to provide their typological classification and concept design of a certain ethnic world view.

The results of the pre-verbal intellectual activity in the language world view are verbalized with the help of word meaning, the meaning in its turn may change in a course of speech which influences both previous pre-verbal conceptions and preservation of already existing concepts. Consequently, changes in the lexical system at the level of language world view can cause changes in the conceptual system. For example, the frequent use of a word in a certain limited sense, complicated with additional semes finds its expression in the conceptual and language world views. Increased or diminished usage frequency of certain words is not just fixed presence or absence of certain phenomena but also brings about new standards of evaluation in human consciousness. Especially it concerns words that name abstract phenomena which characterize outward features and inward characteristics of man.

The world view is all the views and notions of the surrounding world, it is not simply a picture of the world taken in its integral form. The language world view contains something more than scientific information. It is a crucial regulative principle of all the vital relationships between man and social groups in their historical development. With its roots in the whole system of the individual and society's spiritual needs and interests, by all man's accumulated experience, the language world view exerts a tremendous influence on the life of society and the individual.

Bibliography

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2. Кухаренко В.А. Интерпретация текста. М.: Наука, 1988. – 321 c.

3. Лазарович О.М. Мовні стереотипи та мовна картина світу. http:// www.ccssu.crimea.ua

4. Леонович О.А. Введение в межкультурную коммуникацию: Учебное пособие. – М.: Гнозис, 2007. – 368 с.

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