Филологические науки/3.Теоретические и методологические проблемы  исследования языка

Makovska O.O.

Department of Foreign Languages

Bukovinian State Medical University, Chernivtsi, Ukraine

CATEGORIZATION AND CONCEPTUALIZATION OF REALITY

In the mid-twentieth century structuralism as a linguistic trend seemed to be exhausted and scientists returned back to the study of language on the principles of anthropocentrism. The exploration of human thoughts, experience, cognition and their verbalization became a key issue of modern language science. Language functioning is investigated as a special cognitive ability of men and not as a sign system. Three areas, developed under the influence of anthropocentrism, can be distinguished in linguistics:

1) Cognitive linguistics is a direction, which explores the relationship between language and consciousness, the role of language in the conceptualization and categorization of the world, cognitive processes and synthesis of human experience, the relationship between certain cognitive abilities of human language and forms of their interaction. Language is a cognitive mechanism, system of signs, which transforms information and is specifically codified.

2) Functional linguistics (functionalism) is a set of schools and trends that have emerged as one of the branches of structural linguistics, characterized by their overwhelming focusing on the functioning of language as a means of communication. The basic principle of functional linguistics consists in the understanding of language as an integrated system of expressive means.

3) Generative linguistics (transformational-generative grammar, chomskyan linguistics) – the most popular from the late 1950s trend in world linguistics, which aims at developing and introducing linguistic theory similar to natural sciences; its founder and leader is Noam Chomsky (USA). The purpose of Chomsky's linguistic theory is to explain the fact of impressively rapid assimilation of native language by the child on the basis of insufficient external stimulus, i.e., the information that can be taken from the speech of others. At the core of human language ability there is an innate, biologically caused component that defines the parameters of human thought and, in particular, the structure of language knowledge.

One of the most important principles of cognitive linguistics is that meaning is central to language to the extent that it should be the primary focus. The structures of language are strongly connected to the semantics, they seek to depict. Linguistic specialists seek to understand how semantics and syntax work together, to understand the relationship between language and thinking. They also try to understand how language influences, how people form concepts [1; 2]. Cognitive linguists seek to understand how memory, categorization, imagery and attention affect language. They try to create psychological models for language that cover various linguistic phenomena, such as figurative language. This area of study covers multiple disciplines, such as brain, imaging and language acquisition. Cognitive linguists rely on empirical observation, neuroscience and experimental psychology. They see grammar as coming from the properties of neural systems. They also study and theorize about the functional principles of linguistic organization [2].

One of the most central human cognitive capabilities is the ability to generalize or as D. Geeraerts and H. Cuyckens say “the ability to schematize is one the most important cognitive human skills, since it involves the recognition of core commonalities, abstracting away from less important (for the cognitive task at hand) details which may differ from one concept or cognitive experience to another” [4]. This ability may be operative in any domain or combination of domains of cognition. The relationships of schematicity thus established are one of the main kinds of relationships that structure the “inventory of conventional linguistic units” which constitute a language [5; 6].

Basic processes used by cognitive linguistics are those by means of which schematization and arrangement of reality is provided: they are categorization, conceptualization, verbalization, frame representation of knowledge.

Categorization is defined by linguists [7; 8] as the most basic cognitive process. It is the ordering of phenomena according to similarity with the purpose of guiding our interaction with the environment. Categories are formed in accordance with a functional and adaptive structuring of reality. At the culture level categories come to be formed by becoming coded in language. The process of cultural category formation is functional in nature since it is based on a speech community’s adaptation to its environment. Semantic change reveals a great deal about this process as it shows how reality can be construed in alternate ways to facilitate this adaptation due to the fact that the semantic structure of a language is the product of conceptualization processes [7]. In the course of the examination of conceptual structure and identification of the main principles of conceptualization of the reality one should bear in mind that categorization is a step-by-step process: first an individual’s perception of the world is conceptualized, and then this conceptual representation is revealed in the language. The sensitive perception is based on the reflection of reality objects and phenomena in the human mind shaped as different concepts in the lexical meaning of words. In other words, the semantics of linguistic units “grasps” a particular part of reality. Obviously the language and lexis in particular is a means of objective world reflection. Consequently the lexical meaning of word presents a specific part of human knowledge about the object or phenomenon and is related to the word use in typical situations and contexts [8; 9].

The process opposite to categorization is conceptualization – presentation of objective reality from larger structure to the smallest one.

Conceptual system reflects the totality of human knowledge obtained in the course of the people’s cognitive activity and shaped as separate concepts, which correlate with lexical items. Thus, any area of human activity is reflected in the conceptual structures. Studying of this part of the conceptual system is aimed at the detection of the minimal units (concepts) which form the basis for the categorization of these linguistic units as language representations of the concepts [8].

Cognitive conceptualization of human experience is based on the principle, according to which human ability to learn languages, is a product of general cognitive processes in the brain. The repetition of cognitive experience leads to establishment of cognitive structures, which are later involved into the interpretation of new knowledge. And language reflects presence of such universal experience [10].

R. Dirven [3] notes that conceptual categories which are laid down in a language are linguistic categories or linguistic signs. Any linguistic sign has a form and meaning, which roughly speaking is identical with a concept. A meaning or concept relates to some entity in our experienced world. A more comprehensive view of language as a system of signs must also include the human “conceptualizer” and the world as it is experienced.

Cognitive science meets the parameters of research of interdisciplinary nature, so the study of cognitive linguistics implies the review and analysis of major trends and prospects of development of this branch in modern linguistics; confirmation of anthropocentric nature of cognitive linguistics; description of its main principles; characteristics of basic processes stimulated / regulated by cognitive linguistics.

References:

1. Kemmer S. About Cognitive Linguistics / Suzanne Kemmer 2007. – Режим доступу: http://www.cognitivelinguistics.org/cl.shtml

2. Asgari T. The Study of Image Schemas in Hafez Poems: Cognitive Perspective / Tayebeh Asgari // International Journal of Language and Linguistics. – 2013. – N 4. – Vol. 1. – P. 182–190.

3. Dirven R. Cognitive Exploration of Language and Linguistics / René Dirven, Marjolyn Verspoor. – Philadelphia, 2004. – 277 р.

4. Geeraerts D. The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics / Dirk Geeraerts, Hubert Cuyckens. – Oxford University Press, 2010.

5. Geeraerts D. Advances in Cognitive Sociolinguistics / Dirk Geeraerts, Gitte Kristiansen, Yves Peirsman. – Berlin-New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2007. – 334 p.

6. Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk B. Cognitive Linguistics Today / Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, Kamila Turewicz. – 2002. – 704 p.

7. Győri G. Basic Level Categories and Meaning in Language / Gábor Győri // Argumentum. – 2013. – № 9. – P. 149–161.

8. Gunina N.A. Cognitive Semantics of the English Verbs of Sound / N.A. Gunina // Вопросы современной науки и практики / Университет им. В.И. Вернадского. – 2010. – № 10-12(31). – P. 342–348.

9. Кубрякова, Е.С. Части речи с когнитивной точки зрения / Е.С. Кубрякова. – М. : Изд-во ин-та языкознания РАН, 1997. – 331 с.

10. Corrigan R. Formulaic language // Roberta Corrigan, Edith A. Moravcsik, Hamid Ouali. – Philadelphia, 2009. – Vol. 2. – 305 p.