Bobrovnyk S.M.

National Technical University of Ukraine

"Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute , Ukraine

Communicative Values in Understanding of Foreign Text

Communicative values and concepts differ from country to country, from culture to culture and it is possible to find this confirmation in languages. It is very important to understand them, because it is impossible to translate foreign texts correctly without knowing communicative values of the people. Among the main values of the English culture, researchers frequently distinguish individualism, rationality, independence, pragmatism, equality, competition, traditionalism, tolerance. These values affect the way of life, interpersonal relationships, and human behavior.

The values stipulated by social and cultural type of relationships can be regarded as the most influential, they are the following: keeping distance, individual autonomy and equality. Personal space of the person, the right to independence, and the autonomous territory takes an important place in British culture in consciousness, in character, in nature, as well as in the language and communication. For its definition there is a special word – privacy, the exact equivalent of the word can be found neither in the Ukrainian nor in the Russian languages. Modern English writer and journalist Jeremy Paksman points to the importance of the privacy concept, it is not possible to translate the word into other languages, it is very important in the English culture, and this concept applies to the whole structure of the state, starting from the basics of law and ending the houses where the British live. As it is well-known, having your own house with a garden is a dream of every Englishman. While in other European countries, especially in Eastern Europe, most people lived in multi-family houses, close communities, blocks of flats, villages in close neighborhood, etc.

The British remain faithful to their traditions to live separately from each other. Jr. Paksman gives the following data: in France, Germany and Italy, more than half of homes built in the 90s are blocks of flats, and in England this indicator is 15%. A detached house is a material embodiment of the independence of the British, it depicts autonomy, isolation. However, they have no special attachment to the house as to the building, as well as to the land on which their house stands, if it is necessary, they will sell it and relocate to another place. Here the very abstract idea is important, where the own “home” helps clearly separate what is private and what is public.

The semantic core of the concept "private" is revealed in the inscription "PRIVATE" (“no trespassing"), that is – a zone of personal autonomy where outsiders are prohibited to enter. For example, such phrases as “respect somebody's privacy”, “private property”, “private conversation”, “private information”, “private talks”, “private ceremony”, “private thought”, “private tears” sound and are written in English concisely, but are translated into other languages with the help of using subordinate clauses.

The main difference in value priorities of Western and Slavic cultures is the fact that in Western cultures especially Protestant cultures personality is in the center of the hierarchy of values, with the uniqueness, individuality and love of freedom, and in the East Slavic cultures, human relations, belonging to community (collectivity), sincerity, hospitality, emotionality, immateriality, modesty are in the center of this value hierarchy. Eastern Slavonians do not have the tradition of distance, they do not keep zone of personal autonomy that we see in the English culture. As N. Berdyaev noted, the Russian people have always liked to live in the warmth of the team, "at some submergence, in the element of the Earth in the bosom of Mother" [Berdyaev 1990]. The word individualism in Russian contains a negative connotation unlike English where this concept has a positive connotation.

Manifestations of emotions in the Slavonian languages, unlike English are distinguished by expressivity, volume of sound, gestures, touches to an interlocutor are possible, that is unacceptable for the reserved British.

Nowadays when we all are the witnesses of missing of cultures, values and priorities of people, cultural difference is becoming unclear. However, it is preferable to believe that values will still remain, because they distinguish us from the other people, they define our identity.

Thus, the study of communicative values is a very important aspect of learning and understanding of foreign texts.

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