Филологические науки/9.Этно- социо - и психолингвистика

Derevyanko Ye. P.

L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, Kazakhstan

To the issue of ethnic stereotype definition

Practical and social activity, the surrounding society, the person’s ethnic group influence person’s formation. An important role is played by the traditions, customs, rituals and ethnic consciousness of stereotyped community.

Specific beliefs, interests, needs, abilities and person’s character is formed during the stereotyping. Bodalyov A.A. called this as “person’s internal psychological content”, which is reflected in his actions. [1: 111]

The term “stereotype” (from Greek stereos means solid, typos - imprint) was firstly introduced into use in 1922 by the American journalist, political scientist and sociologist W. Lippmann. This term means “… well regulated, schematic, determined by the culture “pictures” of the world which are in the “heads” of a person to save his efforts during the perception of the complex social objects and to protect his values, positions and rights”. [9: 95]

The problems of public opinion, the developments of stereotypes theories were researched in more recent times as well. In the 20’s -30’s in USA, the sociologist Binkley R. defined the stereotype as “the greatest universal dominator” [7: 96] The scientist considered that the stereotypes allow the person to estimate more realistic the political situation which is difficult to analyze and which is remote from the sphere of his activity.

The scientists Katz D. and Braly K. developed a methodology of national stereotype research which became very widespread in their subsequent study. They conducted an experiment involving a hundred students of Princeton University. Students were given a list of 84 characteristics for the ten ethnic groups (Turks, Afro-Americans, Chinese, Germans, Japanese, Jews, Americans, Italians, Irish, and English). It was necessary to choose the characteristics which, in their opinion, were the basis for those groups. The results showed that in most cases the students unanimously correlated characteristics which in their opinion were inherent to this or that ethnic group in the best way. During the analysis of the results Katz D. and Braly K. defined “the ethnic stereotype” as “a steady representation which is little conformed with the realities which it tries to represent; this representation is derived from the person’s inherent properties first to identify the phenomenon and then to observe it” [8: 96]

At different periods of time there were suggested a large number of specific definitions of the stereotype; they were investigated from different points of view because of the complexity of this phenomenon. Shibutani T. gave the following definition: “The stereotype is a popular concept denoting the general group of people from the point of view of the slightly distinguished feature which is supported by the widespread representations concerning to the properties of those people” [6: 98]

Krasnyh V.V. considered the stereotype as “… a piece of picture in the consciousness. It is an image, caused by the national and cultural specific representation of the subject or situation, and not about the specific subject or situation which took place in a real or “virtual” reality – and, subsequently acquired the status of “a precedent”, but about the subject or situation in general” [3: 178-179]

Kobozeva I.M. tells that “… the stereotypes of the consciousness encoded in the structure of the language and appeared in his everyday use, by the native speakers can be not realized and even can come into collision with their conscious mental setting formed under the influence of upbringing and education” [2: 103].

Pavlovskaya A.V. gives the definition to the “stereotype” in the dictionaries and books of reference and comes to the following conclusion: stereotype is a “schematic, standardized image or idea about the social object, usually emotionally colored and have a high stability. It expresses the habitual person’s attitude to some kind of phenomena; this attitude is formed under the influence of social conditions and the previous experience” [4: 129]

Cultural heritage is transmitted to the younger generation partially in the form of stereotypes, which clearly differentiate “their own” speech community and the speech community of “others”. The notable contradistinctions appear at the mirror perception, when the members of conflicting communities ascribe positive features to themselves, and identical defects to the rivals. In this case the first group is peace-loving, the behavior is characterized by the altruistic motives, and the foreign group is “the evil empire” that pursues self-interests. An example of the mirror reflection can be a distorted perception of American and Russian to each other during the “Cold War”. [5:277]

According to the above giving definitions in can be assumed that the ethnic stereotype is the person’s internal content that influences his1asdzxc actions, behavior, movements. The internal content should be understood as the information transmitted by the culture from generation to generation which helps to protect our place in the society and to assess the sociocultural phenomena happening around us. Ethnic stereotypes clearly differentiate the speech community of “their own” and “others”, that is inevitable phenomena in the life of every member of a particular ethnic group.

Bibliography:

1. Bodalyov A.A. “The perception and understanding of person to person”-M., 1982 2.Kobozeva I.M. German, Englishman, Frenchman and Russian: identifying the stereotypes of the national characters by means of ethnonyms connotations analysis– М.: Вестник московского университета. Сер. 9 Филология. 1995 №3 - С.102-116

3. Krasnyh V.V. Ethnopsycholinguistics and lingucultural - М.: «Гнозис», 2002. - 284с.

4. Pavlovskaya A.V. Russian and America. The problem of culture communication.– М.: изд. МГУ, 1998. - 302с.

5. Stefanenko T.G. Ethnopsychology - М.: Аспект пресс, 2003. – 368с.

6. Shibutani T. “Social psychology” М., 1968 г.

7. Binkley Robert C. The Common Concept of Public Opinion in the Social Sciences // Social Forces.1928.Vol.6, p.393

8. Katz D., Braly K. Racial Stereotypes in One Hundred College Students // Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1933, Vol.28, p.288-289

9. Lippmann W. Public Opinion. N.Y., 1922.427 p.