The Semantic Field of the Concept Health
in English in Comparison With Ukrainian
The basis of cognitive linguistics
is cognitive semantics, which concentrates on the processes of conceptualization
and categorization of the world [2; 30].
Conceptualization comprises
principles of perception and judgment of a person and the phenomena of the
world around, i.e. the events occurring in it. The process of conceptualization
involves a dual discovery: the realization that there is an abstract common
notion which can link, collect or gather some set of distinct factors into one
abstract unity and the discovery of this abstract categorical unity as a
uniquely identifying label or name [2; 53].
According to the fact that the problem of categorization and
conceptualization of the world are key problems of cognitive science, we’ll
research the processes of conceptualization and categorization of the concept "health"
in English and Ukrainian.
The concept
"health" is included in the domain of Abstract notions that is
structured in the form of the category as in English so in Ukrainian. Since
this category covers the names of materials and notions, which are uncountable,
this category can be equal to the category of the state of human organism
within the frames of English and Ukrainian worldviews, because this category characterizes
the abstract notion.
Since concept is a separate sense, a certain idea, which exists in our subconsciousness as an
operative unit of mental processes and emerges, and there are such determinations
in English as: health, high spirits or feeling well and in
Ukrainian: здоров’я, гарний настрій or
чудове самопочуття it is not necessary to
"collect" these units from some components or signs in realization of
the process of thinking,
because corresponding
concepts exist in ready type and are not liable to division. They take part in consideration
or preparation of “external” language in the form of gestalts, holistic
profound units, which are correlated with knowledge about the world [3; 8].
We associate
“health” in English according to reaction on the stimulus to categorization:
stimulus: health/ reaction: laughter/
categorization: emotions;
stimulus: health/ reaction: cheerfulness/ categorization: behaviour;
stimulus: health/
reaction: feeling well/ categorization: medicine;
stimulus: health/ reaction:
train of thoughts/ categorization: psychology.
In comparison with English the following associations arise
in Ukrainian:
cтимул: здоров’я/ реакція: сміх/ категоризація: емоції;
cтимул: здоров’я/ реакція: жвавість/бадьорість/ категоризація: поведінка; cтимул: здоров’я/ реакція: гарне
самопочуття/ категоризація: медицина; cтимул: здоров’я/ реакція: здоровий глузд/ категоризація: психологія.
The domination of that or the other concept in
the semantic field is closely connected with conceptualization and
categorization of the world, which constantly interact and are divided only in
case when the purpose of conceptualization is to comprehend the whole
information, which person gets as a result of work of organs of five senses and
to estimate this activity in terms of concepts [6; 64]. Having analyzed the dominant
components of the concept “health” in English and Ukrainian we came to the
conclusion that in
comparison with English there are not so many components of “health” in
Ukrainian, but, nevertheless, they have something in common. The
components of “health” in English such as: lustiness, vigor/vigour,
haleness, strength, power, potency, robustness, force, vivacity, stingo, energy
correspond to one and the same component in Ukrainian such as: сила; English vigor/vigour, vitality, zing, pizzaz , zip,
pep, bounce, energy correspond to Ukrainian: енергія; English vitality, vigorousness, liveliness correspond
to Ukrainian: жвавість; English hardiness,
stamina correspond to Ukrainian: витривалість; English
well-being, bonnyness correspond to Ukrainian: квітучість; English soundness, heartiness correspond to
Ukrainian: дужість; English euphoria correspond
to Ukrainian: ейфорія; English puissance corresponds
to Ukrainian: свіжість; English fitness corresponds
to Ukrainian: фітнес; English healthiness corresponds
to Ukrainian: корисність; English healthfulness
corresponds to Ukrainian: цілюща сила; English well-being corresponds to Ukrainian: добробут; English vivacity corresponds
to Ukrainian: нормальна діяльність організму; English vitality, stamina correspond
to Ukrainian: життєздатність; English wholeness,
robustness correspond to Ukrainian: здоровість.
This can be explained by the fact that each
unit has some set of potentially possible "vectors" of association.
The vectors are chosen by representatives of that or the other national culture
and the domination of that or the other component depends on national cultural
specifics; or behind this stands "stereotype" or not relative
envision of the main set of associations which form the national concept. This
idea is represented concretely in consciousness as the "subject" and
it is subjected to the cognitive processing in the aggregate of all
relationships that are expressed by national cultural determination.
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