Багрій Ольга 

Чернівецький національний університет                                                                                                                                        

 

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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