Concepts development: four main directions (attractors)

К.ф.н. Морель Морель Д.А.

Белгородский филиал Современной гуманитарной академии, Россия

Concepts development: four main directions (attractors)

When studying different concepts we are not to forget that they exist neither separately nor independently. Due to multiple system links and relationships they are amalgamated into large complexes represented, treated and named differently: ontologies, semantic networks, frameworks, conceptual spheres [17; 20; 21; 2; etc.]. Such a diversity of approaches results from the very nature of concepts which are considered as multifold, multivariate, complex mental formations [6].

So there are many ways of concepts' structurization but whatever they are the presence of links between concepts in our minds, words in our language and realities of our world is beyond any doubt [22; 9]. However defined concepts result from the mental activity organizing the human experience, the knowledge in the large sense of the word, from the realities categorization for the purpose of their identifying [12].

As for the categorization generally speaking, we can reveal some macrodivisions of the cognitive picture of the world. The basic dichotomy "I / not I" comes firstly that is founded on the phenomenon of the self-consciousness and belongs to different cultures since their beginning. To this macrodivision we attribute not only the human's "inner world" (the "inward man" [5: 18]) but also the "outward" one (cf. [ibid.: 36-52]), so we are going on to speak about the "human world".

Then comes the subdivision of all is "not I". Historically the first fragment of the "outer world" is the "natural world" the nature being much closer to the people than now [27].

The development of social structures, the constitution of social institutes brought to the formation of the second macrodivision belonging to the "outer world" – the "social world". And the process of urbanization especially contributed to its emerging, expansion and overgrowth. Nowadays people generally live in the social world safely fenced off by the resources of the technosphere that keeps the nature away from. Thus the "social world" pretends to the domination in the structure of the cognitive picture of the world or, at the least, in its "outer" part.

A special question arises when we advert to the matter of the human's idea of supernatural. It's indicative that the creators of ‘Thésaurus Larousse’ (work directed by D. Péchoin) refer all the words concerning the domain of supernatural to the domains "human" → "spiritual life" (in our opinion referring the domain "cults and practices" to the domain "human", not to the "society" one, is rather arguable) [10]. But during all its history the human race constantly and obstinately appeals to forces beyond the common sense, rational speculations and natural laws. Such an appeal is raised independently of historical periods, of the geographical position, of the ethnical, cultural or social membership, of the level of development. So we have every reason to single out a one more "world" – the supernatural one and the works of eminent scientists (e.g. C. Lévi-Strauss, E.B. Tylor, J.G. Frazer, P. Brown) argue for it [16; 27; 13; 11].

We postulate these four worlds are the main directions of all concepts development, some kind of attractors (as for this term, see [25]) every concept gravitates towards. These directions can be actualized by every concept in its functioning and developing.

When researching an additional subdivision of these four worlds may be required. This way three large constituents may be revealed in the structure of the "natural world": biotic nature, abiotic nature, space [24]. The first two constituents, in their part are subdivided into some subconstituents building tree taxonomies (see [28; 19; 7]) that depend (as to their structure and elements (taxons)) on peculiar properties of their creators' picture of the world [14; 1] (see also [18]). The "human world" includes in our opinion inner material (physiological), inner non-material (emotional, rational, spiritual) and outer material (look) constituents [3]. We include to the structure of the "social world" the following constituents: 1) society, 1a) any social groups (age, social, interest, professional ones and so on), 1b) social relationships, institutes, socially relevant activities [ibid.]; 2) culture (as the society's product [24]), 2a) material culture, 2b) spiritual culture. The "supernatural world" may be subdivided into the magical, mythological and religious constituents (see e.g. [23; 26]).

Now we pass on to the examination of the thesis proposed above by the example of the French concept "NOURRITURE" (food) and its lexicalization means system.

Bringing to light one or another concept's peculiarities of its development in aforementioned directions we use the following procedure: 1) analysis of the concept descriptor's key meaning; 2) analysis of all concept descriptor's meanings; 3) choice of the concept's lexicalization means; 4) semantic analysis of the concept's lexicalization means; 5) analysis of the means representing the "interpretational field of concept" (as for this term, see [6: 63]).

Speaking about a concept's progressing toward one or another attractor we must determine some criteria, indices of this development (it is strongly advisable that they should have quantitative expression). We propose a semantic criterion for a purpose like this analyzing words that lexicalize the concept in question. The structure of lexical meaning must include semes that manifestly and straight correlate with one or another "world". So the number of semes like these is the quantitative characteristic of the influence of the corresponding attractors to a concept. In such a way we can make a graph in the polar coordinate system with four datum lines (attractors quantitatively).

The semantic analysis of the concept "NOURRITURE" descriptor's key meaning lets uncover relationships between this concept and the "natural world" (→ biotic nature → animals, plants; → abiotic nature (implicit link revealed only by definitional expansion through the word ‘substance’)) and the "human world" (→ inner material constituent) [3]. Analyzing the descriptor's system of meanings we can expand the sphere of relationships including the inner non-material constituent of the "human world" (all subconstituents – see above) and the "social world" (→ material culture, socially relevant activities) in [ibid.].

The analysis of the stratum distribution (kernel → perikernel area → close periphery → remote periphery) of the lexical means representing the concept in question [4] shows the following: 1) the action of the "natural" attractor stays quite uniform through all strata; 2) the "human" attractor influences almost only the perikernel area; 3) the same situation is in the case of the "supernatural" attractor; 4) the influence of the "social" attractor stably increases from the kernel to the remote periphery.

An interesting kind of linking food to the "human world" is the attribution of the first some to the "security perimeter" (term proposed by A. Leroi-Gourhan), considered as a condition of the moral and physical comfort [15: 139-140]. But the means lexicalising the concept "NOURRITURE" which link it with the "security perimeter" in fact reveal relationships with the "social world". They are nominations of special rooms and utensils used for cooking and storing food.

It's to emphasize that nowadays the "social" attractor manifestly predominates over all others in the development of the French concept "NOURRITURE". It is caused by two factors: 1) denominations of cooked food (which represent the major part of the means lexicalizing the concept's kernel area) mainly represent relationships with the "social" world (→ material culture, socially relevant activities); 2) numerous means lexicalizing the peripheric area by their major part also reveal links of this concept with various constituents of the "social world" [4].

We haven't yet carried out research according items 4 and 5 of the foregoing procedure in corpore, but the obtained intermediate results let suppose that the picture of links (concept "NOURRITURE" ↔ four "worlds") distribution will hardly change.

As we can see a concept can have more than one direction of its development. We think moreover that the more culturally significant, socially relevant is a concept the more possible is its development in more than one directions. The much greater stability of a concept (as a system) is thereby assured in case of the environment characteristics changing (in this case – extralinguistic factors changing).

Therefore we can say that in the case of concepts a special situation takes place when a complex system has many attractors and can oscillate between them (see [8]). When the number of attractors increases it favours the enlargement of the concept's state space and makes a concept more variable and steady facing changes of its environment.

As we have seen by the example of the French system of means lexicalizing the concept "FOOD" the development of any concept (and of its lexicalization means system too) doesn't progress evenly in the directions concerned. That's to say a concept is non-isometric. Isometric state of a concept (when all four attractors pull it concurrently and with an equal force) is hardly possible in our opinion. There is good reason to think that a nonequilibrium state is more peculiar to a complex, dynamic open system like concept.

Summing up we point out the following.

1. Each concept has four main directions of its development, that's to say there are concurrently four attractors in the concept's state space (see Fig. 1). But it's not necessarily that a concept actualizes all of its potential directions (gravitates towards all of attractors) in every single moment. Furthermore we suppose that only culturally relevant concepts can realize more than two directions simultaneously. But every concept however must have one attractor at the least.

Fig. 1. Attractors in the concept's state space

2. The augmentation of a number of the concept's development directions (attractors) provides against the concept's instability in its future functioning.

3. The development of a concept doesn't progress uniformly in all directions. Thus the polar coordinate system graph representing the concept's gravitation towards four main attractors couldn't be square. But in spite of the non-isometric organisation of a concept this one stays isomeric in all directions of its development.

4. The French concept "NOURRITURE" (food) is a model pattern of a socially relevant, nonequilibrium concept which gravitates towards all possible attractors at the same time.

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