Types and tasks of Linuaculturology

1. Types or directions of Linguaculturology

2. Tasks and purposes of Linguaculturology

3. Methodology and Linguaculturological methods

Question for self-examination:

1. What types of LC do you know? Define each of them.

2. Define basic purposes and tasks of LC.

3. What is methodology?

4. What are the methods used in LC?

Aim of LC - to study the ways in which language embodies, stores and transmits culture. Subject of LC - to study cultural semantics of language signs formed by means of two different codes – language and culture.

LC as an independent branch of knowledge should solve the specific problems and thus answer a number of questions which in most general view can be formulated like this:

1) how culture participates in formation of language concepts;

2) what part of language sign’s meaning «cultural senses» are attached to;

3) whether these senses are realized by speaker and listener and how do they influence speech strategy;

4) whether there is in reality a cultural-language competence of a native speaker, on the basis of which cultural senses are embodied in texts and distinguished by the native speakers;

5) what concept-sphere (set of the main concepts of the given culture) the bearer of the culture has;

6) how to systematize the main concepts of this science.

The types of LC:

1. LC of separate social group, ethnos in any culturally bright period, i.e. research of a particular lingua-culturological situation.

2. Diachronic LC i.e. the study of the changes in lingua-culturological condition of an ethnic group for a certain period of time.

3. Comparative LC investigates lingua-culturological manifestations of different, but interrelated ethnos.

4. Contrastive LC, a relatively new science. It only starts to develop. Today it is presented only by several works; most interesting of them is the work of M.K.Golovanivskaya «The French mentality from the point of view of the Russian speaker».

5. LC lexicography which is engaged in drawing up of dictionaries on Lingua-countrystudy.

LC is a humanitarian discipline that studies embodied in a living national language and linguistic processes, material and spiritual culture (Oparin). It allows you to set and explain one of the fundamental functions of language - to be an instrument of creation, development, storage, and transmission of culture.

The philosophy defines methodology as a system of principles and ways of the organization of theoretical and practical activities (The philosophical encyclopedic dictionary). It is set of the most essential elements of the theory, constructive for development of the science. The methodology is a conception of development of science, and the conception is a methodology of transition from the theory to practice.

The method is certain approach to the studied phenomenon, a certain complex of devices application of which gives the chance to study this phenomenon. Therefore the method always is system, and its specifics are defined by object of research and by research objective. Each method directly or indirectly depends on all-philosophical theories. The methodology of any science includes three levels: philosophical, general scientific and private methodology.

Philosophical methodology is the highest level, for which principles and categories of dialectics (Heraclitus, Platon, the Edging, etc.) are important.

General scientific methodology – generalization of methods and principles of studying by different sciences. The general scientific methodology changes together with the progress in science. As a result new methods and considerable updating of old ones are observed.

Private methodology – methods of a concrete science.

LC methods are a set of analytical devices, operations and the procedures used in the analysis of interrelation of language and culture. In LC it is possible to use linguistic, culturological, sociological methods. These methods are interrelated and connected with different informative principles, devices of analysis, which allows LC to investigate the difficult object – language and culture interaction. The device of metaphor analysis, offered by J.Lakoff allows receiving results, important for language and culture problem. V.N.Teliya offered the method of macro-componential model of knowledge. Except macro-componential model we assume to use actively psycho-socioclturological methods. Special area of research is devoted to lingua-culturological analysis of texts which are considered as original keepers of culture. In LC, you can use the linguistic and cultural and sociological methods - methods of content analysis, frame analysis, narrative analysis, which goes back to V.Propp, methods of field Ethnography, open interviews used in Psychology and Sociology, the method of linguistic reconstruction of the culture used in the school N.I.Tolstoy, and you can explore the material as traditional methods of Ethnography and experimental methods of Cognitive Linguistics, which are the most important source material by native speakers (informants). In this regard, there are several methods of LC:

1. Diachronic method, based on a comparative analysis of the various lingua-culturological units in time.

2. Synchronic method of comparing simultaneously existing lingua-culturological units.

3. Structural and functional method, involving the division of a cultural object into parts and identifying the links between the parts.

4. Historico-genetic method that focuses on the study of lingua-culturological fact from the point of view of its origin, development and future of the whole.

5. Typological method designed to identify the typological proximity of various lingua-culturological units in historical and cultural process.

6. The basis of the comparative-historical method is the comparison of original lingua-culturological units in time and insight into their nature

 

LECTURE 6

OBJECT OF LINGUACULTUROLOGY

1. Reasearch object of Linguaculturology

2. Research subjects of Linguaculturology

 

Questions for self-examination:

1. Define the notions of research object and subject.

2. What is object of LC?

3. What are subjects of LC?

4. Give example on LC subjects.

The object of the LC is the study of the culture through the prism of language (in the context of language); the study of the interaction of language, which is the translator of cultural information, culture and its attitudes and preferences and the person who creates this culture using the language. The object is placed on the "intersection" of several basic sciences - Linguistics and Cultural studies, Ethnography, Psycho-linguistics.

The subject of the study - language units that have acquired symbolic, standard, figurative and metaphorical meaning in culture, and summarize the results of human consciousness - recorded in the myths, legends, rituals, traditions, folklore and religious discourses, poetry and prose literary texts, phraseology and metaphors, symbols, proverbs and sayings.

1) non-equivalent lexicon and lacunas, which are the subject of research of Lingua-countrystudy as well;

2) mythologized language units; archetypes and mythologemes;

3) paremiological fund of language;

4) phraseological fund of language;

5) standards, stereotypes and symbols;

6) metaphors and images of language;

7) stylistic description of language;

8) speech behavior;

9) speech etiquette.

Let's consider in more detail each of them:

1. Non-equvalent language units – lexical units of the source language or dialect that does not have regular (full or partial) lexical correspondences in the target language (V.Vereshchagin, 1983).

To the category of Non-equivalent vocabulary primarily include words denoting specific things and events in the life of this cultural-linguistic community (realia, historicism, and lacuna). Thus, Esquire, cricket firmly associated with England and English culture, words ikebana, sakura, geisha - Japanese; dekhanin, village made irrigation ditch - with Central Asian (Vinogradov, 2001; Mechkovskaya 2000).

A. Sorokin and I.Yu.Markovina called lacunas all that foreign cultural text recipient noticed, but does not understand, everything that seems strange to him and require interpretation, the presence of which means that text is formed from national-specific elements of the culture, namely lacunas. (e.g. watch, clock- часы, дедушка и бабушка-grandparents, квас)

2. Mythologized language units: archetypes, mythologemes, ceremonies, beliefs, rituals, customs fixed in language. In each concrete phraseological unit is reflected not a complete myth, but a mythologeme.

Mythologeme - is an important mythological character, theme, situation, it is like a "main character" of the myth, which can move from myth to myth, or repeated in myths of different nations, cultures (ад, рай, богиня мать). At the heart of the myth, as a rule, there is archetype. Archetype - is a stable image, which appeared everywhere in the individual minds and has a wide spread in culture (S.Senderovich) (архетип мать, герой, спаситель -Геркулес, Синдбад, мудрый старик, старуха). Mythology is the repository of archetypes.

Rite unlike ritual is more durable over time, has a more complex structure and involves several steps. It is accompanied by special songs, dramatic action, dances, mummers, fortune telling, etc. (wedding, funeral).

Ritual is a system of actions made on strictly established order, traditional way and during certain time. According to V. Terner, ritual is an important means of maintenance of the general norms and values of people as a difficult system of ritual is connected with a symbol and so forth action becomes ritual when it loses expediency and becomes a semiotics sign. Ritual magically connected people with nature powers, with personified mythical beings, gods. Rituals are of demonstrative nature committed often in a festive atmosphere, with its ultimate goal to inspire people with certain social sense.

Ceremony. Any action can become a ceremony if it loses expediency and becomes a semiotics sign. The ceremony is closely connected with myths and ritual. The ceremony unlike ritual has more difficult structure, includes some stages and is longer in time.

Charm, spell, incantation, i.e. the harm put with a word, came from ancient times. To get rid of incantation, charm is necessary.

3. Paremiological fund of language, as the majority of proverbs are stereotypes that bear national consciousness. Not all proverbs can be regarded as a subject of LC, since they should reflect cultural identity of people.

4. Phraseological fund of language – the most valuable source of data on culture and mentality of people.

5. Standards, stereotypes, symbols.

A standard -an accepted or approved example of something against which others are judged or measured. A standard figuratively measures the world. It reflects a national outlook of people.

A stereotype is a fixed general image or set of characteristics representing a particular type of person or thing, but which may not be true in reality.

A symbol is something that represents or stands for something else, usually by convention or association, especially a material object used to represent something abstract; an object, person, idea, etc., used in a literary work, film, etc., to stand for or suggest something else with which it is associated either explicitly or in some more subtle way.

6. Metaphors and images. An image is a major language essence which contains the main information about word and culture connection. An image is a mental picture or association of ideas evoked in one’s mind; a mental representation or picture; idea produced by the imagination that which exists in the mind as the product of careful mental activity. Figurativeness is a real property of language units which causes "picture" in our consciousness. A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action that it does not literally denote in order to imply a resemblance. A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, as in "a sea of troubles" or "All the world's a stage" (Shakespeare). One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol: "Hollywood has always been an irresistible, prefabricated metaphor for the crass, the materialistic, the shallow, and the craven" (N.Gabler).

7. Stylistic description of language- the forms of language existence. Stylistic norms are regular, customary stylistic standards, rules considered to be acceptable in a language; a definite pattern of stylistic usage, departure from which renders a person liable to some kind of censure.

8. Speech behavior, and also any other behavior fixed in nominative units (grammatical and stylistic). Speech behavior is a code of behavior that delineates expectations for social behavior according to contemporary conventional norms within a society, social class, or group.

9. Speech etiquette - socially defined and culturally specific rules of human speech behavior in everyday situations, in accordance with their social and psychological roles, personal relations in the formal and informal communication environments. Etiquette - conventional requirements as to social -behavior; proprieties of conduct as established in any class or community or for any occasion; a prescribed or accepted code of usage in matters of ceremony, as at a court or in official or other formal observances; the code of ethical behavior regarding professional practice or action among the members of a profession in their dealings with each other: medical etiquette.

LECTURE 7