Basic terms and categories of Linguaculturology

1. Terms of LC

2. Mindset

3. Linguacultureme

 

Questions for self-examination:

1. List basic concepts of LC. Call the most important of them.

2. How do you explain the concept of mindset (mentality)?

3. Describe a type of mentality in your region.

4. Give a LC description of your region.

 

As a special area of science, LC generated many productive concepts.

Cultural semes - smaller and more universal than semantic units, signs.

Cultural background - A cultural background is the source of a person's experiences and personality. The cultural background of a person includes his or her ancestors, traditions, religion, native foods, and even physical characteristics. A person's cultural background is believed to determine how they are able to fit into larger social structures. Isolated cultural backgrounds make it more difficult for a person to fit into a more dominant culture easily. One's cultural background is believed to be what makes it easy or difficult for a person to make friends.

Cultural concepts - abstract concepts with cultural components.

Cultural inheritance - the transmission of cultural values, information that is relevant to the culture.

Cultural traditions - set of the most valuable elements of social and cultural heritage; an integrated phenomenon expressing socially stereo typified group experience which is accumulated and reproduced in society.

Cultural process – interaction of the elements belonging to system of the cultural phenomena.

Cultural space – a form of existence of culture in consciousness of its representatives. Cultural space is comparable to the cognitive space (individual and collective), for it is the totality of all forms of individual and collective spaces of all the representatives of the cultural and national identity. For example, the Russian cultural space, the English cultural space, etc.

The type of culture defines type of the identity of each of its representatives.

Cultural language –the system of signs and their relations established by means of coordination of valuable - semantic forms.

Cultural installations – the ideals dictated by society and nature.

Cultural values carry out the most different functions in human life mechanisms.

Linguaculturological paradigm –a set of linguistic forms and categories reflecting ethnic, social, historical, scientific worldview. A paradigm is a model or pattern that represents a typical example of the item or idea. In science, a paradigm is an agreement among scientists that details the scope, problems, and assumptions of a particular discipline. For example, there may be a paradigm for how to treat a particular type of cancer; what drugs to use and in what combinations and for how long, what outcomes may be expected.

In decision theory and general systems theory, a Mindset (mentality) is a set of assumptions, methods, or notations held by one or more people or groups of people that is so established that it creates a powerful incentive within these people or groups to continue to adopt or accept prior behaviors, choices, or tools. This phenomenon is also sometimes described as mental inertia, "groupthink", or a "paradigm", and it is often difficult to counteract its effects upon analysis and decision making processes.

Cultural fund – a complex fund of knowledge, outlook in the field of national and world culture which a typical representative of this or that culture possesses.

Linguacultureme - is a term meaning of language that includes not only elements such as grammar and vocabulary, but also past knowledge, local and cultural information, habits and behaviours.

Culture is known to have many meanings. One of them refers to the spiritual and material achievements of humanity. N.I.Tolstoy regarded culture by four sections - elite, folk, vernacular and professional. These cultures are closely connected with one another and one culture is part of the others.

1. Elite culture- literary language, culture of the educated level, bookish. Elite culture is a highly developed sphere; it is comprised of painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, music.

2. Folk culture - dialects and sub-dialects, peasants. Folk culture refers to the localized lifestyle of a culture. It is usually handed down through oral tradition, relates to a sense of community, and demonstrates the "old ways" over novelty. Folk culture is quite often imbued with a sense of place. If its elements are copied by, or removed to, a foreign locale, they will still carry strong connotations of their original place of creation Folk culture is the culture of everyday life and routine relations of social life. Folk culture consists of traditional knowledge and practice. It is like a habit of people, thus this culture does not change very quickly

3. Vernacular (colloquial, popular) - the "third culture", i.e. culture of people, intermediate culture; It refers to cultural forms made and organised by ordinary people for their own pleasure, in modern societies. Such culture is almost always engaged in on a non-profit and voluntary basis, and is almost never funded by the state.It is mass culture. It is a professionally organized sphere that works for a large mass of people. This culture gives people, especially young, standards to be what they like. The use of the term generally implies a cultural form that differs markedly from a deeply-rooted folk culture, and also from tightly-organised subcultures and religious cultures.

4. Argo - professional subculture (bookkeeping, engineering culture).

Argo (from Fr. Argot) - language a closed social group of people characterized by specific vocabulary, original use, but not having its own grammatical and phonetic system.

It is not to be confused argo and jargon. Jargon usually has a professional attachment, argo is used regardless of profession. Often argo means the language of an underclass of society, the language of thieves, vagabonds and beggars. Argo interacts with jargon and vernacular, forming a special lexical layer - slang. Argo is often identified with the concept of secret language. We see here that the structure of culture reveals some similarities with the structure of the language. A vision of a particular social group is based on culture. Language used by any particular social group, reflect its view of the world. A comprehensive world view (or worldview) is the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the entirety of the individual or society's knowledge and point-of-view. A world view can include natural philosophy; fundamental, existential, and normative postulates; or themes, values, emotions, and ethics. The true founder of the idea that language and worldview are inextricable is the Prussian philologist, Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835). Humboldt argued that language was part of the creative adventure of mankind. Culture, language and linguistic communities developed simultaneously, he argued, and could not do so without one another. In stark contrast to linguistic determinism, which invites us to consider language as a constraint, a framework or a prison house, Humboldt maintained that speech is inherently and implicitly creative. Human beings take their place in speech and continue to modify language and thought by their creative exchanges. Worldview remains a confused and confusing concept in English, used very differently by linguists and sociologists.

As natural language becomes manifestations of world perception, the literature of a people with common world view emerges as holistic representations of the wide world perception of the people. Thus the extent and commonality between world folk-epics becomes a manifestation of the commonality and extent of a worldview.

Epic poems are shared often by people across political borders and across generations. Examples of such epics include the Nibelungenlied of the Germanic people, the Iliad for the Ancient Greeks and Hellenized societies, the Silappadhikaram of the South Indian people, the Ramayana and Mahabharata of the North Indian people, the Gilgamesh of the Mesopotamian-Sumerian civilization and the people of the Fertile Crescent at large, The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian nights) of the Arab world and the Sundiata epic of the Mandé people.

 

 

LECTURE 8

NOTION OF LINGUACULTURE

1. Types and elements of culture

2. Unit of culture- meme

 

Questions for self-examination:

1. Explain the concept of culture.

2. Name the characteristic features of any culture.

3. Define the notion of cultural evolution.

4. Give example on Internet meme.

5. How do memes spread in your community?

 

Culture is a part of language, just as language is a part of culture and the two partly overlapping realities can intersect in many ways –where the term “linguaculture” may serve. Culture is the sets, associations and cybernetic networks of patterns, regularities, symbols and values (and ideas about them), behavioral, linguistic, and ideological, explicit and implicit, rational and emotional, conscious, unconscious and subconscious, that are differentially shared, transmitted in history, and created (or recreated) by the members, as individual agents or collectively, of a given society si situated in concrete time and space.

Culture is perhaps the most complex and comprehensive category in the history of mankind, which is comparable just to the phenomenon of life in general. Culture (Latin: cultura, lit. "Cultivation") is a modern concept based on a term first used in classical antiquity by the Roman orator Cicero: "cultura animi" (cultivation of the soul). This non-agricultural use of the term "culture" re-appeared in modern Europe in the 17th century referring to the betterment or refinement of individuals, especially through education. During the XVIII and XIX century it came to refer more frequently to the common reference points of whole peoples, and discussion of the term was often connected to national aspirations or ideals. Some scientists such as Edward Tylor used the term "culture" to refer to a universal human capacity. In the 20th century, "culture" emerged as a central concept in Anthropology, encompassing the range of human phenomena that cannot be directly attributed to genetic inheritance. Specifically, term "culture" in Anthropology had two meanings:

1. Evolved human capacity to classify and represent experiences with symbols, and to act imaginatively and creatively; and

2. Distinct ways that people, who live differently, classified and represented their experiences, and acted creatively.

Culture is described as an integrated system of learned behavior patterns which are characteristic of the members of a society and which are not a result of biological inheritance.

Culture – set of patterns of human activity within a society or social group and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. Customs, laws, dress, architectural style, social standards, religious beliefs, and traditions are all examples of cultural elements.

Elements of culture

The Arts – vast subdivision of culture composed of many creative endeavors and disciplines. The art encompasses visual arts, literary arts and the performing arts.

Gastronomy – the art and science of good eating, including the study of food and culture.

Food preparation – act of preparing foodstuffs for eating. It encompasses a vast range of methods, tools, and combinations of ingredients to improve the flavour and digestibility of food.

Food and drink-

Cuisines – a cuisine is a specific set of cooking traditions and practices, often associated with a specific culture.

Literature – the art of written works.

Children's literature – stories, books, and poems for children.

Fiction – any form of narrative which deals, in part or in whole, with events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary and invented by its author(s). See below.

Non-fiction – form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be factual.

Poetry – literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning.

Critical theory – examination and critique of society and culture, drawing from knowledge across the social sciences and humanities.

Performing arts – those forms of art that use the artist's own body, face, and presence as a medium.

Dance – art form of movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction, or presented in a spiritual or performance setting.

Film – moving pictures, the art form that records performances visually.

Theatre – collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place.

Music – art form the medium of which is sound and silence.

Music genres

Jazz – musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States, mixing African and European music traditions.

Opera – art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text (called a libretto) and musical score.

Musical instruments – devices created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds.

Guitars – the guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with either nylon or steel strings.

Stagecraft – technical aspects of theatrical, film, and video production. It includes, but is not limited to, constructing and rigging scenery, hanging and focusing of lighting, design and procurement of costumes, makeup, and procurement of props, stage management, and recording and mixing of sound.

Visual arts – art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature.

Architecture – The art and science of designing and erecting buildings and other physical structures.

Classical architecture – architecture of classical antiquity and later architectural styles influenced by it.

Crafts – recreational activities and hobbies that involve making things with one's hands and skill.

Drawing – visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium.

Film – moving pictures.

Painting – practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface with a brush or other object.

Photography – art, science, and practice of creating pictures by recording radiation on a radiation-sensitive medium, such as a photographic film, or electronic image sensors.

Sculpture – three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials - typically stone such as marble - or metal, glass, or wood.

Entertainment – any activity which provides a diversion or permits people to amuse themselves in their leisure time. Entertainment is generally passive, such as watching opera or a movie.

• Games – structured playing, usually undertaken for enjoyment, involving goals, rules, challenge, and interaction and presence as a medium.

• Fiction – any form of narrative which deals, in part or in whole, with events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary and invented by its author(s).

• James Bond – fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming. Since then, the character has grown to icon status, featured in many novels, movies, video games and other media.

• Fantasy – genre of fiction using magic and the supernatural as primary elements of plot, theme or setting, often in imaginary worlds, generally avoiding the technical/scientific content typical of Science fiction, but overlapping with it

• Middle-earth – fantasy setting by writer J.R.R. Tolkien, home to hobbits, orcs, and many other mystical races and creatures.

• Science fiction – a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible (or at least nonsupernatural) content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities. Exploring the consequences of scientific innovations is one purpose of science fiction, making it a "literature of ideas".

• Sports – organized, competitive, entertaining, and skillful activity requiring commitment, strategy, and fair play, in which a winner can be defined by objective means. Generally speaking, a sport is a game based in physical athleticism. Ball games

• Basketball – team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules.

• Cricket – bat-and-ball team sport, the most popular form played on an oval-shaped outdoor arena known as a cricket field at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard (20.12 m) long pitch that is the focus of the game.

• Tennis – sport usually played between two players (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles), using specialized racquets to strike a felt-covered hollow rubber ball over a net into the opponent's court.

• Canoeing and kayaking – two closely related forms of watercraft paddling, involving manually propelling and navigating specialized boats called canoes and kayaks using a blade that is joined to a shaft, known as a paddle, in the water.

• Combat sports

• Fencing – family of combat sports using bladed weapons. It is also known as French swordfighting or French swordfencing.

• Martial arts – extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development.

• Cycling sport – bicycle racing and track cycling.

• Motorcycling – riding a motorcycle. A variety of subcultures and lifestyles have been built up around motorcycling and motorcycle racing.

• Running – moving rapidly on foot, during which both feet are off the ground at regular intervals (Bronze Age ca. BC 3000 – Late Antiquity ca. AD 300–600); especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.

• Mass media – diversified media technologies and their content that are intended to reach a large audience by mass communication. Includes radio and television programming; mass publishing of books, magazines, and newspapers; web content; and films and audio recordings.

• Tradition - A tradition is a belief or behavior passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes (like lawyer wigs or military officer spurs), but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings. Traditions can persist and evolve for thousands of years—the word "tradition" itself derives from the Latin tradere or traderer literally meaning to transmit, to hand over, to give for safekeeping. While it is commonly assumed that traditions have ancient history, many traditions have been invented on purpose, whether that is political or cultural, over short periods of time.

• Celebration, festivals – entertainment events centering on and celebrating a unique aspect of a community, usually staged by that community.

• Tourism – travel for recreational, leisure, or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes". Tourism is important, and in some cases, vital for many countries.

Cultures by aspect

• Consumer culture – a society based on consumerism

• High context culture – a culture with the tendency use high context messages, resulting in catering towards in-groups

• Low context culture – culture with a tendency not to cater towards in-groups

• Remix culture – a society which allows and encourages derivative works

• Participatory culture – a culture in which private persons (the public) do not act as consumers only, but also as contributors or producers (prosumers)

• Permission culture – a society in which copyright restrictions are pervasive and enforced to the extent that any and all uses of copyrighted works need to be explicitly leased

• Primitive culture – a community that lacks major signs of economic development or modernity

Cultural cross-sections

• Children's culture – cultural phenomena pertaining to children

• Children's street culture – cumulative culture created by young children

• Coffee culture – social atmosphere or series of associated social behaviors that depends heavily upon coffee –, particularly as a social lubricant –

• Culture of capitalism – the lifestyle of the people living within a capitalist society, and the effects of a global or national capitalist economy on a population

• DIY culture – refers to a wide range of elements in non-mainstream society, such as grassroots political and social activism, independent music, art, and film

• Dominant culture – the established language, religion, behavior, values, rituals, and social customs of a society

• Drinking culture – the customs and practices of people who drink alcoholic beverages

• Folk culture – traditional culture; traditional cultural traits of a community

• Low culture – is a derogatory term for some forms of popular culture that have mass appeal. Its contrast is high culture. (Reality television, popular music)

• High culture –is a term, now used in a number of different ways in academic discourse, whose most common meaning is the set of cultural products, mainly in the arts, held in the highest esteem by a culture.

• Official culture – is the culture that receives social legitimation or institutional support in a given society. Official culture is usually identified with bourgeoisie culture.

• Political culture – Political culture is defined by the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences as "the set of attitudes, beliefs and sentiments that give order and meaning to a political process and which provide the underlying assumptions and rules that govern behavior in the political system".

• Popular culture – totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that permeate the everyday lives of a given society, especially those heavily influenced by mass media.

• Print culture – is defined by the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences as "the set of attitudes, beliefs and sentiments that give order and meaning to a political process and which provide the underlying assumptions and rules that govern behavior in the political system". It encompasses both the political ideals and operating norms of a polity. Political culture is thus the manifestation in aggregate form of the psychological and subjective dimensions of politics. A political culture is the product of both the collective history of a political system and the life histories of the members of the system and thus it is rooted equally in public events and private experience"

• Safety culture – the way in which safety is managed in the workplace, which often reflects "the attitudes, beliefs, perceptions and values that employees share in relation to safety."

• Tea culture – is defined by the way tea is made and consumed, by the way the people interact with tea, and by the aesthetics surrounding tea drinking, it includes aspects of: tea production, tea brewing, tea arts and ceremony, society, history, health, ethics, education, and communication and media issues.

• Trash culture –is used for labeling the cultural by-products of modernism. These include television, fast-food, mass media, cars, popular music, teenage culture, movies, professional sports, tabloids, comic books, cartoons, shopping malls, amusement parks, carnivals, casinos, supermarkets and the like.

• Urban culture –is the culture of cities. Cities all over the world, past and present, have behaviors and cultural elements that separate them from otherwise comparable rural areas.

• Vernacular culture – s a term used in the modern study of geography and cultural studies. It refers to cultural forms made and organised by ordinary people for their own pleasure, in modern societies. Such culture is almost always engaged in on a non-profit and voluntary basis, and is almost never funded by the state.

Subcultures

• Alternative culture – exists outside or on the fringes of mainstream or popular culture, usually under the domain of one or more subcultures.

• Counterculture – Counterculture (also written counter-culture) is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, orsubculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior deviates from the societal norm.

• Oppositional culture – also known as the ‘’blocked opportunities framework’’ or the “caste theory of education”, is a term most commonly used in studying the sociology of education to explain racial disparities in educational achievement, particularly between white and black Americans. However, the term refers to any subculture's rejection of conformity to prevailing norms and values, not just nonconformity within the educational system. Thus many criminal gangs and religious cults could also be considered oppositional cultures.

• Security culture – is a set of customs shared by a community whose members may engage in illegal or sensitive activities, the practice of which minimizes the risks of such activities being subverted, or targeted for sabotage. The term is used in the context of activist groups and movements, particularly ones that might be involved in direct action, but it is also in use in most corporations, and certain arms of government. The main focus of a security culture is keeping infiltrators and other potentially damaging parties out.

Underground culture (disambiguation) – An underground culture is a subculture or counterculture that exists outside the scope of mainstream mass media and popular culture. It may also refer to:

• Underground comix, small press or self-published alternative comic books

• Underground economy or black market, commerce under the radar of taxes and regulations

• Underground film, cinema outside the commercial mainstream

• Underground music, music with a following despite moderate commercial success

• Underground hip hop, a style of hip hop music

• Underground art, art with a following independent of commercial success

• Underground press, the alternative print media in the late 1960s and early 1970s

• UK underground, a 1960s countercultural movement in the United Kingdom

Cultures by ethnicity or ethnic sphere

• Western culture

• Anglo America

• Latin American culture

• Anglosphere

• African American culture

• Indosphere

• Sinosphere

• Islamic culture

• Arab culture

• Tibetan culture

Cultures of continents and major geopolitical regions

• Culture of Africa

• Culture of Antarctica

• Culture of Asia

• Culture of Europe

• Culture of North America

• Culture of Oceania

• Culture of Australia

• Culture of South America

It should be noted that the concept of "units of culture" itself is relatively new. One of the earliest references (1945) about the "unity of culture" belongs to M. Herskovits, famous American anthropologist, one of the disciples and followers of F.Boas. W. Durham, pondering over what could be a unit of culture, expressed the judgment that it should:

1) to include information that is actually or potentially determines the behavior;

2) to fit variable size, type and ways of organizing the information, which represents a set hierarchy and integration;

3) subdivided into arrays of information that is transmitted in the form of various coherent, functional units.

A meme is "an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture." A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate, and respond to selective pressures.

The word meme is a shortening (modeled on gene) of mimeme (from Ancient Greek mīmēma, "imitated thing") and it was coined by the British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene (1976) as a concept for discussion of evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. Examples of memes given in the book included melodies, catch-phrases, fashion, and the technology of building arches. Proponents theorize that memes may evolve by natural selection in a manner analogous to that of biological evolution. Memes do this through the processes of variation, mutation, competition, and inheritance, each of which influence a meme's reproductive success. Memes spread through the behavior that they generate in their hosts. Memes that propagate less prolifically may become extinct, while others may survive, spread, and (for better or for worse) mutate. Memes that replicate most effectively enjoy more success, and some may replicate effectively even when they prove to be detrimental to the welfare of their hosts.

A field of study called memetics arose in the 1990s to explore the concepts and transmission of memes in terms of an evolutionary model. Memes generally replicate through exposure to humans, who have evolved as efficient copiers of information and behaviour. Because humans do not always copy memes perfectly, and because they may refine, combine or otherwise modify them with other memes to create new memes, they can change over time. Dawkins likened the process by which memes survive and change through the evolution of culture to the natural selection of genes in biological evolution.

Memes reproduce by copying from a nervous system to another one, either by communication or imitation. Imitation often involves the copying of an observed behaviour of another individual. Communication may be direct or indirect, where memes transmit from one individual to another through a copy recorded in an inanimate source, such as a book or a musical score. Aaron Lynch described seven general patterns of meme transmission, or "thought contagion":

1. Quantity of parenthood: an idea that influences the number of children one has. Children respond particularly receptively to the ideas of their parents, and thus ideas that directly or indirectly encourage a higher birthrate will replicate themselves at a higher rate than those that discourage higher birthrates.

2. Efficiency of parenthood: an idea that increases the proportion of children who will adopt ideas of their parents. Cultural separatism exemplifies one practice in which one can expect a higher rate of meme-replication—because the meme for separation creates a barrier from exposure to competing ideas.

3. Proselytic: ideas generally passed to others beyond one's own children. Ideas that encourage the proselytism of a meme, as seen in many religious or political movements, can replicate memes horizontally through a given generation, spreading more rapidly than parent-to-child meme-transmissions do.

4. Preservational: ideas that influence those that hold them to continue to hold them for a long time. Ideas that encourage longevity in their hosts, or leave their hosts particularly resistant to abandoning or replacing these ideas, enhance the preservability of memes and afford protection from the competition or proselytism of other memes.

5. Adversative: ideas that influence those that hold them to attack or sabotage competing ideas and/or those that hold them. Adversative replication can give an advantage in meme transmission when the meme itself encourages aggression against other memes.

6. Cognitive: ideas perceived as cogent by most in the population who encounter them. Cognitively transmitted memes depend heavily on a cluster of other ideas and cognitive traits already widely held in the population, and thus usually spread more passively than other forms of meme transmission. Memes spread in cognitive transmission do not count as self-replicating.

7. Motivational: ideas that people adopt because they perceive some self-interest in adopting them. Strictly speaking, motivationally transmitted memes do not self-propagate, but this mode of transmission often occurs in association with memes self-replicated in the efficiency parental, proselytic and preservational modes.

An Internet meme is an idea, style or action which spreads, often as mimicry, from person to person via the Internet, as with imitating the concept. Some notable examples include posting a photo of people in public places lying down planking and uploading a short video of people dancing to the Harlem Shake.

A meme can be considered a mimicked theme, including simple phrases or gestures. An Internet meme may take the form of an image, hyperlink, video, picture, website, or hashtag. It may be just a word or phrase, including an intentional misspelling. These small movements tend to spread from person to person via social networks, blogs, direct email, or news sources.

They may relate to various existing Internet cultures or subcultures, often created or spread on sites and numerous others in our time, or by Usenet boards and other such early-internet communications facilities. Sensations tend to grow rapidly on the Internet, because the instant communication facilitates word-of-mouthtransmission.

 

LECTURE 9

NOTION OF WORLD MODEL

1. Historical background to defining the notion of World Model.

2. Classification of WM

3. Characteristics of SWM and LWM

 

Questions for self-examination:

1. Define the notion of WM

2. Name the types of WM

3. What is the difference between SWM and LWM.

 

The notion of “World Model” is widely used by representatives of different sciences: by philosophers, psychologists, gnosiologists, culturologists, and linguists. Being engaged into the widening circle of the fields of scientific knowledge, the "World model" concept gains co-definitions, such as "science-natural", "historical", "physical", "biological", and "linguistic". But all the same it remains the sort of metaphor, because different scientists fill it with different contents. Hereafter, we shall refer to this notion as to scientific term without any quotation marks world model, trying to concretize this notion in the frames of Linguistics.

In nowadays Linguistics different research workers fill the notion of world model with different content. There exists a wide range of approaches to the definition of this concept. Nevertheless, in all cases of its usage world model as a linguistic notion seems to be properly arranged systematization of the language semantic content. Every national language fulfills two main functions: communicative and nominative ones. As a matter of fact, the last one implies the function of recording and keeping in language lexical and idiomatic staff the whole variety of concepts and ideas about the world, worked out by certain national mentality. So the universal (global) knowledge about the world fixed in language patterns is the result of the efforts of a collective mind. But one can speak about different kinds of a human consciousness: the individual mind of a person, the collective everyday mentality of a nation, the scientific mentality. That's why it is possible to speak about a large number of world models, at least about three of them: scientific world model, world model of national language, world model of a person. Each type of mentality records in language matrices all the results of world comprehension. In linguistic literature the notion of "scientific world model" is usually not being discussed. It appears to be the obvious objective constant in traditional two-member opposition: scientific world model-language world model. Both of the models find their reflection in language of science and in standard national language correspondingly.

Linguists are fully absorbed by analysis of national world model. Meanwhile, the scientific world model is learnt only in the aspect of language it uses for the embodiment of its notions, but the conceptual status of the scientific language remains not elucidated at all. Nevertheless, the adjoining to Linguistics sciences (philosophy for example) pays a lot of attention to the clearing up of the scientific knowledge status.

Many outstanding scientists (A. Einstein, V. Vernadskiy, M. Plank, etc.) have been taking great interest in conceptual meaning of the scientific knowledge, of how this knowledge arranges into a global structure. For example, A. Einstein wrote about human's longing to create the clear and simple model of the world so as to break away from the world of sensations, trying at the same time to substitute this world for the newly created model. According to A. Einstein, that's what artists, poets, philosophers, naturalists do each one in his own manner. Exactly this model becomes the center of human's spiritual life, giving to the man a feeling of confidence and certitude. This definition contains no attempt to separate the scientific world model from presentation of the world by non-scientific consciousness. It is only said, that man tries to replace the reality by some created model, which finds various incarnations in the forms of scientific theories, classifications, pieces of art. This A. Einstein's statement belongs to those numerous interpretations of the scientific world model, which underline only the most common features of this notion. World model is defined here in rather uncertain, approximate way. From definitions of such a sort one can only figure out, that the world models are simplified substitution of the real world by the invented scheme or image of the objective reality.

M. Plank shows more concreteness in defining world model and scientific world model. World model formation goes, according to his opinion, through two stages: the first stage implies subjective sensual perception of the world; at the second stage the "diverse subjective variety" is replaced by the objective order, by universal knowledge about the world. According to M. Plank, people's sensations, provoked by the same subjects, differ, though the image of the world appears to be invariable. M. Plank previews, that the scientific world model will be feeble and dull in comparison with original world model. And it's of no wonder, because the scientific world model is a model of exact science. Such understanding of these notions excludes from the contents of the world model and the scientific world model all things linked with man and society, because the social sphere has never been the object of the exact sciences. Including in the scientific world model of everything, concerned with man and society, makes it universal.

That's why, to the thought of philosophers, in scientific world model must be realized V. Vernadskiy's idea about the integration process in the development of science: separate natural and historical phenomena must merge into a single whole, creating the complete model of the Universe.

M. Heidegger exposes the following understanding of relationship between a man and the world model:

1. man represents the world as a model;

2. man understands the world as a model;

3. the world turns into a model;

4. man conquers the world as a model.

M. Heidegger makes an important conclusion: man represents for himself the world model, composes it and just from this moment his activity starts. For this author the notion of a world model is inseparably connected with the subject of historical process, i.e. with individual, who perceives and changes the world.

For Heidegger the problem of the world model formation is closely connected with a world outlook, because if "the world becomes a model, the man's attitude is understood as an outlook." In Heidegger's interpretation the world model is a kind of representation of the "essence", and the outlook is treated as man's attitude to the "essence." Heidegger doesn't acknowledge two separate world models for nature and history: he combines them into the single one. There is no contradiction between Plank's and Heidegger's points of view. Heidegger's approach adds a lot to Plank's version. For Heidegger the world model appears to be not only a natural category, but also a social one, depending on a man, who perceives and changes the world. To put it briefly, Heidegger's world model comprises the world of nature and the history of society.

The world model definitions examined above belong to "non-strict" ones. They were used by famous naturalists and philosophers of the past. But todays' scientists mostly use the exact definitions.

In nowadays philosophy the question about the world model status seems to be rather complicated. One can point out several directions in definition of the scientific world model. Here they are in brief:

1. Scientific World Model /SWM/ as a part of philosophical knowledge;

2. SWM as a component of scientific outlook;

3. SWM as a form of systematization of scientific knowledge; all concrete sciences taken as a whole;

4. SWM as a research program.

For the purposes of linguistic research the third definition appears to be the most available. A. Kravets also maintains this point of view. In his interpretation the third definition of SWM gains the principal position among the others. Summarizing all existing opinions on the status of SWM, Kravets gives the following notions of SWM:

1. SWM as "ontological part of philosophy."

2. SWM as "integrated elements of today's science (general theories, concepts, ideas)."

3. SWM as "totality of stereotypes of scientific thinking: paradigms, research programs, methodological regulations."

As we see in given above definitions, the notion of SWM gets extremely wide filling. It includes not only the whole system of the scientific knowledge, but also the cognitive process itself in the frames of this or that world outlook.

Generally speaking, "scientific world model" /SWM/ may be characterized as a way of simulating reality, which is based on the separate scientific disciplines. Embracing all branches of knowledge about the world, man and society, it is characterized by universality. It follows that, SWM must use special system of terminology, quite different from logical languages of various disciplines and theories. The most essential features /distinctive signs/ of scientific world model could be formulated in the following statements:

SWM constantly changes in time. It is determined by continuous development of science. The collective scientific knowledge about the world constantly increases, some postulates are revised or rejected and a new knowledge appears. These constant changes evoke the appearance of new notions; the old ones are being corrected. In accordance with this process new terms come to light, when traditional ones are being filled with new content. SWM has a dynamic character. It permanently strives for the accurate reflection of the real world. If SWM stops changing it might mean the end of the scientific progress, reaching the tops in knowledge about the world. SWM will always remain "less" than the objective world, because it could never become identical with the last. Otherwise, it would signify the complete knowledge of everything, of all space-time world continuity.

SWM is common for all language communities, because the scientific knowledge is free of any "language subjectivism", it doesn't depend on any language peculiarities of this or that language community. Being objective, the scientific knowledge doesn't take into consideration national mentality, traditions, moral priorities of the peoples, and their national culture as a whole. Being invariable in content for all peoples, SWM gets its national form of expression through national terminologies in every national language.

"National language arrangement" of SWM never touches its content, but adapts the universal knowledge to the needs of certain language community. SWM obtains its "national language clothing" only in the case, if certain ethnic community has the experience of heaping, developing and transferring of the scientific knowledge, in other words, if it has proper scientific traditions. If such traditions are absent, the invariable content of SWM finds its presentation in two ways:

1. through "language clothing" of the language mostly used in this or that field of knowledge;

2. through "language clothing" of that national language, which performs the function of mediation, while transferring the scientific knowledge to the certain ethnic collective, not having any scientific schools in any branch of knowledge and experiencing as a result of it a strong cultural and, correspondingly, language influence of the other nation.

The national language arrangement of SWM might be full or fragmentary, it might be even absent at all. That depends on several factors. The first is what language and when has started the initial accumulation of knowledge and formulation of the basic notions. The second is determined by the intensity of development of the certain field of knowledge by scientists-representatives of this or that language community. The full version of SWM, arranged in national language forms, exists only in the case, if the bearers of that language constantly carry out total scientific researches, touching all spheres of knowledge.

Both SWM and LWMs reflect national mentalities; give necessary basis for investigations of how this or that nation thinks. But it is important to emphasize, that these two models are not identical. SWM suggests the objective model of the world, but is not related to any language. SWM conveys the up-to-date knowledge of the society about the objective world; it proves to be the fruit of the cognitive activities of humankind.

On the contrary, LWM is always subjective. It conveys the results of the initial comprehension of the world by this or that ethnic community. In the process of language acquisition children first get acquainted with LWM: the scientific knowledge about the world comes later, when a person grows older. People are able to perceive only some fragments of SWM, because nobody's mind could keep SWM as a whole. Thus, SWM appears to be the kind of global storeroom for the scientific knowledge. In everyday life people use so-called naive notions.

The objective scientific knowledge, existing in the form of scientific terms, does not destroy the naïve initial vision of the world, which is embodied in LWM. They are two parallel worlds. Both scientific terms and "naïve" words-notions have their own spheres of usage, though one can't deny their mutual influence. Both models change in time, but LWM changes much slower, than SWM: the kernel of LWM remains practically invariable.

Summing up, we can state, that scientific and language world models are produced by various kinds of mentalities of different language communities at different stages of historical development; they are carrying out different functions. SWM is being created and used by a narrow circle of people-by scientists, who constantly widen it with new elements of knowledge. The collective scientific consciousness investigates the objective world, at the same time SWM is permanently improving and growing richer.

On the contrary, all changes, taking place in LWM, touch only its outlying areas: it is stable on the whole. Otherwise, LWM wouldn't be able to fulfill its main function: to keep and reproduce through times the simplified classification of the objective world, ensuring in this way the succession in verbal thinking of this or that collective of language bearers. Having the same object to describe-the real world, they reflect it quite differently: SWM embraces all aspects of the objective world; LWM covers only some parts of the real world, because language consciousness brings to life large amounts of mythical objects, subjective characteristics, which do not exist in the real world. The relationship between SWM and LWM doesn't suppose the correspondence between them. The last doesn't try to attain the first: it has its own laws of development. LWM gets its specific structure in every language, but that is the object of special study. SWM appears to be very helpful for LWM investigation being a good background for manifestation of any LWM peculiarities.

LECTURE 10

NOTION OF THE WORLD PICTURE

1. Classification of World picture

2. Knowledge of world

3. Concept of cultural identity

 

Questions for self-examination:

1. Give your views on multiculturalism as the flow of the XX century.

2. Give an example of a multicultural person.

3. Illustrate your cultural identity.

4. List proverbs relating to culture.

 

According to S. G. Ter-Minasova, “world picture is a system of the intuitive representations of the reality. The world picture can be singled out, described, or reconstructed from any socio-psychological unity; it could be a nation or an ethnic group, and even some social or professional group or single individual. Also, it should be pointed out, that to every historical period of time the particular word picture is coincides”.

It is very important, that the world picture is implicitly expressed by that cultural language, which is used in the definite group or society.

In most cases three kinds of the world picture are singled out:

1. real world picture;

2. cultural (or conceptual) world picture;

3. lingual world picture.

The question about differentiation of cultural and lingual world pictures is actual: the language, as a type of expressing the reality, is closely connected with the mentality. The word reflects not the object of the real world, but the vision of it, which is imposed on the native speaker by the image of this object which is already based in his mind. Language is storage of national culture, the integrity of concepts which form the national world picture.

According to the “Dictionary of cognitive terms” of E.S. Kubriakova, the notion “concept” corresponds to the understanding of those meanings, which are operated by the person in the process of thinking and understanding. These meanings also reflect the experience and knowledge of a person.

Moreover, there are so-called international concepts, which are formed differently and verbalize in different languages in various ways.

Concepts unify the variety of different visible and imaginary objects grouping it, they allow to keep knowledge about the world, providing the analysis of the personal experience in the way of grouping the information and classifying it.

In the second half of the XX century, a number of new scientific paradigms of integration of education particularly attractive and mysterious were the linguistic synergy. It’s most important task is interdisciplinary modeling of the dynamic picture of the world - the subject of philosophy, psychology, cultural studies and Linguistics. The main theoretical concepts are world model, Image of the World, language world and linguistic consciousness.

The concept of "world view", first used by L.Wittgenstein in philosophical treatises. And since that time it has become a subject of controversy in philosophy and Linguistics. Unfortunately, not having found a strictly terminological meanings phrase worldview is often used as a scientific metaphor with a blurred and veiled content. And yet it does not lose its appeal, especially to researchers’ so-called human factor in language. To qualify as a true value in the terminology should reflect its content, at least three synergistically related issues: a) the cognitive component of the concept of "world view", and b) its interpretative potential, and c) the semiotic nature. The picture of the world in a number of these concepts serves the fundamental concept in the study of man's relationship with reality, is seen as part of his world view, and is the result of universal and individual knowledge about the world. PW is based on universal human empirical and theoretical material, mature philosophical views and adopted a system of knowledge. Individual PW formed during the development of human knowledge about the world, the accumulation of individual experience is the result of various influences.

Ordinary picture of the world can be collectively and individually. The modern view of the world is represented by a system of natural, social and human knowledge about nature, society and man, objectifying certain segment of its inherent ways. For the last decades the Linguistics addressed to language studying in close connection with the person. It defined an anthropocentric principle in Linguistics when studying of language becomes studying of the speaking personality. The anthropological Linguistics is understood, first of all, as research of a human factor in language. In the center of attention there are two circles of problems:

а) definition of how the person influences language;

б) definition of how language influences the person, his thinking, culture.

To number of the fundamental concepts expressing specifics of the person and his relationship with the world, the concept of a picture of the world belongs.

The picture of the world is a complete image of the world which grows out of all spiritual activity of the person. It arises during his life experience, practical activities. The person feels the world, beholds it, comprehends, learns, interprets, reflects, and stays in it. Thus, the image of the world arises in various acts of attitude, of world perception, outlook – in acts of experience of the world as integrity.

Depending on the base which is undertaken as criteria, the typology of pictures of the world can be created. So, depending on the subject, the picture of the world can be adult people or a child’s, a picture of the world of a civilized society and an archaic picture of the world.

In relation to the world of reality and language there are two pictures of the world: conceptual and language. The conceptual picture of the world is richer, as various types of thinking participate in its creation, including, nonverbal. The concept of Language world picture goes back to W.von Humboldt's doctrine about the essence of language, first of all, where language considers as a spirit of people, when internal form of language and world are conceptualized by means of language. Language directly participates in two processes connected with a picture of the world.

One of the most important areas of human being is represented by emotions. It is a sphere of mental activity and emotional estimates. The world of human emotions is one of local pictures of the world.

Emotions are universal. They reflect universal experience of mental human life. Emotions are peculiar to all people, regardless to their culture, language and educational level.

At all times people the same feelings: pleasure, grief, love, sadness. Some separate emotions are universal; they are common for every culture and language.

In linguistic literature universal emotions are called dominant emotions, key emotions, emotional tone, leading or base emotions, etc. To the base lexicon belongs the following verbal synonymic rank: to worry, be afraid, become angry, be ashamed, be proud, be surprised, to admire, to love, to hope, to rejoice, be sad and many other; rank of the corresponding nouns, adjectives and adverbs (concern, pleasure, it is glad, it is disturbing, with alarm, in alarm, with fear, in fear) etc.

Emotions like kindness, grief, fear, shame, etc. can be referred to the category universal, considering their wide representation in languages. However their senses can change at different stages of human history. Their lexical representation, degree of their depth, a specification in each of languages differs. Thus, emotive senses have national specifics in the presence of a universal picture of feelings.

Along with the concept of the picture of the world the concept model of the world, which is understood as a "grid coordinates", by means of which people perceive reality and build the image of the world in his mind. Following the logic of this reasoning, we can assume that the "grid coordinates" can be the same for different people, but the PW produced by them in this framework will be different, as determined by a variety of extralinguistic factors (communicative, cognitive, pragmatic, socio-cultural) that affect its formation. The physical picture of the world consider as only one way of describing the world. Realizing that the world is not fragmented, which appears in the physical PW and diverse, multifaceted, complex, should say that, along with the physical, there is a naturalistic view of nature.

The concept of worldview and model of the world is related. A.N. Leontiev's considered it as a map of the world of objects in the human psyche. Image of the world - is an integral unity of interrelated images of reality, reflecting the ethnic and cultural consciousness in a certain perception of the world. Ethnic and cultural image of the world is due to the special matrix grid coordinates, through which people perceive and interpret the reality around him. The world model is a scheme that is filled in the minds of the displayed objects of reality, in other words, the content includes a picture of the world. In the process of "active mind" shaped pieces of the world are intertwined, building new conjectures, there are unexpected associations, sections were made of modern knowledge, etc. As a result, the relief image of the world is changing, expanding view of the world, and thus changes its frame, a model of the world.

Cultural identity is the identity of a group or culture, or of an individual as far as one is influenced by one's belonging to a group or culture. Cultural identity is similar to and has overlaps with, but is not synonymous with, identity politics. There are modern questions of culture that are transferred into questions of identity. Various cultural studies and social theories investigate the cultural identity. In recent decades, a new form of identification has emerged. This new form of identification breaks down the understanding of the individual as a coherent whole subject to a collection of various cultural identifiers. These cultural identifiers examine the condition of the subject from a variety of aspects including: place, gender, race, history, nationality, language, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnicity and aesthetics. A social process in which individuals participate, in the idea of changing historical conditions. As a "historical reservoir", culture is an important factor in shaping identity. Some critics of cultural identity argue that the preservation of cultural identity, being based upon difference, is a divisive force in society, and that cosmopolitanism gives individuals a greater sense of shared citizenship.

Cultural identity is the influence one gains by belonging to a certain culture or group. If you took someone from a chocolate lover's group and placed them in a chocolate hater's group, the transplanted person would not be able to identify with or understand the hater's group as they were not raised in a culture where those beliefs were lived. Cultural identity is your own sense of your culture. Especially in America, which is truly a melting pot of ethnicity and cultures, it can become difficult to maintain your knowledge of your heritage. When you are in an environment that is outside the culture you identify with, you may feel awkward or alone. Cultural identity is important because it is important to know who we are. Cultural identity aids a person in understanding his or her relationship to the culture they identify themselves with. It shows us the bigger picture of how we belong. Cultural identity refers to the influence that a culture has individual's identity. It also refers to the traditions, customs, and practices that affect a person.

 

LECTURE 11

NOTION OF CULTURAL CONCEPT

1. Notion of concept, conceptology.

2. Cultural concept, nature and essence

 

Questions for self-examination:

1. What is concept, conceptology?

2. Define the notion of cultural concept.

3. Give an example of cultural concept. Characterize it.

4. Give a linguaculturological description of concept “N”(proverbs).

 

By the end of the 20th century a new scientific paradigm apeared in linguistics. Scientists focused their attention on the speaking person instead of just isolated language forms, thus the problem of correlation between peoples and their languages was regarded of crucial importance.

The new paradigm, based on a multidimensional character of a phenomenon known as language, raised new aims in language investigation, demanded new methods of its description and analysis of its forms.

Special attention was paid to correlation between languages, cultural peculiarities and national mentalities. This idea became a foundation for a new direction of linguistics – LC, with concept as its main category. The appearance of this new term, mostly interpreted as a mental lump marked with LC specificity, became an appropriate step to the developing of the anthropocentric paradigm in linguistics.