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