NOTION OF THE WORLD PICTURE. 1. Classification of 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