Having analysed a great number of research works we have found out that Cognitive linguistics is one of the most interesting and disputable branches of linguistics that studies mental processes and their linguistic reflection in people‘s daily life. This science pays its prime attention to the language as a communicative unit which differs not only from the point of view of the nations and cultures, but also from one person to another. Every human being has its own communicative aim and language pragmatic peculiarities, which reflect his picture of the world that comes from the process of syntheses of everything around him in his mind. Our research work is devoted to the analysis of the one of the aspects of the study in cognitive linguistics- concept. In order to make the notion of cognitive linguistics more clearly we want to mention some additional information taken from the internet resources that help us to define this branch of the linguistic science:
Cognitive linguistics is a reaction of modern linguists to truth-conditional (objectivist) semantics and generative grammar, which were the dominant approaches to the study of language meaning and grammatical forms since the middle of the last century. Its major assumptions are that language is not an autonomous cognitive faculty but an integral part of human cognition and that linguistic knowledge of meaning and form is basically conceptual structure.
Language is a distinct human cognitive ability but the cognitive processes responsible for the storage and retrieval of linguistic and non-linguistic knowledge are basically the same. As a consequence much cognitive linguistic research has focused on describing how concepts are organized (frames, domains, profiles and etc) and the range of conceptualization or construal operations as instances of more general cognitive processes such as attention/ salience, comparison, perspective, Gestalt. Cognitive linguistics encompasses a number of broadly compatible theoretical approaches to linguistic meaning and structure that share a common basis: the idea that language is a n integral part of cognition and it reflects the interaction of cultural, psychological, and communicative factors which can only be understood in the context of the realistic view of conceptualization and mental processing.
The main assumption of cognitive linguistics is that linguistic cognition is an inextricable phenomenon of overall human cognition and as such we expect patterns and structures of cognition observed by psychologists, neurobiologists and the like to be reflected in language.
For cognitive linguistics meaning is the central issue, the meaning of words as well as the meaning of sentences; in other words the meaning of any linguistic expression no matter how small or big it is.
The term «concept» is widely used in various scientific disciplines. Often the «concept» is used as a synonym for «notion», although the term «notion» is used in logic and philosophy, and «concept», as the term of mathematical logic, as entrenched in the science of culture, cultural studies. For example in the works of E. S. Kubryakova is written that the term «concept» covers the domains of several research directions, define and refine boundaries of the theory, they form the basic postulates and categories: in cognitive psychology and cognitive linguistics concerned with thinking and learning, storage and processing of information, as well as in linguistics.
However, mental objects, which sends the name of the «concept» does not have a common specific birth sign (belonging to the area an ideal — it is a property of the same values and meanings, ideas and thoughts, concepts and ideas, images and gestalt, etc.) and are rather the relationship of «family resemblance», this relationship nominees named «game» where «we see a complicated network of similarities overlapping and intersect ing».
Word conceptus — medieval education, derivative (communion) of the verb соncipere — соn-сареrе «collect», «grasping», «light», «conceive», «beget». In classical Latin conseptus recorded only in the sense of the «pond», «inflammation», «Conception» and ―fetus (the fetus).
The word «concept» along with its producing has become a verb, of course, all the Romance languages and in English (Fr. соcept-concevoir, ital. соncetto-concepire, span. concepto-concebir, port. conceito-conceber, Eng. соncept-conceive), in the Russian language as it was also a trace semantics, i.e. its «inner form» has been reproduced by the word ―понятие.
In a synonymous pair the ―concept –notion, the term «concept» isn‘t given in most of the Russian dictionaries. It‘s given only in the «Great Dictionary of Russian language». The word «concept» and its terminological equivalents «lingvokulturema», mythologema», «logoepistema» were extensively used in the Russian linguistic literature since early 90s. Z. D. Popova, I. A. Sternin define the concept as a ―global mental unit, which is a quantum of structured knowledge, the ideal essence, which is formed in the mind of man to his immediate operations with objects from his objective activity of human mental operations with the other, already existing concepts in his mind. From the cultural aspect ―concept‖ — is ―the basic unit of culture in the mental world of man, this definition is given in the dictionary of the Russian culture by Yu.S.Stepanov.
Concepts, that arise in the minds of men are not based only on the meanings of words taken from dictionaries, but on the basis of individual, national, cultural and historical experience, and the richer the experience, the wider the borders of the concept, the greater the opportunity for the emergence of the emotional aura of the word, which is reflected in all aspects of the concept.
Here, we completely agree with the author Likhachyov. According to Y. S. Stepanova‘s research work, we can define the concept — as «a bunch of culture in human consciousness, in a culture which is part of the mental world of man, when a person enters a culture, in some cases he affects it».
Concepts are not only conceived, they are experienced. They are the subject of emotions, likes and dislikes, and sometimes clashes.
Z. D. Popova, I. A. Sternin define the concept as a ―global mental unit, which is a quantum of structured knowledge, the ideal essence, which is formed in the mind of man to his immediate operations with objects from his objective activity of human mental operations with the other, already existing concepts in his mind.From the cultural aspect ―concept — is ―the basic unit of culture in the mental world of man, this definition is given in the dictionary of the Russian culture by Yu.S.Stepanov.
Concepts, that arise in the minds of men are not based only on the meanings of words taken from dictionaries, but on the basis of individual, national, cultural and historical experience, and the richer the experience, the wider the borders of the concept, the greater the opportunity for the emergence of the emotional aura of the word, which is reflected in all aspects of the concept. Here, we completely agree with the author Likhachyov.
According to Y. S. Stepanova‘s research work, we can define the concept — as «a bunch of culture in human consciousness, in a culture which is part of the mental world of man, when a person enters a culture, in some cases he affects it».
Concepts are not only conceived, they are experienced. They are the subject of emotions, likes and dislikes, and sometimes clashes.
References:
- Бабушкин А. П. Типы концептов в лексико-фразеологической семантике языка, их личностная и национальная специфика: автореф. дис. докт. филол. наук — Воронеж: ВГУ, 1998–31с.
- Большой толковый словарь русского языка (БТСРЯ). М.: 1998–947 с.
- Будагов Р. А. Толковые словари в национальной культуре народов. — М.: Изд-во МГУ, 1989 — С. 44–56
- Вежбицкая А. Понимание культур через посредство ключевых слов — М.:Языки славянской культуры, 2001. — 457 с.
