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Ashurova D.U. Galieva M.R. Cultural Linguistics - Book 3

This section defines culture from the perspectives of various scholars, highlighting that culture includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, customs and behaviors acquired by people as members of a society. Culture represents the way of life of a people and the sum of their learned behaviors, attitudes and material goods. It is viewed as a complex system of meanings shared by a community.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
676 views126 pages

Ashurova D.U. Galieva M.R. Cultural Linguistics - Book 3

This section defines culture from the perspectives of various scholars, highlighting that culture includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, customs and behaviors acquired by people as members of a society. Culture represents the way of life of a people and the sum of their learned behaviors, attitudes and material goods. It is viewed as a complex system of meanings shared by a community.

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UMID ESHMURODOV
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MINISTRY OF HIGHER AND SECONDARY SPECIALIZED

EDUCATION
UZBEKISTAN STATE WORLD LANGUAGES UNIVERSITY

D.U. ASHUROVA
M.R. GALIEVA

CULTURAL LINGUISTICS
TASHKENT-2019

УЎК 811.111 (075)


КБК 81.2-5

Масъул муҳаррир:
Филология фанлари доктори, профессор
Дж.Ш. Джумабаева

Тақризчилар:
Филология фанлари доктори, доцент
Н.З. Насруллаева

Филология фанлари номзоди, доцент


Ш.О. Назирова
Аннотация

“Лингвомаданиятшунослик” ўқув қўлланмаси олти бобдан иборат


бўлиб, уларда лингвомаданиятшуносликнинг фундаментал муаммолари,
фаннинг шаклланиш ва ривожланиши тарихи, ушбу фанда мавжуд илмий
қарашлар ва ёндашувлар, лингвомаданиятшуносликнинг асосий
тушунчалари ва ундаги йўналишлар, лисоний бирликларнинг маданий
жиҳатини лингвистик таҳлил этиш методлари каби масалалар ўз аксини
топган. Ўқув қўлланманинг ҳар бир боби назарий материал ва унинг
амалиётда қўлланишини намоён этувчи лисоний бирликларнинг амалий
таҳлил методлари ва уларнинг намуналари, назорат саволлари, тавсия
этилувчи адабиётлар рўйҳати билан таъминланган. Ўқув қўлланманинг илова
қисмида лингвомаданиятшуносликнинг асосий тушунчаларини изоҳлаб
берувчи глоссарий берилган.

Аннотация

Учебное пособие «Лингвокультурология» состоит из шести глав,


посвященных рассмотрению широкого спектра вопросов, включающих
фундаментальные проблемы лингвокультурологии, её основные
направления, понятия и проблемы, существующие взгляды, подходы и
концепции, методы лингвистического анализа языковых знаков с позиций
лингвокультурологии. Каждая глава учебного пособия содержит
теоретический и практический материал, наглядно иллюстрирующий
лингвокультурный анализ языковых единиц, вопросы для обсуждения,
список рекомендуемой литературы. В приложении представлен глоссарий
основных терминов по лингвокультурологии.

Annotation
The course-book “Cultural Linguistics” consists of six chapters which
contains the discussion of some fundamental problems of Cultural Linguistics: the
main notions and trends of Cultural Linguistics, its history and evolution, different
approaches, views and conceptions, methods of linguocultural analysis of
linguistic units. Each chapter provides theoretical and practical material,
illustrating linguocultural analysis of linguistic units, questions for discussion and
the list of recommended literature. Appended to the course-book is a glossary
containing the description of some notions and terms in a compact and
comprehensible manner.
CONTENTS

Chapter I. Theoretical Foundations of Linguoculturology


1.1. The notion of Culture ……………………………………………………
1.2. Language and Culture …………………………………………………...
1.3. Linguoculturology as a new scientific trend …………………………….
1.4. Cultural values and their verbalization ………………………………….
1.5. Methods used in Cultural Linguistics …………………………………...

Chapter II. The main trends of Cultural Linguistics


2.1. Linguocultural Lexicography ……………………………………………
2.2. Phraseological trend in Cultural Linguistics …………………………….
2.3. Conceptological trend in Cultural Linguistics …………………………..
2.4. Stylistic trend in Cultural Linguistics ……………………………………
2.5. Comparative Cultural Linguistics ………………………………………..

Chapter III. World Picture and its Types


3.1. The notion of the world picture and its types ……………………………
3.2. The national world picture ………………………………………………
3.3. The author’s individual world picture ……………………………………

Chapter IV. Linguocultureme as a basic unit of Linguoculturology


4.1. The notion of linguocultureme and its types …………………………………
4.2. Culture-specific vocabulary ………………………………………………….
4.3. Phraseological units as linguoculturemes ……………………………………..
4.4. Proverbs and sayings as culturally marked units ………………………………
4.5. Mythologemes as linguoculturemes ………………………………………….
4.6. National-cultural specifics of speech etiquette ……………………………….

Chapter V. Cultural significance of stylistic devices


5.1. Stylistic devices as cultural model …………………………………………….
5.2. Stylistic devices reflecting cultural knowledge structures …………………….
5.3. Cultural specifics of imagery ………………………………………………….

Chapter VI. Cultural Value of Concept


6.1. The notion of cultural concept and its structure ………………………………
6.2. Types of cultural concepts …………………………………………………….
6.3. Cross-cultural analysis of concepts ……………………………………………
Glossary ……………………………………………………………………………
References …………………………………………………………………………
CHAPTER I. THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF
LINGUOCULTUROLOGY

1.1. The notion of culture

The word “culture” appeared in ancient Rome and meant first of all
cultivation, processing, “cultivation” of the earth. However, a well-known ancient
Roman orator Cicero used this notion in his philosophical works to denote “soul
cultivation”. This second sense gradually became the core meaning, and the notion
of “spiritual culture” has got recognition.
Different viewpoints of scholars on this issue can be presented. A well-
known anthropologist Edward Tylor was the first to give the definition of culture,
in his book “Primitive Culture”: “Culture… is that complex whole which includes
knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, law, custom and any other capacities and habits
acquired by man as a member of the society” (Tylor, 1974). E.T. Hall defines
culture as “the way of life of a people, the sum of their learned behaviour patterns,
attitudes and material things” (Hall, 1990). E.A. Schultz defines culture as follows:
“It includes knowledge and beliefs of the group of people who share common
conventions to help articulate their understandings of life and of themselves. We
all have such subconscious knowledge in our minds, just as we have the
subconscious knowledge of our language” (Schultz, 2003, p. 32).
M. Larson views culture as “a complex of beliefs, attitudes, values, and rules
which a group of people share” (Larson 1984, p. 431). M. Singer describes culture
as ”a pattern of learnt, group-related perceptions including both verbal and
nonverbal language, attitudes, values, belief systems, disbelief systems and
behaviors that is accepted and expected by an identity group” (Singer, 1987). V.
Barnow maintains that “Culture is a way of life of a group of people, the
configuration of all of the more or less stereotyped patterns of learned behavior
which are handed down from one generation to the next through means of
language and imitation” (Barnow, 1973). P. Newmark remarks that culture is “the
way of life and its manifestations that are peculiar to a community that uses a
particular language as its means of expression” (Newmark, 1998, p.94).
It should be mentioned here that in defining culture some scholars focus on
material culture while others on behaviours. For instance, M. Herskovits’
definition underlines material origin of culture “Culture is the man-made part of
the environment” (Herskovits, 1948, p.17), while M. Mead’s definition “is the total
shared, learned behavior of a society or a subgroup” (Mead, 1953, p.22). These
dimensions are combined in B. Malinowski’s formulation: “Culture is a well
organized unity divided into two fundamental aspects – a body of artifacts and a
system of customs” (Malinowki, 1931, p.623).
Another scholar W. Goodenough explains culture in terms of the
participatory responsibilities of its members. He states that “a society’s culture is
made up of whatever it is one has to know or believe in order to operate in a
manner acceptable to its members, and to do so in any role that they accept for any
one of themselves” (Goodenough, 1957, p. 167).
P. Richerson and R. Boyd take psychological approach to culture describing
it as a psychological act. Accordingly, they define culture as “information capable
of affecting individuals' behavior that they acquire from other members of their
species through teaching, imitation, and other forms of social transmission”
(Richerson, Boyd 2005, p.5). D. Sperber also describes culture as “widely
distributed, lasting mental and public representations inhabiting a given social
group” (Sperber, 1996, p.33)
B. Malinowski views culture through an interactive design, stating that it is
a response to people’s needs, and believes. According to this view, three sets of
needs: the basic needs of the individual, the instrumental needs of the society, and
the symbolic and integrative needs of both the individual and the society are
outlined (Stern, 2009; Malinowski, 1931).
C. Geertz determines culture as a system of symbolic meanings. In other
words, “it is a semiotic system in which symbols function to communicate
meaning from one mind to another. Cultural symbols encode a connection between
a signifying form and a signaled meaning” (Geertz, 1973). According to the author,
culture is characterized by the following four basic features:
1) culture is a kind of social inheritance in contrast to biological heritage;
2) culture is shared by the whole community, not belonging to any particular
individual;
3) culture is a symbolic meaning system in which language is one of the most
important factors;
4) culture is a unified system, the integral parts of which are closely related to one
another (Geertz, 1973).
Y. Suneetha and G.M. Sundaravalli in the book “Global Perspectives, Local
Initiatives” (2011) consider values, beliefs and material products to be the major
components of culture. Accordingly, cultural values are shaped based on how
people learn to believe things ought to be or how people should act and react to the
phenomena of the surrounding world, particularly in terms of qualities such as
sincerity, honesty, integrity, loyalty and openness. These cultural values are of
axiological character and include a judgment, that is, consideration of what is good
or bad, moral or immoral, normative and not normative. For instance, Uzbek
people feel proud to hold great wedding ceremonies inviting up to 500-1000
guests. But to many Europeans this process may seem weird and waste of money.
Besides, culture comprises belief systems that are presented in national
stories, legends or myths. Y. Suneetha and G.M. Sundaravalli assert that these
stories and myths shape people’s intuition about how they are supposed to feel,
believe and behave in a particular situation, i.e. shape individual’s interpretation of
the external world. So, according to the authors, the individuals belonging to the
same society share common culture and similar attitudes. For example, Asian
people believe in the power of animal sacrifices for different religious purposes
whereas Westerns’ attitude to this phenomena is quite negative.
Finally, as the authors note, culture includes material products as well, such
as food, clothes, music, art and etc. Hence, culture shapes people’s general
cognitive framework for perceiving the world, moderating communication and
relationships among people and their surrounding world thus becoming a
“common sense” (Paige, 1993), developed of the mutual values and presumptions
of a particular group of people (Suneetha, Sundaravalli, 2011, p. 123-132).
M. Wang, R. Brislin, D. Williams, W.Wang and J. Chao in their book
“Turning bricks into jade: Critical incidents for mutual understanding among
Chinese and Americans” (2000) distinguish the followings as the important aspects
of culture:
culture is the human made part of the environment;
culture reflects widely shared assumptions about life;
culture is so fundamental that most people do not and cannot discuss or
analyze it;
culture becomes evident when someone encounters someone from another
country who deviates from cultural norms;
culture is transmitted from generation to generation;
even in new situations, people can make a judgment about what is expected
in their own culture;
 cultural values endure and changes take place over a number of
generations;
violations of cultural norms have an emotional impact on people;
it is relatively easy to make generalizations about cultural differences
(Wang, Brislin, et al, 2000).
So, various definitions of culture can be given, but none of them in our
opinion can fully reveal the complex nature of culture.
It should be noted that all the above-mentioned approaches are not
controversial; they are of a complementary character. The choice of this or that
approach depends on the aim of investigation and the scholar’s preferences.
According to the above-mentioned approaches different types of culture can be
differentiated: culture of everyday routine, speech culture, political culture,
national culture, culture of labour, personal culture. But the most important
division is material culture and spiritual culture. Material culture includes artefacts
as the result of human activity: tools, books, buildings, objects of everyday life.
Spiritual culture embraces the spheres of human consciousness such as cognition,
morals, enlightenment, science, literature, art, religion, etc. One of the most
significant notions is national culture which deals with national mentality, national
character, lifestyle, traditions, customs, rituals, holidays, etc.

1.2. Language and Culture

As is known culture has various manifestations; it is reflected in paintings,


music, literature, architecture, language, etc. However, it is acknowledged that the
most significant means of expressing culture is language because it is tightly
interlinked with culture, it grows within culture and represents it.
It is often held that language fulfills two main functions: the function of
communication and that of cognition. But the survey of literature shows that
language also fulfills many other functions: emotive, phatic, poetic, etc. Along
with these functions one of the essential functions of language is, in our opinion,
the function of expressing and transmitting culture. Accordingly, D. Krech asserts
that language in this sense fulfills three main functions:
 language is the primary vehicle of communication;
 language reflects both the personality of the individual and the culture of his
history. In turn, it helps shape both personality and culture;
 language makes possible the growth and transmission of culture, the
continuity of societies, and the effective functioning and control of social
groups (Krech, 1962)
So, language serves not only as a means of communication and the main tool
of expressing people’s thoughts but also it is the accumulation of cultural
information. Being a complex system of signs, language is a means of delivering,
storing, using and transmitting culture from generation to generation. As W.
Humboldt states: “A language being a universal form of initial conceptualization
of the world, can be perceived as a component of culture, or a tool of culture”
(cited from Helferich, 2004, p. 24).
The ideas of the science studying relationships between language and culture
are traced back to the fundamental works by famous linguists, who always
emphasized the fact that language is a major instrument of fixation, storing and
transferring culture, knowledge, and information about the world (W. Humboldt,
E. Sapir, B. Whorf, E. Benvenist, A.A. Potebnya). The idea of relationship
between language and culture was initially put forth by V. Humboldt W. who
proclaimed that: “Language is deeply entwined in the intellectual development of
humanity itself, it accompanies the latter upon every step of its localized
progression or regression; moreover, the pertinent cultural level in each case is
recognizable in it. ... Language is, as it were, the external manifestation of the
minds of peoples. Their language is their soul, and their soul is their language. It is
impossible to conceive them ever sufficiently identical... . The creation of language
is an innate necessity of humanity. It is not a mere external vehicle, designed to
sustain social intercourse, but an indispensable factor for the development of
human intellectual powers, culminating in the formulation of philosophical
doctrine” (Humboldt, 1988).
Later, W. von Humboldt’s idea that “Man lives in the world about him
principally, indeed exclusively, as language presents it to him” (Humboldt, 1988)
was further promoted by many famous linguists all over the world.
In Russia A.A. Potebnya being under the influence of Humboldt’s theory,
concentrated on the psychological aspect of the relationships between language
and culture. F.I. Buslaev one of the most prominent Russian philologists in the mid
of the XIX century expressed his main thesis: “The history of language is
inseparable from the history of its speakers”. Another scholar B. de Courtene
predicted the idea of interdisciplinarity, claiming that linguistics would combine
with other sciences– psychology, anthropology, sociology, etc.
Among W. Humboldt’s followers in the United States there are F. Boas, E.
Sapir and B.L. Whorf who made a great contribution to the idea of the
inseparability of language and culture. Most famous among them are E. Sapir and
B. Whorf, known in history of linguistics as the founders of the theory of linguistic
relativity. The core idea of this conception is that language modules people’s
perception of reality, therefore people who speak different languages see the world
in different ways. As the main evidence of this the scholars provided a well known
example of the Eskimo language which has a lot of words to denote the notion of
“snow” (describing the wet snow, the currently falling snow, etc.) while English
has only one word – “snow”. Therefore, according to some scholars, the perception
of “snow” in Eskimo and English linguocultures are quite different. Accordingly,
as the scholars assert, foreign language acquisition opens new perspectives, and
world vision (Sapir, 2012; Whorf, 2013).
The last quarter of the XXth century is considered to be the time of intense
study and establishment of Cultural Linguistics. One of the well-known linguists
working in this field is A. Wierzbicka who developed “the hypothesis of language
universals” (Вежбицкая, 2001, p. 45-46) and published a number of influential
comparative works on semantic universals and conceptual distinctions in different
languages: “English: Meaning and Culture” (2006); “Emotions Across Languages
and Cultures: Diversity and Universals” (1999); “Understanding Cultures Through
Their Key Words: English, Russian, Polish, German, Japanese” (1997);
“Semantics, Culture and Cognition: Universal human concepts in culture-specific
configurations” (1992); “Cross-cultural Pragmatics: The semantics of human
interaction” (1991).
Another well known linguist J.W. Underhill explores the relationships
between the linguistic worldview and its reflection and transformation in the
individual world picture. J. Underhill in his books “Creating Worldviews:
Language, Ideology & Metaphor” (2013) and in “Ethnolinguistics and Cultural
Concepts: Truth, Love, Hate & War” deals with the problem of ethnolinguistics,
cross-cultural linguistic analysis and the problem of cultural concepts (2015).
In Russian linguistics the researches on the problem of language and culture
are also intensively developing. Suffice it to mention the names of such prominent
linguists as N.D. Arutyunova, Yu.S. Stepanov, N.F. Alefirenko, V.V. Vorobyev,
V.N. Telia, V.A. Maslova and many others who published a number of influential
books in the field of Cultural Linguistics (Арутюнова Н. Д. Язык и мир
человека. 1998; Степанов Ю.С. Константы: Словарь русской культуры, 2004;
Телия В.Н. Русская фразеология: Семантический, прагматический и
лингвокультурологический аспекты, 1996; Алефиренко Н.Ф.
Лингвокультурология. Ценностно-смысловое пространство языка. 2010;
Воробьёв В. В. Лингвокультурология. (теория и методы) –2008; Маслова В.
А. Лингвокультурология, 2007).
In conclusion, the followings can be outlined: a) language and culture are
inseparably intertwined; b) the relations between language and culture are very
complex and multifaceted. On the one hand, culture is a very inclusive
phenomenon and penetrates into almost all aspects of human life influencing
languages too. On the other hand, language is a tool of not only communication
and cognition, but also of culture, which is fixed, stored and transmitted by
language. Consequently, the investigation of relationships between language and
culture is of paramount importance in modern linguistics.
The role of language in culture representation is difficult to overestimate and
it is evidenced by the following quotations of famous scholars:
“Absolutely nothing is so important for a nation's culture as its language”
(W. von Humboldt);
Language is ‘a key to the cultural past of a society’, a guide to ‘social
reality’ (E. Sapir);
“Language is the spiritual exhalation of the nation.” (W. von Humboldt);
…language does not exist apart from culture, that is, from the socially
inherited assemblage of practices and beliefs that determines the texture of our
lives (E. Sapir);
“The limits of my language are the limits of my world.” (L. Wittgenstein);
“To speak a language is to take on a world, a culture.” (F. Fanon);
“When a language dies, a way of understanding the world dies with it, a way
of looking at the world.” (G. Steiner);
“Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come
from and where they are going” (R.M. Brown);
“Language embodies the intellectual wealth of the people who use it” (K.
Hale);
“Language exerts hidden power, like a moon on the tides” (R. M. Brown);
“Language and culture cannot be separated. Language is vital to
understanding our unique cultural perspectives. Language is a tool that is used to
explore and experience our cultures and the perspectives that are embedded in our
cultures” (B. Sainte-Marie).

1.3. Linguoculturology as a new scientific trend

Linguistics of the XXI century is actively developing the idea that language
is not only an instrument of communication but also the cultural code of a nation.
It happened due to the development of a new anthropocentric paradigm, which
gives a man the status of being “the measure of all things” and focuses on studying
the “human factor” in the language. The human is considered the centre of the
Universe and language, because he is the only bearer of universal and national-
specific values. Accordingly, Yu.S. Stepanov claims that linguistics is a science
about “language in the human and the human in language” (Степанов, 2004).
From the perspectives of this paradigm a human being is not just a bearer of a
language, but rather of a certain conceptual system according to which he
understands, cognizes and conceptualizes information about the world and cultural
(Ashurova, Galieva, 2018). Currently, many linguistic researches are done within
the framework of the anthropocentric paradigm. Moreover, the emergence of the
anthropocentric paradigm caused the shift in linguistic views, methods of
investigations and the emergence of new interdisciplinary linguistic trends such as
Sociolinguistics, Cognitive Linguistics, Linguoculturology, Gender linguistics,
etc., focusing on the study of relationships between language and society, language
and mind, language and culture.
Linguoculturology is one of the newly emerged linguistic disciplines
developed within the framework of the anthropocentric paradigm. It is a rapidly
expanding field at the interface between linguistics, cultural studies, cognitive
linguistics, ethnolinguistics and sociolinguistics. However, it has its own integral
aspect of studying language and culture. Linguoculturology deals with the deep
level of semantics of linguistic units, and brings into correlation linguistic
meanings and the concepts of universal and national cultures. V.N. Telia defines
Linguoculturology as “a study aimed at investigating and describing the correlation
between language and culture in scope of modern culture national self-
consciousness and its sign representation” (Телия, 1996, p.16); V.V. Vorobyev
states that it is “an integrated scientific discipline studying correlations and
interactions between culture and language in their functioning” (Воробьев, 2008,
p. 37); V.V. Krasnykh considers Linguoculturology to be “a discipline studying
manifestation, reflection and fixation of culture in the language and discourse”
(Красных, 2003, p. 27). It should be mentioned that though the definitions given
above vary, the central idea is that Linguoculturology studies interaction between
language and culture. In other words, the subject matter of Linguoculturology is to
study relationships between language and culture, the ways how culture is
presented in language and how language presents, stores and transmits cultural
information.
Since Linguoculturology is a relatively new discipline, there is no exact
periodization of its evolution. However, V.A. Maslova singles out two periods.
The first one is based on the works by W. von Humboldt, E. Sapir and B. Whorf in
western linguistics and the works by A.A. Potebnya in Russia. The second period
started in the 90th of the XX century and since then it has been regarded as an
independent branch of linguistics. Along with these two periods, the scholars
outline an upcoming one in the last decade – the development of
Linguoculturology as an interdisciplinary science (Маслова, 2007, p.28).
As V.A. Maslova points out currently there are four linguocultural schools:
1. Linguocultural school headed by Yu.S. Stepanov – the aim is to describe
cultural concepts and constants in their diachronic aspects;
2. The school of N.D. Arutyunova studying universal cultural models on the basis
of the texts belonging to different ages and nations;
3. The school of V.N. Telia which is known as “Moscow school of linguocultural
analysis of phraseological units” – the aim is to study phraseological units with the
aim to provide a deeper insight into cultural semantics;
4. The school of linguists established at the Russian University of People’s
Friendship by V.V. Vorobyev, who develops the ideas of Country Studies by E.M.
Vereschagin and V.G. Kostomarov.
The following issues of linguocultural studies can be outlined:
 linguocultural units and their types (linguoculturemes);
 the national world picture and nationally specific linguistic units;
 cultural specifics of the communicative behaviour (cultural aspects of the
communicative behavior peculiar to a certain linguocultural community, social or
gender groups, or an individual);
 culture specific phraseology;
 culture specific concepts and their verbalization;
 speech etiquette (the norms and standards of a polite communicative behavior in
various communicative situations of greetings, farewells, apologies, request, etc.).
Proceeding from the above-mentioned problems, we can define the main
tasks of Linguoculturology. They are as follows:
 to define the main trends of Linguoculturology;
 to discuss the main notions of Linguoculturology;
 to define the taxonomy of linguocultural units and analyze their cultural
semantics;
 to investigate cultural concepts and their typology;
 to discuss the problem of national world picture and its peculiar features;
 to reveal nationally specific linguistic units;
 to analyze linguistic representations of the national character, mentality,
behavior;
 to analyze the ways of how cultural values are represented in the language.
One of the most conspicuous features of Linguoculturology is its
interdisciplinary character. Interdisciplinarity means the correlation of two or more
sciences on the basis of the common theoretical assumptions, notions and methods
of analysis. It should be mentioned that there are different definitions of this
phenomenon, but all of them are based on the idea of the interaction of two or
more disciplines, and the range of interaction can vary from a simple exchange of
ideas to the mutual integration of scientific notions, methodology and research
methods. In the case of integration of scientific assumptions, theoretical principles
and methodological basis, the emergence of new interdisciplinary directions such
as Cognitive Linguistics, Linguoculturology, Linguopragmatics, Ethnolinguistics,
Intercultural Communication is observed.
It should be emphasized that interdisciplinarity is not just a mechanical
transfer of the main notions and assumptions of one science into another, but their
fruitful cooperation, contributing to the formulation and solution of new problems.
It should be emphasized that interdisciplinarity is determined by the very nature of
language, its orientation to a man and all spheres of human activity.
As for Linguoculturology, it is characterized by both internal and external
interdisciplinarity. Internal links are observed in its relation to such linguistic
disciplines as Ethnolinguistics, Cognitive Linguistics, Country Studies,
Linguoconceptology, History of the Language, Lexicology, Stylistics,
Comparative Linguistics. Let’s consider some of them.
Ethnolinguistics focuses on the relationships between language and ethnic
culture, mostly in the historical retrospective. It studies how linguistic units reflect
the way different ethnic groups perceive and conceptualize the world. The object
of ethnolinguistics are folk texts (songs, jokes, fables, etc.), religious and
mythological rituals. Its aim is the reconstruction of ethnic culture and vision of the
world embodied in linguistic units. There are several directions in Ethnolinguistics:
1) etymological (problems of reconstruction of ontological and social
understanding of the world represented in the etymology of the linguistic units); 2)
dialectological (revealing culture types, terminology of rituals, culture phenomena,
components of spiritual culture of a particular nation). Though Ethnolinguistics
and Linguoculturology have much in common, there are some differences. Firstly,
Ethnolinguistics deals only with national specifics of the language, whereas
Linguoculturology embraces the issues of both national and world culture and their
reflection in the language. Secondly, Ethnolinguistics studies the diachronic
aspects of correlation between language and culture while Linguoculturology
concentrates its attention on the synchronic representation of culture in language.
The closest links are observed between Cognitive Linguistics and
Linguoculturology. Cognitive Linguistics, as is known, studies the relationships
between language and mind, language and socio-psychological experience. In
Cognitive Linguistics, language is regarded as: a) a cognitive mechanism that
encodes and transfers a great amount of information; b) an integral part of
cognition that represents different types of knowledge structures; c) a mental
phenomenon that provides access to the conceptual system of the human; d) a tool
of processing, storing and transferring information. It focuses on the processes of
conceptualization, categorization and interpretation of the world information,
knowledge structures and their verbal representations. The notion of “concept” is
considered to be one of the main notions of Cognitive Linguistics and
Linguoculturology. From the positions of Cognitive Linguistics “concept” is
regarded as a complex mental unit, a means of representation of knowledge
structures, a multifold cognitive structure, an operational unit of memory
(Kubryakova E.S., Demyankov V.Z., Boldyrev N.N., Alefirenko N.F., Sternin
I.A.). Cognitive linguists argue that concept is a part of our general knowledge
about the world, a unit of the conceptual system reflecting the human cognitive
activity. From the perspectives of linguoculturology “concept” is defined as a basic
unit of culture, its core; a mental, cultural and nationally specific unit characterized
by an array of emotional, expressive and evaluative components; a constituent part
of the national conceptosphere (Stepanov Yu.S., Arutyunova N.D., Karasik V.I.,
Slyshkin G.G., Vorkachyov S.G., Pimenova M.V.). A distinctive feature of a
linguocultural concept, as many researchers assert, is its evaluative or axiological
component (Воркачёв, 2007, p. 6). Concept is a linguistic and mental structure,
the research of which requires linguistic and extralinguistic knowledge, including,
first of all, knowledge of the socio-cultural context and axiological values of a
certain culture.
The next linguistic science that is connected with Linguoculturology is
Country Studies. A. N. Schukin defines Country Studies as country-oriented
linguistics, studying a foreign language in comparison with the native (Щукин,
2003). The term “Country Studies (Лингвострановедение)” was first used in the
works “Лингвистическая проблематика страноведения в преподавании
русского языка иностранцам” and “Язык и культура: лингвострановедение в
преподавании русского языка как иностранного” by E.M. Vereschagin and
G.V. Kostomarov (1971, 1973). These works were concerned with the use of
cross-cultural phenomena in the process of learning a language and methods of
acquainting students with a new culture. Later, it was interpreted as a
methodological discipline that presents information about the national and cultural
specifics of verbal communication of a native speaker in order to ensure the
communicative competence of students learning Russian (Прохоров, 1996). So,
the main aim of this discipline is to provide communicative competence in the
process of intercultural communication. In other words, the main distinction
between Linguoculturology and Country Studies lies in the fact that the latter is an
applied and didactic discipline.
Another discipline that is closely connected with Linguoculturology is Text
Linguistics. Relationships between language and culture are most clearly seen in
the fictional text which by its very nature is considered to be one of the forms of
culture. A fictional text transmitting sociocultural information, explicates the
author’s conceptual world picture and introduces human feelings and culture into
it. The shared features between text and culture are as follows: a) both text and
culture contain objective and subjective, logical and emotional elements; b) both
text and culture are meant to be interpreted. The above said testifies to the fact that
there are close links between Text Linguistics and Linguoculturology (Ashurova,
Galieva, 2016).
External interdisciplinary links of Linguoculturology can be observed in its
close relations with such disciplines as History, Sociology, Anthropology,
Culturology, Philosophy, Theology. etc. It is conditioned by the fact that deep
semantics of culturally-marked linguistic units cannot be investigated without
taking into account historical, religious, social, etc, factors.
So, Cultural linguistics raises a lot of theoretical and practical issues, an
adequate consideration of which requires an interdisciplinary approach. In other
words, linguocultural researches should be done at the crossroad of many
disciplines, both linguistic and non-linguistic.

1.4. Cultural values and their verbalization

As many researchers assert, one of the most important constituents of culture


are cultural values represented in the language (N.F. Alefirenko, Heidegger, D.
Likhachyov, R. D’Andrade). Cultural values are general concepts people accept
and believe in; properties we ascribe to objects and actions we think of as ethically
good or wrong. They constitute norms not only for one cultural group or
community but also for individuals. According to N.F. Alefirenko, the following
types of cultural values are widely represented in the language (Алефиренко,
2010):
- vital: life, health, living, environment;
- social: social status, profession, wealth, gender equality, tolerance;
- political: freedom, democracy, lawfulness, peace;
- religious: God, faith, sacred laws, salvation, blessing;
- moral: goodness, kindness, friendship, honour, decency;
- aesthetic: beauty, ideal, harmony, lifestyle.
These cultural values can be subdivided into universal, national, group,
family, individual:
Universal values are the values which are highly recognized by the majority
of people. To these values we refer the masterpieces of art, sustained morals (love,
respect, honesty, compassion, wisdom, beauty and others.). These morals are
common for the people of all nations and religions.
National values play a significant role in the life of every nation and
individual. These values predetermine the national specificity of culture. For
example, “Louvre” for French culture, “Big Ben” for English culture, the “Statue
of Liberty” for American culture, etc.
Group values unite a relatively small group of people according to their
residence and age: they reflect some social group preferences (rockers, punks,
etc.).
Family values include all positive family relationships and traditions (love,
respect, understanding, ties of relationship, etc).
Individual values include ideas based on personal preferences and individual
perception of the surrounding world.
One of the main tasks of Linguoculturology is to study how various types of
cultural values are presented in the linguistic world picture. The analysis of
language material made it possible to single out the linguistic units most relevant
to cultural values. They are phraseological units, stylistic devices, proverbs and
sayings, quotations, aphorisms and literary texts. Let us consider phraseological
units expressing cultural values.
One of the universal cultural values widely represented in phraseological
units of English, Uzbek and Russian is “promise”. In all linguocultures keeping
promise is positively evaluated; it is regarded as a quality testifying a person’s
honour and nobility characterizing him in a very positive way: good, honorable,
organized, obligatory, noble, assertive, honest, reliable. “Breaking promise/word”
on the contrary is a very negative and shameful trait: bad, dishonest, ignoble,
unreliable. Both positive and negative characteristics are presented in the
following examples:
engl: to keep one’s word; to be as good as one’s word; to break one’s word;
to be worse than one’s word; to go back on one’s word; to give one’s word; to be
true to one’s word; to be better than one’s words; a man of word and deed; to give
a word of honour;
uzb: сўз бермоқ; сўз олмоқ; сўзида турмоқ; сўзида қаттиқ турмоқ;
йигит сўзи; сўзи сўз; сўзида турмаслик; сўз бермаслик; сўздан қайтмоқ;
rus: давать слово; держать слово; господин своего слова; верный
своему слову; нарушить своё слово; взять слово с кого-л.
Though, promise represents universal cultural value, it is also characterized by
national-cultural specifics which can be widely observed in proverbs. For example,
in the English and Uzbek languages “promise” is regarded as a quality ascribed to
men rather than women: арслон изидан қайтмас, йигит сўзидан; йигитни бир
сўзлик безар; эр йигитнинг сўзи ўлгунча − ўзи ўлгани яхши; эр сўзли йигит –
кун юзли йигит. It can be explained by traditions of Uzbek culture in which man
is a head of family and a leader of a society. In the English language, there is only
one proverb with such meaning: an Englishman’s word is as good as his bond.
Another group of linguistic units which by nature are aimed to express
cultural values are proverbs. As is known, proverbs reflect people’s wisdom,
experience and appraisals and therefore cultural values are mostly expressed with
the help of these linguistic units.
It is acknowledged that politeness and consideration are regarded as cultural
values and peculiar qualities of English culture and people, therefore, “the English
language is more polite, more concerned about the feelings of the individual” (Ter-
Minasova, 2004): Be nice to people on your way up because you’ll meet them on
your way down; Do as you would be done by; You can catch more flies with honey
than with vinegar; Never speak of a rope in the house of a man who has been
hanged; An ounce of discretion is worth a pound of wit; A soft answer turns away
wrath; There’s a time to speak and a time to be silent; Think before you speak;
Good words are good cheap; Good words cost nothing and are worth much;
Handsome is as handsome does.
Uzbek culture is known for its Hospitality and this cultural value is certainly
reflected in Uzbek proverbs: Меҳмон келар эшикдан, ризқи келар тешикдан;
Меҳмон – отангдан улуғ; Меҳмонга ширин сўз бер; Меҳмон келган уй –
баракали; Меҳмон – азиз, мезбон – лазиз; Меҳмон оз ўтирар, кўп кўрар;
Меҳмон – уйнинг зийнати; Ош – меҳмон билан азиз; Меҳмон кўрки –
дастурхон; Келмоқ ихтиёр билан, кетмоқ ижозат билан; Меҳмон иззатда –
мезбон хизматда; Меҳмон кўрки – дастурхон; Меҳмоннинг кетишини
сўрама, келишини сўра.
No less important in terms of cultural values are aphorisms and quotations
since they convey cultural information about all spheres of human life and activity.
One of the universal cultural values equally important and highly appreciated by
all the nations is “Friendship”. This can be evidenced by the following quotations:
Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together (W.T.
Wilson); Friendship is the golden thread that ties the heart of all the world (J.
Evelyn).
There are many quotations about friendship that emphasize its different
features and cultural value. In all linguocultures, friendship is regarded as
something very precious: Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made
by the friends we choose (Tennessee Williams); Дўст хазинаю, дўстлик
гавҳардир//Гавҳарни йўқотмоқ айб ила нуқсон (Дурбек); Дружба подобна
сокровищнице: из нее невозможно почерпнуть больше, чем ты в нее вложил
(О. Мандельштам); Любовь и дружба – взаимное эхо: они дают столько,
сколько берут (А.И. Герцен).
A real friend always speaks truth even if it is bitter: A good friend can tell
you what is the matter with you in a minute. He may not seem such a good friend
after telling (A. Brisbane); Яхши дўст айби ёру дўстини кўзгудек рўбарасида
сўзлар (А.Авлоний); Оқил дўсти бор кишининг ойнага эҳтиёжи йўқ (А.
Югнакий); Кто мне скажет правду обо мне, если не друг, а слышать о себе
правду от другого – необходимо (В.Г. Белинский);
A real friend is always faithful and never leaves his/her friend in hardships,
supporting him/her in everything: A real friend is one who walks in when the rest
of the world walks out (W. Winchell); Friendship isn’t about who’m you’ve known
the longest. It’s about who came and never left your side (Unknown); Ўзингга
содиқ дўстлар танла, улар паноҳида яшайсан, чунки улар кенгчиликда
зийнат, қийинчиликда қалқондирлар (А. Фитрат); Кулфатда билайлик дўсту
донони//Қалқон бўлажак у синалган они (Атойи);
Friends feel comfortable when they keep silent and happy to talk each other:
True friendship comes when the silence between two people is comfortable (D.
Tyson); Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear
the answer (E. Cunningham); Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether
in marriage or in friendship, is conversation (O. Wilde); Дўстлар билан
кўришиб, гаплашиб туринглар, ғам қайғудан қутулишларингга восита бўлади
(А. Мухтор); Друг мне тот, кому все могу говорить (В.Г. Белинский).
It should be mentioned that though “Friendship” is mostly evaluated
positively, there are still some negative quotations: Friends are thieves of time (F.
Bacon); Из двух друзей один всегда раб другого, хотя часто ни один из них в
этом себе не признается (М.В. Лермонтов); Дружба, подобно любви, есть
роза с роскошным цветом, упоительным ароматом, но и с колючими
шипами (В.Г. Белинский);
Though “Friendship” is a universal cultural value, there are some specific
nationally-specific features.
In English linguoculture friendship is associated with progress: Don’t make
friends who are comfortable to be with. Make friends who will force you to lever
yourself up (T. J. Watson); A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands
where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you
to grow (W.Shakespeare).
In many English quotes it is emphasized that a real friend accepts his/her
friend as he/she is: The friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes
you (E. Hubbard); A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg
even though he knows that you are slightly cracked (B. Meltzer);
In Russian linguoculture, many quotations underline the idea of trust and
respect that lies on the basis of friendship: Где нет полной откровенности,
полной доверенности, где скрывается хотя малость какая-нибудь, там нет
и не может быть дружбы (В.Г. Белинский); Искренность отношений,
правда в общении — вот дружба (А. Суворов);
Both in English and Russian quotations the idea of equality in friendship is
given the stress: Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Don't walk behind me;
I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend (A. Camus); Ни раба, ни
повелителя дружбе не надо. Дружба любит равенство (И.Гончаров);
In Uzbek quotations, the idea of friendship expressed by image is perceived
in terms of ordinary everuday things (овқат, дори, дард, дарахт): Дўст уч хил
бўлади. Биринчиси овқат кабидир, улардан ҳеч ажраб бўлмайди. Иккинчиси
дорига ўхшайди, уларга гоҳ-гоҳ ишинг тушади. Учинчиси дардага ўхшайди ва
улардан ҳеч қандай яхшилик келмайди (Ю.Ҳ. Ҳожиб); Дўст дегани дарахт
япроғига ўхшайди. Баҳор чоғи – беҳисоб. Куз келганда – саноқли. Ёшлик чоғи
– беҳисоб. Кексайганда – саноқли... (Ў. Ҳошимов).
So, the above examples prove a high cultural value of “Friendship”. In most
cases it is evaluated very positively being associated with such notions as loyalty,
care, support, forgiveness, self-sacrifice, devotion, etc.
Cultural values are most clearly represented in texts, especially in fictional
and political. It should be noted that the cultural information encoded in the text is
of a gradual character because different texts are characterized by different degrees
of the culture-relevant information. Most interesting are the texts reflecting
spiritual and moral spheres of human life. Interpretation of such texts requires the
linguocultural competence, that is the knowledge of national cultural values and
priorities.
Very interesting in this respect is a famous speech “I have a dream” by
Martin Luther King, the great American leader and fighter against racism. Below, a
fragment of this speech is presented:
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of
today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the
American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true
meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are
created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former
slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the
table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering
with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be
transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation
where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their
character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with
its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and
nullification, that one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls
will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and
brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exhalted, every hill and
mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked
places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all
flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With
this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.
With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into
a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.
With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle
together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we
will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new
meaning, "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where
my fathers died, land of the Pilgrims' pride, from every mountainside, let freedom
ring."
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom
ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the
mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies
of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom
ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that; let freedom ring
from the Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of
Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every
mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring
from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be
able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men,
Jews and gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in
the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God
Almighty, we are free at last!"
The text of the speech is of great interest in many respects. From the point of
view of its content and its conceptual meaning it is an appeal for equal human
rights, freedom and justice. From the stylistic and axiological point of view, the
text is highly emotive, expressive, imaginative and evaluative. It abounds in
stylistic devices and expressive means of the language such as metaphors, epithets,
periphrasis, repetitions, parallel structures, explanatory sentences.
From the positions of cultural linguistics this text is also noteworthy since
almost all types of cultural values are spoken of and evaluated:
 moral values – justice, injustice, hatred, dignity, soul, force;
 social values – civil rights, security, brotherhood, equality, violence, slaves,
slave owners;
 vital values – life, happiness, hope, tranquillity, destiny;
 political values – independence, liberty, democracy, freedom, segregation,
racism, brutality;
 religious values – God, faith, pray, Lord, Lord Almighty.
All these values are equally important. However, emphasis is made on
“Freedom”. It is not accidental since freedom is the basis of other cultural values:
freedom and equality, freedom and justice, freedom and human rights. The
conceptual significance of this cultural value is evidenced by the fact that the
words “free”, “freedom” and “liberty” are repeated 26 times, thus becoming the
key words of the whole text. It is of interest to note that a positive evaluation of the
cultural value expressed by these words, is strengthed by the following
metaphorical expressions: riches of freedom, thirst for freedom, quest for freedom,
an oasis of freedom, let freedom ring, etc.

1.5. Methods used in Cultural Linguistics


Linguoculturology as an independent branch of linguistics is supposed to
have its own methods and techniques of analysis. However, being an
interdisciplinary, integral science, Linguoculturology employs a combination of
methods; some of them are borrowed from the adjacent disciplines – Cognitive
Linguistics, Psycholinguistics, Ethnolinguistics, Sociolinguistics, etc., others –
have been worked out within the domain of Linguoculturology. It should be kept in
mind that even the borrowed methods undergo certain modifications, they are
adjusted to the aims of linguocultural studies. In this chapter we intend to suggest
the methods which seem most adequate for Linguoculturology.
Componential analysis. It is based on the linguistic postulate that lexical
meaning can be segmented into minimal semantic components (semes). The
method includes techniques of a multi-stage definitional analysis and that of
associative field. In Linguoculturology this method is applied to the semantic
structure of culture-specific unit with the aim to reveal: a) cultural meaning of the
linguocultureme (Christmas, penny, pub); b) cultural semes (home, carol, heart);
c) cultural connotations (turkey, oak, rose).
Etymological analysis studies the origin of linguocultural units, the stages
of their evolution with the aim to discover the sources of cultural information.
Typological analysis is concerned with analysis, comparison and
classification of linguocultural units according to their common features.
Typological analysis is aimed at: a) the classification of the types of linguocultural
units, i.e., the construction of a system of linguoculturemes on the basis of their
similarity; b) the analysis of linguocultural universals belonging to different
languages.
Method of associative field is aimed at revealing cultural connotations and
associations. This method can be implemented in two ways: 1) on the basis of an
associative experiment; 2) on the material of cultural dictionaries and
enceyclopedias. An associative experiment has been elaborated in cognitive
psychology, and it is based on the assumption that a certain stimulus
presupposes some reaction: S —> R. The second way to uncover a net of
associations inherent in the analyzed unit is to use the materials supplied by
various linguocultural dictionaries, thesauruses, encyclopedias and dictionaries of
associations.
Conceptual analysis deals with the processes of conceptualization and
categorization, which relate linguistic units to cognitive structures and processes. It
presupposes searching for the cculture relevant verbal signals in the text including:
a) non-equivalent lexicon; b) culture-specific Ph.U., proverbs, quotations,
epigrams; c) culture-relevant stylistic devices (allusion, antonomasia, litotes,
euphemism, image-bearing stylistic devices); d) mythologemes; e) culture specific
concepts.
It is a comprehensive, multi-stage analysis of culture specific concepts
which presupposes description of a) the concept structure and its constituents
(notional, figurative and evaluative spheres); b) hierarchical taxonomy of cognitive
features inferred in the process of conceptualization; c) distribution of cognitive
features according to the "field" principle, i.e. their reference either to the nucleus
or periphery of a concept.
Cross-cultural analysis is based on comparing and contrasting: a) culturally
and conceptually relevant linguistic units in the text (linguoculturemes); b)
universal and nationally-specific properties of linguistic units including texts; c)
cultural concepts manifesting universal and nationally-specific cultural values.
The choice of these methods depends on the aim of the research;
nonetheless, many of them are used complementarily to study such a complex
phenomenon as relationships between language and culture.

QUESTIONS AND TASKS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Discuss different definitions and views of the notion “culture”


2. What are the basic features of culture from the positions of contemporary
cultural studies?
3. Speak on the different approaches to the notion of culture (national, evaluative,
social, textual, normative, dialogic, cognitive, symbolic, typological)
4. What is the role of language in representing culture?
5. What types of cultural values are represented in language?
6. How can cultural values be differentiated according to the degree of their
prevalence?
7. What quotations of prominent scholars concerning he problem of “language and
culture” do you know?

RECOMMENDED LITERATURE

1. Wierzbicka A. Understanding Culture through Key Words: English,


Russian, Polish and Japanese. –N.Y.-L.: Oxford University Press, 1997
2. Wierzbicka A. Semantics, culture and cognition: Universal human concepts
in culture-specific configurations. – New York: Oxford University Press,
1992. − 416 p.
3. Воробьёв В. В. Лингвокультурология (теория и методы) – М.:
Академия, 2008. – 331с.
4. Маслова В. А. Лингвокультурология. – М.: Академия, 2007. – 208 с.
5. Степанов Ю. С. Константы: Словарь русской культуры. – 3-е изд. испр.
и доп. – М.: Академический Проект, 2004. – 992 с.
CHAPTER II. THE MAIN TRENDS OF CULTURAL LINGUISTICS

Though Cultural Linguistics is a relatively new science, there distinguished


different trends and aspects. The survey of the linguistic literature makes it
possible to differentiate between the following trends: lexicographical,
phraseological, conceptological, stylistic and comparative.

2.1. Linguocultural lexicography

Linguocultural lexicography deals with compiling dictionaries which reflect


culture specific phenomena of a certain linguoculture (geographical names, history,
traditions, holidays, mythology, specifics of political and economic systems, etc.).
The first culture dictionary (Longman Dictionary of English Language and
Culture) was published in Great Britain; it had a revolutionary effect on
lexicographers, culturologists and linguists. Since that it has been republished
many times and contemporary edition presents an invaluable source of cultural
information. It combines language dictionary (80.000 words) and 15,000 cultural
and encyclopedic entries covering information about people, places, history,
geography, arts, literature, and popular culture. For example:
Bell – many Christian churches have bells, and these are rung on Sundays, to
tell people that the church service is about to begin. They are also rung, often
making pleasant tunes, when people are getting married in a church. A single bell
is rung repeatedly to show that someone has died (LDELC, 2005);
Mistletoe – in British mythology mistletoe is connected with the druids who
regarded it is a sacred plant. Mistletoe is often hung in rooms on Christmas
because there is a tradition that one may kiss anyone of the opposite sex who is
under it (LDELC, 2005).
This dictionary provides in-depth understanding of key events in British and
American culture, for example, Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only president to have
served more than two terms… He was a popular and respected president, and many
people listened to his “fireside chats” on the radio, in which he told people what
was happening in the country and what he was doing. He was the first president to
appear on television” (LDELC, 2005).
It should be mentioned that this dictionary includes not only cultural notes,
but also highlights the society’s attitude toward a certain realia, for example, paid
holidays: people in the US get 2 weeks a year paid vacation (=holiday) from their
job. Most British people have four or five weeks of paid holiday.Americans often
complain that two weeks is not enough holiday, especially when they hear about
the longer holidays that Europeans get (LDELC, 2005).
According to some scholars, contemporary dictionaries containing cultural
information can be divided into four groups:
1) cultural dictionaries exploring political, social, historical and cultural
issues peculiar to a certain country in some periods (the status of different social
groups, cultural nomadism, Western feminism, Reneissance).
For instance, “The Midwest: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American
Regional Cultures” (2004) discusses the influence of different historical periods on
American Midwest culture and its representatives: Native American’s customs
and ceremonies, Old World European influence, effects of the Great Migration.
The volumes of encyclopedia cover information about people and ethnic gropus,
different types of realia, art and music, history and folklore, architecture, traditions
and customs, language and literature, etc. of American Midwest. “Encyclopedia of
Blacks in European History and Culture” (Martone, 2008) discusses the role and
contribution of blacks to European history, literature, society and popular culture.
It also gives information about black people’s contribution to the development of
political and social rights in Europe, the struggle for civil equality of blacks, black
immigration to Europe, the role and influence of blacks on contemporary European
popular culture, science and sport as well as cultural figures of African origin,
black holidays and festivals that transformed Europe into multicultural states.
“Evangelical America: An Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Religious
Culture” (Demy, Shockley, 2017) discusses the history and impact of
evangelicalism (a direction in Christianity) on American history, society, politics,
and culture. “Encyclopedia of Southern Culture” (1989) in detail describes every
aspect of this region (former Confederacy), and its role in the development of the
USA, its history and policies, its music and literature, ideas and values, religion
and language, art and architecture, politics and media. It emphasizes the
uniqueness of Southern culture, a blend created by blacks and whites who have
lived together for more than 300 years.
2) dictionaries and reference books devoted to the descriptions of
countries and cultures (names of architectural monuments, animals and plants
specific for a certain country, names and descriptions of national holidays and
traditions, etc.).
A good example of such dictionaries are guide-books about different
countries and geographically oriented cultural dictionaries: “Dictionary of
Japanese Culture” (Kojima, Crane, 1990), “Россия. Большой лингвострановед-
ческий словарь” (Прохоров, 2007), “Греция: Лингвострановедческий словарь”
(Николау, 1995), “Франция: лингвострановедческий словарь” (Ведениена,
1997), “Австрия: Лингвострановедческий словарь” (Муравлёва, 2003),
“Германия: страна и язык: Лингвострановедческий словарь” (Мальцева,
1998) and others. Dictionaries of this type include names of architectural
monuments, animals and plants specific for a certain country, names and
descriptions of national holidays and traditions. These dictionaries compared to the
linguistic ones, contain more cultural information and include data of reference-
descriptive character.
3) specialized cultural dictionaries guiding specific cultural areas of
knowledge in certain countries: dictionaries of idioms and proverbs, myths and
legends, slang, etc.
For instance, “Dictionary of the Bible and Western Culture” (Beavis,
Gilmour, 2012) is a reference guide that gives information about characters, places,
legends and notions going back to the Bible. Encyclopedic entries discuss biblical
terms in their original settings, and then illustrate linguistic verbalization of this
phenomena, i.e. idioms, word-combinations illustrating their influence on Western
culture.
“The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs” (Speake, 2015), “The Facts On File
Dictionary of Proverbs” (Manser, 2007) contain the most widely used proverbs in
English, provided with explanation of their meaning, examples of their usage, the
origin of these proverbs and background cultural information.
“Myths and Legends: An illustrated guide to their origins and meanings”
(Wilkinson, 2009) includes information about myths from the well-known Ancient
Greek-Roman mythology and the less-known myths of the tribes of American
Indians as well as those of the East. It highlights legends and stories in terms of
their cultural, psychological, and religious meanings and demonstrate their impact
on the societies’ cultural and social lifestyle.
“The Complete Dictionary of Symbols” (Tresidder, 2005) covers more than
2,000 major themes: animals and plants, numerals and colours, gods and
goddesses, supernatural creatures, heroes and heroines, mythical episodes,
prophets and saints, miracles, and etc., that are commonly found in mythology, art,
and literature and marked by symbolics.
4) encyclopedic dictionaries (Encyclopedia Britannica, World Book,
Большая советская энциклопедия, etc.), which cover a wide range of topics and
provide information about different fields of the life.
For example, Encyclopædia Britannica is the oldest and most famous
dictionary published in 1770th. Since it has gained a popular and critical reputation
for general excellence. The content of Britannica covers topics in geography,
biography, biology and medicine, literature, physics and astronomy, religion, art,
Western philosophy, and law. However, there are also specialized encyclopedias
that focus on a certain field, such as art, medicine, engineering, philosophy and
compiled from the academic, cultural, ethnic, or national perspective.
From the position of linguocultural lexicography a special interest is
attached to encyclopedic dictionaries organized to provide a better insight into
culture. For instance, “Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture” (Mallory, Adams,
1997) provides the most detailed information about the major Indo-European
language stocks and their origins, and the conceptual range of the reconstructed
Proto-Indo-European language. The encyclopedia also highlights some of the
major issues of Indo-European cultural studies.
“A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples” (Pritzker,
2000) covers a wide range of culturally significant topics about history and current
life of North American Indian groups: leaders, tribal names, customs and
traditions, ceremonies and rituals, food and drink, clothes, dwellings, weapons and
government, religion and beliefs, myths and folklore, etc. as well as their
contributions to the contemporary American society.
“Encyclopedia of Contemporary Russian Culture” (2014) sums up the
information about contemporary Russian culture including its ethnic composition
and identity, different aspects of culture and lifestyle: people, art and theatre,
fashion and film, literature, music, food, transport, politics and economics, etc.
“Encyclopedia of Contemporary Spanish Culture” (Rodgers, 2001) provides
information about current cultural and political developments of Spain from 1939
to the present day, including the cultures of Catalonia, Galicia and the Basque
country. It sums up the information on history and politics, education and science,
dance and sport, famous people and so on.
“Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture” (Smith, 2010)
contains comprehensive information on Afro-American popular culture such as
popular cultural events, places and figures, the development of black baseball, the
Harlem Renaissance known as the “New Negro Movement” – a cultural, social,
and artistic explosion that took place in Harlem, New York, in 1920s.
Linguocultural material can be presented in dictionaries in alphabetical order
with linguocultural comments or they can be based on the ideographic principle.
For instance, the dictionary of the “Slavic mythology” contains interpretations of
folklore and fairy images, characters and symbols of the Eastern Slavs. The world
is described within the system of binary oppositions: life – death, right – left, male
– female, etc.
The first linguocultural dictionary for academic purposes was worked out by
E.M. Vereschagin and V.G. Kostomarov (1983). It is intended for students and
teachers specializing in English at universities, pedagogical institutes and institutes
of foreign languages. This dictionary contains explanations of linguistic
expressions that are specific for English culture, it is provided with photos for
visual perception.
One of the significant contributions to the development of linguocultural
lexicography is the cultural dictionary about Russia (Россия. Большой
лингвострановедческий словарь) that was published in 2007. It contains about
2000 nationally and culturally marked words and word-combinations nominating
different historical facts, realia, nature phenomena, cultural concepts, names and
descriptions of holidays and traditions, personages related to history, mythology,
folclore, different culture specific metaphors, similes, phraseological units,
proverbs, national songs, etc., related to Russian culture that reflects national
characteristics of the Russian mentality such as изба, береза, дядя Стёпа,
медведь, День Победы, пироги, Новый год, Третьяковка, «Варяг», Александр
Невский, «Война и мир», «Мариинка», «Аврора», Арбат, клюква, рожь, царь
(Россия, БЛС, 2007).
Of special interest is the dictionary of cultural concepts and constants by Yu.
S. Stepanov (2004). The dictionary contains the description of such constants as:
Russia and Russians, Russian soul, Faith, Eternity, Law and Lawlessness, Fear,
Love, etc., that are investigated both from the diachronic and synchronic
perspectives. According to Yu.S. Stepanov cultural concepts and constants are
characterized by metamorphism (changes) in the process of evolution, with the
core being unchanged. Therefore cultural constants though not numerous in
number present the basis of a certain culture.
Thus, assessing the lexicographic trend in linguoculturology, we should note
one important feature: the borders between linguistic meaning and extralinguistic
knowledge are blurred, there are dictionaries that integrate both aspects. An ideal
dictionary in our opinion is a dictionary which provides more or less detailed
encyclopedic, ethno-linguistic and cultural information.

2.2. Phraseological Trend in Cultural Linguistics

Phraseology as an independent science came to existence in the 1940’s and


1950’s owing to the works by V.V. Vinogradov and his school. It is worth
mentioning that the contribution of Russian linguists to the development of
phraseology is acknowledged by many foreign scholars (Skandera, 2007:10).
The theoretical foundations for semantic and functional analysis of
phraseological units (Ph.U) within the framework of lexicology were laid down by
Ch. Bally, A.A. Potebnya, B. de Courtenay, A.A. Shakhmatov, N.M. Shanskiy, O.
Jesperson. The linguists analyzed Ph.U. from different angles: structural, semantic,
functional. Much attention is given to the problem of Ph.U. classification.
It should be mentioned that there is a great variety of terms denoting this
linguistic unit: set expression, set phrase, fixed word group, word equivalent,
phraseological unit and idiom. Despite the differences of terms and approaches, all
scholars agree that phraseological units are word-groups that “are not created in
speech but introduced into the act of communication ready-made” (Arnold, 1973,
p. 142). Here some examples: daily bread, small potatoes, lost sheep, an ugly
duckling, a dog in the manger, at death’s door, Baker’s dozen, dog days, as cross
as a bear, a fair cow, horse and foot, pretty as a picture, etc.
There distinguished three basic stages in the development of phraseological
theory:
The first stage (1903 -1946) is marked by the works of M.I. Michelson, Sh.
Bally, S.I. Abakumov.
The second stage refers to the researches by V.V. Vinogradov, B.A. Larin
and A.I. Smirnitsky.
The third stage is considered a flourishing period in the history of
phraseology and signified by the works of such scholars as A.A. Amosova, A.V.
Kunin and many others.
In our opinion, there should also be distinguished the fourth stage,
regarding language as a mirror, reflecting the system of cultural values. In this
respect phraseology is believed to be one of the most important layers of the
national world picture. The idea that phraseological units are charged with cultural
senses and connotations is brought forward by a number of scholars (V.N. Telia,
V.A. Maslova, M.L. Kovshova, A.V. Kunin, etc.). Phraseological units are
considered to be specific linguistic units, conveying cultural information “woven”
into their semantics or connotations and expressing cultural stereotypes, etalons
and archetypes.
From linguocultural approach, the following problems of phraseology are
under discussion:
 cultural interpretation of phraseological units (Ковалевская, 2010;
Дубровина, 2012; Архипкина, 2007).
In the works devoted to the cultural interpretation of phraseological units the
scholars investigate etymology of Ph.U., evolution of their meanings,
linguocultural, pragmatic, gender aspects of Ph.U., cultural stereotypes and
symbols, etalons and archetypes, cultural codes and cultural values.
 cultural connotations of different phraseological groups (Телия, 1996;
Ковшова, 2016).
Cultural connotations emerge as a result of interpretation of associative and
imagery basis of phraseological units in its relation to national-cultural stereotypes.
According to V.N. Telia, cultural connotations are the relations between the image
expressed by the linguistic sign and its associations with cultural categories (Телия
1996, p. 214).
 national-cultural specifics of phraseological units (Инчина, 2002;
Буробин, 1994; Яковлева, 1998).
Most of the works done in this framework focus on Ph.U. with a particular
component (anthroponyms, toponyms, colour terms, floronyms) or Ph.U. arranged
within one thematic group (family, friendship, relationships, nature). It should be
mentioned that most of the researches devoted to national-cultural specifics are
done from comparative perspective on the base of two or more languages. In all
researches the scholars try to identify the national-cultural specifics of Ph.U.,
analyze cultural factors that influence the formation of Ph.U., reveal sources of
national-cultural specifics, identify culturally-marked components in the structure
of Ph.U. (realia, symbols, images).
 phraseological units as cultural signs in different text types (Казеннова,
2010; Фесенко, 2009; Салтыкова, 2011).
As is known, phraseological units are widely used in different text types
fulfilling various stylistic and pragmatic functions. Besides, phraseological units
often serve as cultural signs that manifest national culture. This function is of
special relevance to literary, newspaper and publicistic texts. For example, in the
title of the newspaper article Pandora Opens More Classical Boxes (The
Washington Post, 24.07.2013), the Ph.U. “Pandora’s box” is used to convey
cultural information of a mythological character. This idiom denoting “a source of
many unforeseen troubles” activates encyclopedic knowledge about ancient Greek
myth. According to the myth Zeus gave a box to Pandora with the instructions not
to open it, but she gave in to her curiosity and opened it. As a result all the
miseries, evils and diseases flew out to afflict the mankind. Another example is
from the fictional text:
Members of Parliament and ladles of fashion. Like himself and Fleur... now
and then... going for each other like Kilkenny cats (Galsworsy, Forsyte Saga). The
phraseological unit “Kilkenny cats” contains cultural component expressed by
realia “Kilkenny”. The city of Kilkenny is known for its constant fight with
another city Irishtown that caused their mutual devastation. In this context the
Ph.U. is used to describe the relationship between the Parliament members, ladies
of fashion, who though hating each other, pretend to be friendly.
 special types of phraseological dictionaries with cultural comments.
On the basis of new and unique linguocultural researches under the
supervision of V.N. Telia there has been created the dictionary «Большой
фразеологический словарь русского языка. Значение. Употребление.
Культурологический комментарий» (1 edition – 2006; 4 edition – 2009). The
dictionary describes phraseological units in terms of culture, as cultural symbols,
etalons, stereotypes, and etc.
The most influential dictionaries of idioms are often republished: Collins
Cobuild Dictionary of Idioms (1998, 2002, 2006, 2011); Oxford Dictionary of
English Idioms (1998, 2004, 2009); Cambridge Idioms Dictionary (2006);
Longman Idioms Dictionary (1998, 2006). Structurally these dictionaries comprise
a usage guide in the form of visual schemes (CCDI, ODEI, CID) or exemplified by
a text (LID), thematic and cultural indexes.
According to V.N. Telia phraseological units are defined as linguistic
representations of cultural phenomena due to their ability to reflect the national
mentality and the system of cultural values of the people who speak this language.
For instance, idioms with antroponyms, toponyms, etc. can be considered to be the
most vivid representations of culture: A1 at Lloyd’s (the highest quality); Davy
Jones’ locker (the bottom of the sea; the mythical resting place of drowned
mariners); the Black Belt (southern regions of the United States of America, where
Afro-Americans live); Jim Crow (the nickname of the black which is given to them
by white racists); John Barleycorn (the personification of the beer or other alcohol
drinks); John Bull (nickname of the English people); Jack Ketch (death man,
executioner, executor, hangman, butcher); Tom, Dick and Harry (undifferentiated
ordinary people); Tom Tiddler’s ground (a place where money or profit is readily
made); Philadelphia lawyer (a well educated person, shrewd and sometimes
astute); Put on the Ritz (to be dressed very modern and accurately. (Ritz is the
name of expensive Hotel in Paris, London and New York); Harley Street (doctors,
medical world (Harley Street is the street in London where many popular doctors
live).
So, in most cases phraseological units express the evaluative attitude of the
human to the world. In other words, phraseology is regarded as a set of valuable
data about culture and the mentality of the people, their customs and traditions,
myths, rituals, habits, behaviour, etc. So, phraseological units constitute an
important culture relevant and evaluative layer of the conceptual world picture.
The main tasks of investigations in the framework of cultural phraseology
are as follows:
 to work out a typology of cultural connotations in phraseological units;
 to reveal the conceptual content of phraseological units;
 to explore symbolic semantics of phraseology;
 to investigate the role of phraseology in the world picture representation;
 to elaborate principles and methods of cultural interpretation of phraseological
units.
2.3. Conceptological Trend in Linguoculturology

The interdisciplinary term “concept” is widely used in different fields of


linguistics such as Cognitive Linguistics, Cultural Linguistics,
Linguoconceptology, Gender Linguistics, etc.
Concept as an integral part of conceptual, linguistic and national world
pictures relevant either to an individual linguistic personality or the whole
linguocultural community. As V.A. Maslova claims, the formation of a concept is
conditioned by the individual’s emotional, physical, historical, personal and social
experience acquired in the process of the world perception (Маслова, 2004).
Therefore, concept is considered to be one of the main notions in Cultural
Linguistics. There exist many definitions of this notion presented in the works by
foreign and Russian scientists such as G. Lakoff, R.Langaker, R. Jakendoff, G.V.
Alefirenko, N.D. Arutyunova, Yu.S. Stepanov, S.A. Askoldov, N.N. Boldуrev,
E.S. Kubryakova, D.S. Likhachev, et al., who outline the distinctive properties of
this phenomenon. Not going into details, we shall give a general definition of this
notion worked out on the basis of the linguistic literature. Cultural concept is
defined as a basic unit of culture; a mental, cultural and nationally specific unit
characterized by an array of emotional, expressive and evaluative components; a
constituent part of the national conceptosphere (Степанов Ю.С., Арутюнова
Н.Д., Карасик В.И., Слышкин Г.Г., Воркачев С.Г., Пименова М.В.)
To illustrate it, we present the analysis of the English concept
GENTLEMAN which is very significant for English linguoculture. Let’s consider
some definitions of the lexeme “Gentleman” given in different dictionaries
(MWCD, CIDE, OALD, etc.):
Gentleman:
1. A man of gentle or noble birth or superior social position;
2. A well-mannered and considerate man with high standards of proper behavior;
3. A civilized, educated, sensitive man;
4. A man of independent means who does not need to have a wage-paying job;
The word “gentleman” has:
1. synonyms: grandee, lord, milord, nobleman, chevalier, sir, blue blood,
patrician, aristocrat, sire, master, peer;
2. antonyms: boor, churl, cottar, fellah, peasant, peon, commoner, plebian,
proletarian, toiler.
So, the lexicographical interpretation of this lexeme, the analysis of its
associative links enable us to reveal a set of the conceptual features constituting the
cognitive structure of this word: Gentleman, denoting an English realia, conveys
cultural information about a noble, intelligent, well-educated man of good manners
and behaviour. So, the analysed word stands out as an embodiment of the best
moral qualities of an Englishman, his good breeding, social status, education.
Now let’s turn to the analysis of some quotations and fragments from
fictional text.
A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone’s feelings unintentionally
(O.Wilde);
Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company and reflection
must finish him (J. Locke);
A gentleman is one who puts more into the world than he takes out (G.B.
Shaw);
I can make a Lord, but only God can make a gentleman (King James I);
A gentleman never talks about his tailor (N. Cave);
The final test of a gentleman is his respect for those who can be of no
possible service to him (W.L. Phelps);
Courtesy is as much a mark of a gentleman as courage (T. Roosevelt);
And though it is much to be a nobleman, it is more to be a gentleman (A.
Trollope);
The word of a gentleman is as good as his bond; and sometimes better
(Ch.Dickens);
From the above quotations, it can be seen that the quotations mostly restate
lexicographical definitions. However, one of the core components of the concept
etymologically denoting only those of a high-rank status usually given by birth has
lost its meaning and, nowadays the concept “Gentleman” is used to refer to the
well-educated and well-behaved man not necessarily of a noble origin.
Let’s analyze the story by W.S. Maugham “The Lion’s Skin”. The
conceptual and cultural significance of this story can be inferred from the analysis
of the linguocultural field of the text with the dominant word “gentleman”.
The factual information of this story: a poor young man, who used to be a
car-washer, a page-boy, a soldier, dreamt of being a real gentleman. To realize his
dream he married a rich woman from whom he concealed his past. All his life he
has been playing the role of a gentleman, and was so much used to this image that
in the end of the story he really proved himself to be a gentleman. He sacrificed his
life for the sake of his wife’s pet, a little dog, saving it from the fire, and thus
displaying his ability for heroic and noble deeds.
The detailed analysis of the text makes it possible to decode a set of
conceptual features of the cultural concept “gentleman”, which can be referred to
cultural or, to be more exact, ethnocultural stereotypes. The notion of a stereotype
is widely used in linguoculturology and is defined as a fragment of the conceptual
world picture, mental representation of cultural and national perception of an
object or situation (Маслова, 2007: 110). It is due to the stereotyped perception
that the positive characteristics of the personage are explicated in the text with the
help of the attributive word-combinations: great gentleman, gallant gentleman,
aristocratic to his finger tops, too perfect a type of an English gentleman, bluff
hearty sportsman, the cleanest man, high moral standards, fine gentleman.
The character’s appearance, his way of life, thoughts and behaviour are
predetermined by the stereotyped ideas of what a gentleman is: a) appearance –
he was not nearly so well-dressed as Robert, who always looked as though he had
stepped out of a show-window... he looked like an English sportsman that it gave
you quite a shock; In his conversation, in his manners, in his dress he was so
typical that you could hardly believe it. He was so much of a country gentleman; b)
manners – He came forward in his affable, hearty way with a grace that always
charmed Eleanor; he has a bluff, hearty way with him and a long frank laugh; c)
behaviour – He was a wonderful host. Eleanor had always admired his sense of
social duty; however dull the women were he was sitting next to he gave them of
his best; You are too great a gentleman to hit a feller smaller than yourself; he
didn’t think it honourable to ask me to marry. I felt he’d sooner die than let me
think he was after my money. He was a fine man; d) character – ... one can’t help
admiring a man whose principles are so high and who’s prepared to stick to them
at any cost. Captain Forester had high moral standards.
The above given examples from the text contain a high positive evaluation
of the concept “Gentleman” and express general characteristics of the people
belonging to this class. This stereotyped image of a gentleman was fixed in the
young man’s mind as an example to follow. At the same time the author gives his
ironical evaluation of this cultural stereotype. The ironical effect is achieved by a
contrast which in its turn is created by such stylistic devices as antithesis,
oxymoron, paradox. For example,
And his conversation, the way he dogmatized, the platitudinous inanity of his
statements, his amiable, well-bred stupidity, were all so characteristic of the
retired officer that you could hardly help thinking he was putting it on (p.144).
Here the words “dogmatize”, “platitudinous inanity”, “stupidity” with
negative meanings, used to characterize the person who in this story symbolizes
the image of a gentleman, produce an ironical and paradoxal effect, inasmuch as
they emphasize mutually exclusive, incompatible semantic features.
The same function is fulfilled by the antithesis used in the following
example:
I admire you for carrying of such a stupendous bluff starting as a page boy
then being a trooper, a valet and a car-washer? And there you are! A fine
gentleman, with a grand house, entertaining all the big bugs of the Rivera, winning
golf tournaments, vice-president of the Sailing club, and I don’t know what all.
The antithesis here ironically emphasizes the hypocrisy of the main
personage, who being of a low origin and status, contrives to turn into a
respectable gentleman. Another example is also illustrative of irony created by
stylistic transformations of the word “gentleman”: “Oh, don’t be so damned
gentlemanly with me, Bob”. The oxymoron “damned gentlemanly” changes a
positive evaluation of “gentleman” into its opposite – a negative one. The above
examples prove that the concept of “gentleman” is ironically presented by the
author. So, the analysis of the story demonstrates the role of cultural concepts and
their significance in text interpretation.
To conclude, the main issues the conceptological trend is concerned with are
as follows:
 the taxonomy of the main cultural concepts peculiar to a certain
linguoculture;
 the typology of cultural concepts (universal, nationally specific, individual);
 national specifics of cultural concepts;
 interlevel verbalization of cultural concepts;
 the role of cultural concepts in fictional texts;
 the role of cultural concepts in the world picture representation, etc.
All these problems will be discussed further in chapter VI, here it should be
stressed that the main task of linguocultural studies in general, and of the
conceptological trend in particular, is to define the key concepts laid in the basis of
each linguoculture.

2.4. Stylistic trend in Linguoculturology

Present-day stylistics is greatly influenced by Cultural Linguistics, and it is


accounted for by the fact that there are close relationships between these sciences.
Stylistics, as is known, has always been a “human-oriented” discipline, therefore,
the development of Cultural Linguistics, provides fresh impetus for stylistics
which embarks on a new stage of its development within the framework of
Cognitive Linguistics and Linguocultural Stylistics. Many stylistic phenomena
have undergone considerable modifications: traditional notions are being
reconsidered, new approaches and notions are being introduced. For example, one
of the central notions of stylistics is the notion of a stylistic device from the
positions of Linguoculturology is regarded as a cultural model since its role in the
representation of cultural values and culture specific phenomena in different to
overestimate.
The stylistic trend in Cultural Linguistics is represented by the works by
D.U. Ashurova (2013, 2016, 2018), G.G. Molchanova (2007), O.K. Iriskhanova
(2004). For instance, G.G. Molchanova who regards language as an iconic sign of
all the changes in the society, discusses the following issues:
a) cultural markers of innovations in language and culture;
b) basic cultural concepts in the English and Russian languages;
c) text as a synergetic unity of language, personality and culture;
d) intercultural communication and many others.
Our observations have shown that there are frequent correlation between
stylistic and culture specific properties of linguistic units. In other words, stylistic
and cultural properties are closely interconnected and interdependent. Therefore,
many phraseological units, derivatives, compound words, words differentiated
according to register and genre such as neologisms, archaisms, slang, terms are
charged not only with stylistic meaning but also cultural connotations. For
example, American English, which is very much influenced by “consumer culture”
is abundant in new terns, innovations, brand names, commercial expressions
relating to various aspects of consumer industry and advertising. Of particular
interest is the fact that popular American literature is becoming more
commercialized, and culture specific commercial terms appear in novels, plays and
even songs: a “Pepsi generation”, a “Marlborro man”, a “Telfon politician”, a
“Palmolive complexion”.
Another evidence of the necessity to investigate stylistic aspect of cultural
linguistics is the national specifics of expressive word-formation. The specifics of
the semantics of the derivative words is reflected in the national world picture and
can be revealed in: 1) non-correspondence (partial correspondence) of derivative
image structures in different languages; 2) the difference of stylistic connotations
reflecting the specifics of cognition of different people. If we compare the
semantic structure of the word “moony” and its equivalent in Uzbek “ойдай”, it
becomes obvious that these lexemes have different national associations which are
conditioned by different literary traditions. In the English language in the process
of secondary nomination we observe the actualization of the negative features
related to the notions of “laziness”, “passiveness”, while in Uzbek there appear
some positive associations connected with the notion of “beauty”. This difference
accounts for the distinction between literary traditions in the western and oriental
poetry. One of the most specific features of oriental poetry is an excessive usage of
stylistic devices.
The necessity to investigate correlations of stylistics and cultural linguistics is
also confirmed by a number of culture-oriented stylistic devices. Such stylistic
devices as antonomasia, allusion, euphemism, symbol are particularly indicative of
cultural insight.
The linguocultural approach to the problem of stylistic devices requires a
new apprehension of stylistic devices, which is regarded as:
● a complex aesthetic sign which serves as a means of conveying cultural values to
the mind of the reader;
● one of the main means of verbalizing cultural concepts especially their emotive
and evaluative components;
● a fragment of the conceptual world picture expressing certain knowledge
structures;
● a cultural model manifesting elements of universal and national culture
(Ashurova, Galieva, 2016).
Antonomasia, for instance, is a stylistic device which uses either a proper
name to express a general idea or a notional word instead of a proper noun. From
the stylistic point of view antonomasia is an image-bearing stylistic device aimed
to express emotional, subjective-evaluative attitude of the author. From the point
of view of cognitive processes antonomasia is a verbaliser of certain relevant to
culture knowledge structures. Thus, in O’Neil’s play “Long day’s journey into
night” we find the author’s remark in the portrait description:
Jamie, the elder, is thirty three, He has his father’s broad-shouldered, deep
chested physique, is an inch taller and weighs less, but appears shorter and
stouter... Combined with his habitual expression of cynicism it gives his
countenance a Mephistophelian cast (O’Neil, Three American Plays).
Here the antonomasia, expressed by the derivative adjective, is motivated by
the proper name “Mephistophel” which contains literary knowledge structures
derived from Goethe’s “Faust”. The image of Mephistophel, symbolising evil,
malice, contempt to people, serves to characterise the personage of this play.
Allusion, another culture relevant stylistic device, is regarded as a reference
to some historical, mythological, literary facts. The mechanism of allusion rests on
the fact that it extracts from the addressee’s memory the information meant for a
new object. Allusion, no matter whether expressed by a word, group of words or a
sentence, is intended to activate certain knowledge structures and increase the
volume of information:
Here was a man who had kept alive the old red flame of fatherhood,
fatherhood that had even the right to sacrifice the child to God, like Isaac
(Lawrence, England my England).
In this example, the allusion is expressed by the religious anthroponym
“Isaac”. According to the biblical legend prophet Abraham was ready to kill his
son Isaak to prove his faith in God. In the story by Lawrence the anthroponym is
used to characterize the main personage, the father of the family, who thinks that
fatherhood gives him the right to dominate over and sacrifice his children.
Activating the religious knowledge structures, the allusion here serves as a means
of the personage’s characteristics.
Cultural potential is clearly observed in the semantics of image-bearing
linguistic units. In other words, national-cultural specificity of imagery is
explained by semantic transformations caused by the process of the secondary
nomination, characterized by the redistribution of semantic features; some of them
are accentuated while others are neutralized. In different languages one and the
same image is perceived differently and that is accounted for by extralinguistic
factors: nationally specific perception, lifestyle, living conditions, traditions. For
instance, the lexeme ‘wolf’ according to the dictionary definitions is: 1) a wild
animal that looks like a dog; 2) the fur of such an animal; 3)
any of various wolflike animals of different families, as the thylacine; 4) a cruelly
rapacious person; 5) Inf. a man who makes amorous advances to many women
(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/wolf). As is seen from the dictionary
definitions, the metaphorical usage of the lexeme “wolf” (a cruelly
rapacious person) is distinguished by a very negative meaning in English. While in
the Kirgiz language this lexeme along with negative characteristics has obtained a
positive sense under the influence of the works by Ch. Aytmatov. A series of
episodes in his novel “Плаха” serve as a basis for positive associations with this
animal: loving, devoted, independent, bold, wise, etc.
Stylistic devices play a key role in representation of cultural concepts. The
following example from S. Maugham’s “Theatre” illustrates the role of stylistic
devices in expressing the cultural concept LOVE. The main character of the novel,
Julia, paradoxal though it may seem, lives on the stage and plays in life. The given
below dialogue between Julia and her son tells us about the latter’s disappointment
in his first love affair. Julia is upset. With enthusiasm and affection does she
explain to her son what love is:
She gave him a little smile.
“And you really think that was love?”
“Well, it’s what most people mean by it, isn’t it?”
“No, they don’t, they mean pain and anguish, shame, ecstasy, heaven and hell,
they mean the sense of living more intensely, and unutterable boredom; they mean
freedom and slavery; they mean peace and unrest”.
Here the concept LOVE is presented in a condensed aphoristic form. The
utterance contains the convergence of stylistic devices (gradation, antithesis,
metaphor, epithet and others), which convey a set of conceptual features
constituting the frame structure of the concept. It is interesting to note that both
positive and negative features are presented in contrast expressed by antithesis:
heaven and hell, freedom and slavery, peace and unrest. The combination of the
opposed and incompatible conceptual features and their complex interaction
specify a deep-lying cognitive structure of the analysed concept.
The problem of stylistic analysis of the text in terms of culture is also one of
the concerns of the stylistic trend within cultural linguistics. It is to be noted that
though many linguistic units are culture relevant it is the text which reflects culture
in full measure. When viewing texts from this perspective, we should specify them
according to the degree of cultural information conveyed. In this respect a special
emphasis should made on the texts describing certain cultural events, phenomena,
attitudes, evaluations, and containing culture specific linguistic units and cultural
concepts. One of the main tasks of text analysis from the cultural perspective is to
analyze culture specific units used in the text. The analysis of culture specific
units as non-equivalent lexicon, anthroponyms, mythologemes, phraseological
units, paroemia, speech formulas of etiquette, etc. proves the correlations between
stylistic and culture specific properties of linguistic units.
Thus, the above-mentioned correlations between stylistic characteristics
and national-cultural specifics of the linguistic units prove close relationships
between stylistics and cultural linguistics and the necessity to study stylistic
aspects of cultural linguistics. The main problems under discussion are the
followings:
 stylistic devices as cultural models;
 national-cultural specificity of image-bearing linguistic units;
 national-cultural specificity of stylistic devices;
 stylistic analysis of texts charged with cultural information,

2.5. Comparative Cultural Linguistics

Comparative Cultural Linguistics focuses on the comparative and


contrastive analysis of culturally marked units of different languages. According to
I.A. Sternin, the growth of interest in comparative studies of cultural aspects of
different languages is conditioned by the following factors:
 the need to identify the universal and nationally specifics of different
linguocultures;
 the growing interest in the national world picture of different nations;
 the need to improve bilingual dictionaries;
 the expansion of foreign language teaching (Стернин, 2007).
It should be mentioned that there is no unanimity of views of the status of
Comparative Linguoculturology among other linguistic disciplines. Some linguists
regard Comparative Linguoculturology as a separate area of linguistics, “an
independent, complex, scientific, interdisciplinary branch of science of a
synthesizing type” (Алимжанова, 2010). However, most scholars reject the
independent status of comparative linguoculturology including it into the
framework of general linguoculturology (Маслова, 2007; Воробьёв, 2008).
In V.V. Vorobyov’s opinion, Comparative Linguoculturology is an applied
aspect of general linguoculturology emerging at the junction of comparative
linguistics and linguoculturology, and becoming a logical continuation of the latter.
So, according to the scholar, Comparative Linguoculturology studies the processes
of interactions and interrelations of languages, cultures and nations applying the
principles of comparative and contrastive analyses, aimed at revealing not only
structural and functional peculiarities of the compared languages, but also peoples’
national culture, a system of cultural values, national peculiarities of thinking
(Воробьёв, Полякова, 2012).
The aims of comparative linguoculturology according to V.V. Vorobyov are:
 to compare two or more languages belonging to different systems on the basis of
the native language;
 to explore and describe the cultures and cultural spaces of the compared
languages;
 to reveal cultural specifics and cultural background of the compared languages;
 to define the ways each of the languages embodies, represents and transmits
culture (Воробьёв, Полякова, 2012).
Comparative Linguoculturology as an interdisciplinary discipline focuses on
revealing similarities and differences of two or more linguocultures reflected in the
linguistic units of the compared languages: non-equivalent lexicon, phraseological
units and proverbs, metaphors, symbols, mythologemes, folklore, religious and
fictional texts, a set of linguistic and communicative units (speech etiquette,
communicative situations, communicative intentions and strategies, etc.), an
axiological world picture, etc.
For example, comparative analysis of phraseological units with the
component “white/белый/oқ” in all languages represent conceptual features
associated with: a) the culture specific notions of purity, innocence, honesty and
decency – engl.: white magic, lily-white reputation; white wedding; white light;
white hands; white man; white envy; to mark with a white stone; white day; white
lie; rus.: белая душа, белая изба, белая баня, белая кухня, облачиться в белые
одежды, белая полоса, белая горница; uzb.: оқ кўнгил, оқи оқ; b) social status
– engl.: white man, white supremacy, poor white, white-collar job; white house;
uzb.: оқ билак, оқ суяк, косаси оқармаган, оғзи оқариб қолди, rus.: белый
человек, белая кость.
In the English language, in contrast to Uzbek and Russian, the Ph.U. with
the component “white” alongside positive associations can denote negative senses
such as: a) fury, anger – white with fury (intensely heated, impatient, white rage (a
very strong feeling of anger), at white heat (in a state of strong emotion); b) fear –
to show white feather (to act in a cowardly way), to look white about the gills (to
look or feel nauseated often because of the fear), white-livered (lacking vigour and
courage), white at the lips (very afraid of smth./ smb.); c) illness – white scourge
(tuberculosis), white leg (thrombophlebitis of a femoral vein), white-blooded
(anaemic). In addition, Ph.Us can denote the following meanings that are not found
in Uzbek or Russian: a) appearance: white as chalk; white as snow; white as milk;
b) someone who is loved: white boy (a person who is favoured), white headed boy
(a favourite), white son (a favourite son), white hen's chick (a fortunate person).
In the Uzbek language in contrast to English and Russian, there are Ph.U.,
that represent the following features: a) ability to distinguish between good and
evil, right and wrong (оқ-қорани таниган, оқдан қорани ажратмоқ); b) age
characteristics (cочига оқ кирган, оқ соқол, соқолига оқ кирган); c) wishes of
good luck (оқ йўл); d) mourning (оқ киймоқ); e) swear (оқ қилмоқ).
In the Russian language, many Ph.U. with the component “white” denote
space: белый свет; не видеть белого света; белое пятно; не взвидеть белого
света, белый континент; белое утро; средь бела дня; по белу свету; свету
белому не рад.
So, a short comparative analysis of Ph.U. with the component “white” shows
that in all linguocultures there are both similarities and differences in the
perception of this colour. The differences reflect the notional peculiarities of a
certain nation and convey information about cultural norms and national mentality.
From the linguocultural perspective a special attention is ascribed to
comparative investigations of stylistic devices that are regarded as cultural models
conveying information about the universal and nationally specific cultural values.
For instance, euphemism which is used to substitute a coarse, rude word or
expression by a more polite and appropriate one, has its own national specific
characteristics in different languages. Its usage is determined by ethic, moral and
religious rules of a certain culture. In the English language we often come across
feministic euphemisms (“chairperson” instead of “chairman”, “police officer”
instead of “policeman”); euphemisms, denoting unprivileged professions
(cleaning operative (road sweeper or dustman), sanitation engineer (garbage man),
meat technologist (butcher); euphemisms used in advertisements (king size
clothes; well-fed). These groups of euphemisms can hardly be found in the Uzbek
language. But, the Uzbek linguoculture is characterized by abundance of
euphemisms denoting family relationships (умр йўлдош, жуфт, хўжаин, тўра,
кенжа бола); euphemisms, substituting some insects and animals (беном, оти
йўк, беш буғин, айри қуйруқ); and, euphemisms, used instead of some items of
clothes (ички кийим, липпа, эзор, лозим).
No less important are the researches dealing with the comparative analysis
of cultural concepts both universal (Life, Love, Beauty, Death, Family, Mother)
and nationally specific (Gentleman, Privacy, Enterprise; Маҳалла, Гап,
Меҳмондўстлик; Тоска, Душа).
It is worth mentioning that even universal concepts in different
linguocultures can represent some national specific features. For example, the
perception of the concept “Beauty of a woman” and it linguistic externalization is
characterized by national specifics. Thus, the description of women’s beauty in
oriental poetry, Uzbek poetry in particular abound in voluminous usage of
expressive means and stylistic devices motivated by lexical meaning denoting
natural phenomena, heavenly bodies, flora and fauna:
Сочинг қоронғу тун, эй сарвқадди ширинлаб,
Юзунг тун ўртасида жилва айлаган кавкаб.
Юзунгда лаб су аро ўт эрур, бу асру ғариб,
Лабингда хўй ўт аро су эрур бу асру ажаб (Навоий, Ғазал)

Қоматингдан зар ёғар, Қадду бастингдан ҳаётга


сийминбадан, атласнигор, қанчалар рангу ривож,
Кўйлагингнинг зарларидан Гул бўлиш дарсин олур
менда кўнгил зорлари. сендан гулу гулзорлари.

Қанча дилни зулфларингдан Кетмагай дилдан баҳору


белларингга ташлагай, ҳам тирикликдан ифор,
Сочларингнинг белларинг Бунча ҳам дилдор экандир
бирлан бузуғ гуфторлари. бу шаҳр дилдорлари.

Қошларинг ёй тортибон, Сен қадам каклик юришлар


киприкларинг тургай қатор, бирла қўйгил жонима,
Йўлдан ургай кўзларинг ё — Гул қадамлардирми нозик
фитнабоз ғаддорлари. ё кийик рафторлари?

(С.Сайид, Дил фасли)

In the English poetical tradition, the use of such images is considered a very
negative phenomenon, as an unnecessary adornment. Even in Shakesperian time,
such “adornments” were denounced and ridiculed, and this can be evidenced by W.
Shakespeare’s sonnet 130 built on “anti-images” (eyes nothing like the sun, no
roses on her cheeks, coral is more red than her lips, perfumes has more delight).
So, Comparative Linguoculturology is aimed at investigating the following
problems:
 universal features of different linguocultures;
 national-cultural specifics of linguistic units belonging to different language
levels (lexical, phraseological, syntactical, stylistic);
 national world picture of different nations;
 similarities and differences of cultural values of different ethnic groups;
 universal and national-cultural specifics of cultural concepts;
 cultural factors influencing the language usage.

QUESTIONS AND TASKS FOR DISCUSSION

1. What are the main trends of linguocultural studies?


2. What does the lexicographical trend deal with?
3. What “language and culture” dictionaries do you know?
4. What are the main issues and tasks of the phraseological trend?
5. Discuss cultural potential of phraseological units
6. Discuss the notion of “cultural concept”
7. What main issues does conceptological trend deal with?
8. What stylistic devices are the most culture relevant?
9. What problems does the stylistic trend in Linguoculturology deal with?
10. What is Comparative Linguoculturology concerned with?

RECOMMENDED LITERATURE
1. Воробьёв В. В. Лингвокультурология (теория и методы) – М.: Академия,
2008. – 331с.
2. Маслова В. А. Лингвокультурология. – М.: Академия, 2007. – 208 с.
3. Степанов Ю. С. Константы: Словарь русской культуры. – 3-е изд. испр. и
доп. – М.: Академический Проект, 2004. – 992 с.
4. Телия В. Н. Русская фразеология. Семантический, прагматический и
лингвокультурологический аспекты. М., 1996.
5. Ashurova D.U., Galieva M.R. Stylistics of Literary Text. – T.: Turon-Iqbol,
2016
6. Ashurova D.U., Galieva M.R. Text Linguistics. – T.: Turon-Iqbol, 2016
CHAPTER III. WORLD PICTURE AND ITS TYPES

3.1. The notion of the world picture and its types

The term “world picture” was first introduced by Ludwig Wittgenstein in his
work “Logical and philosophical trilogy” to indicate a system of images used in
science. Since the 60th of XIX century the problem of the world picture has become
the subject of discussion in semiotics (L.Weisberger) and linguistics (W.
Humboldt). According to W. Humboldt each language reflects some definite
worldview because “for the native speaker the mother tongue represents a form of
the conceptualization of the world characteristic of the given culture. The system
of values, created within the culture, has its reflection in the language” (Humboldt,
1988).
The notion of “world picture” or “conceptual world picture” has a direct
relevance to the problems of cultural linguistics since it is concerned with the
processes of cognition, conceptualization and categorization of the world. The
world picture reflects the real world, its objects, notions, and phenomena in their
complex interrelationships and is interpreted as “a structured set of knowledge
about reality, formed in the people’s (as well as group, individual) consciousness”
(Попова, Стернин, 2007, p.51). It should be stressed, however, that the conceptual
world picture is not a mirror reflection of the reality. It is a certain vision of the
world, a way of shaping the world in the human mind (Маслова, 2004). The
conceptual world picture is regarded as a result of cognition, as a system of
knowledge structures reflecting the human experience in a certain historical period
of life. According to G.V. Kolshanskiy, the world picture is “a product of the
man’s cognitive activity” (Колшанский, 1990); “a holistic global image of the
world” (Пименова , 2004, p.19); “the sum of the conceptospheres and stereotypes
of consciousness, which are defined by culture" (Попова, Стернин, 2007, p.52).
So, the conceptual world picture, as the result of the human cognitive activity,
represents a structured system of knowledge, information about the world, all pre-
scientific and scientific knowledge, reflecting the cognitive and cultural experience
of a human and his vision of the world. In the conceptual world picture the main
components of the human consciousness, cognitive, moral, aesthetic values,
correspond to all the spheres of the human activity: science, morality, law, art and
etc.
According to V.V. Morkovkin, the sources of the conceptual world picture
are the followings:
a) inborn knowledge – at this level a human being does not differ from an animal;
b) knowledge as a result of practical activity, and interrelations of the man with
nature and society;
c) knowledge obtained from the texts (lifelong);
d) knowledge generated in the process of thinking;
e) knowledge instilled by the mother tongue – “cognitive inheritance”, or “a start-
up capital” (Морковкин, Морковкина, 1996).
One of the most essential features of the world picture is its variability and
changeability under the influence of social-cultural and historical factors. It is a
well-known fact that each civilization, each social system are characterized by
their own vision of the world. It follows that the mentality of a certain community
or an individual is to a considerable extent conditioned by the world picture of the
civilization they belong to. In this respect it will be interesting to observe the
difference in the perception of the concept WOMAN in the past and at present. A
feminine stereotype of the past presents WOMAN as a pretty, weak, tender,
delicate, gentle creature. At present the old stereotype is increasingly being
questioned. Under the influence of the feminist movement based on the belief that
women should have the same rights, power and opportunity as men have, the
traditional stereotype is changing. It assumes new qualities that used to be
characteristic of men: strong, determined, shrewd, pragmatic, business-efficient
like. By illustration the following example can be given:
She means me. I do what I want. This is not some primitive island I live on. Do
they expect me to wear a black mantilla on my head and go to mass every day? Not
me. I'm an American woman and I will do as I please. I can type faster than
anyone in my senior class at Central High, and I am going to be a secretary to a
lawyer when I graduate. I can pass for an American girl anywhere - I've tried it -
at least for Italian, anyway. I never speak Spanish in public. I hate these parties,
but I wanted the dress. I look better than any of these homilies here. My life is
going to be different. I have an American boyfriend. He is older and has a car… I
hate rice and beans. It's what makes these women fat (J. O. Kaufer “Silent Dance).
The fragment above describes a typical American woman, her independence
and life style, her desire to be different from those who stay at home and look not
very attractive.
The conceptual world picture can be subdivided into the scientific and naïve
ones. The scientific world view, based on the most important scientific
achievements and knowledge of different properties and laws of existence, gives
the most complete world view, synthesizes knowledge belonging to different
sciences based on certain fundamental principles and ideas. The scientific world
view is a rational model of the world understanding, through which specific
knowledge from different fields of scientific research is integrated and systemized.
Scholars identify three main types of the scientific world view: 1) general scientific
as the general scientific view of the Universe, Nature, Society and Man, based on
the synthesis of knowledge from different scientific disciplines; 2) natural
sciences, which generalize the achievements of social sciences, the humanities and
natural sciences; 3) special scientific dealing with separate sciences (Вежбицкая,
1996).
The naïve world picture, in contrast, is the vision of the world which is
peculiar to an individual. In other words, the naïve world picture is a set of
presuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true or entirely false)
that people consciously or unconsciously hold about the basic image of the world
(stereotypes, images, symbols, etc.)
The conceptual world picture can be materialized in various ways via music,
art and language. However, language is considered to be the main means to reflect
the conceptual world picture since the human perceives the world mostly by means
of language. The conceptual world picture fixed in the language is called the
linguistic world picture. So, the linguistic world picture is understood as
knowledge and experience imprinted in lexicon, phraseology, grammar. In other
words the linguistic world picture is the verbal explication of the conceptual world
picture, a means of transferring information about the world, people, and relations.
There are complex relationships between the conceptual and linguistic world
pictures. First of all, the conceptual and linguistic world pictures do not coincide;
the former being broader and richer. That is accounted for by the fact that there are
some limits within which language can express a varying complexity of the
surrounding world. Besides, the conceptual world picture is more liable to changes
since it swiftly reacts to all changes happening in the world: historical events,
social systems, achievements of science and technology, etc. The linguistic world
picture, in contrast, is characterized by some stability. Compared to the conceptual
picture, it is more conservative and retains old and sometimes even archaic
attitudes. For example, many set expressions came from the Bible. Their religious
sense is entirely forgotten; they are currently used as quite ordinary, everyday
expressions: англ.: alpha and omega, vanity of vanities, twinkling of an eye, daily
bread, born again, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a lion in the path, a fly in the
ointment, lost sheep, the apple of one’s eye, strengthen one’s hand, harden one’s
heart, take smth. to heart, on the face of the earth, wash one’s hands; рус.:
знамение времени, суета сует, хлеб насущный, камень преткновения, козёл
отпущения, на всё своё время, волк в овечьей шкуре, беречь (хранить), как
зеницу ока, бить себя в грудь, око за око, зуб за зуб, в мгновение ока,
всевидящее око; заблудшая овца, не от мира сего, наставить на путь
истинный, камня на камне не оставить, злоба дня.
The linguistic world picture, be it repeated, is the verbal explication of the
conceptual world picture, a means of transmitting information about the world,
people, relations (Ashurova, Galieva, 2016). It is worth noting that it is due to the
language knowledge can be obtained by the human. E.S. Kubryakova states that
the linguistic world picture is an important part of an overall conceptual model of
the world in the human mind (Кубрякова, 1988, c 169). The human cognizes the
objective reality and records the results of cognition by means of language. The
knowledge represented in the linguistic world picture is also called “linguistic
world representation”, “linguistic model of the world”.
The linguistic world picture fulfills two main functions: interpretative, which
provides access to the world perception; and regulative, which helps to orientate
the man in the world. Besides, there distinguished such functions: nominative – the
nomination of objects, signs, phenomena, relations, situations, events and etc.);
identifying – identification of the world phenomena; sociocultural – reference to
this or that culture.
The linguistic world picture and the conceptual world picture are inseparably
interrelated. On the one hand, the linguistic world picture reflects the conceptual
one, on the other – it influences the formation of the conceptual world picture in
the human mind. It can, for example, influence the ways how information about
the world is systematized and categorized. So, the conceptual and the linguistic
world pictures are linked as a primary and secondary phenomena as mental
representations and their verbal materialization, as consciousness and a means of
its analysis (Попова, Стернин, 2007).
Many researches distinguish different types of world pictures taking into
consideration different criteria: archaic and “civilized”; homogeneous and
heterogeneous, global and local (V.I. Postovalova); universal and ethical, national
and socially or territorially limited, universal and individual, religious and secular,
naïve and scientific (N.F. Alefirenko, E.S. Kubryakova, Yu.S. Stepanov, V.N.
Telia, V.A. Maslova, D.U. Ashurova, M.R. Galieva, etc), the author’s individual
(G.G. Molchanova, D.U. Ashurova). However, according to many scholars, these
types of world pictures can be investigated within the linguistic world picture as its
variants.

3.2. National World Picture

Each ethnic language reflects a specific world picture, characterized by a


specific way of the world perception and by peculiar features of the language
system. Each nation perceives the world in its own unique projection. The specifics
of this projection is embodied in the language forming a national linguistic picture
of the world transmitted from generation to generation. The man unconsciously
models the world according to his national mentality, character, lifestyle, etc. The
national world picture is also reflected in people’s behaviour, in stereotypical
situations, in ideas and judgments about the reality.
It should be stressed that both the conceptual and linguistic world pictures
are inseparable from the national peculiarities of perception and understanding of
the world. Each nation is characterized by peculiar, somehow, different from other
nations, mentality, life style, cultural traditions, and that accounts for some
differences in perception of the same objects, events, phenomena by
representatives of different nations. For example, in English there are two words
“foot – leg” and “hand – arm” to denote certain parts of the body whereas in
Russian and Uzbek there is only one word denoting the same parts “рука, нога”,
“қўл, оёқ”. It is well known that there are great differences in the perception of
colors. In Russian the words синий, голубой, are differentiated whilst in English
and Uzbek only one word is used though it has a lot of variants:
 Blue – dark blue, pale blue, sky blue, grayish-blue, light-blue, grey blue,
fumose-blue;
 Кўк – кўкимтир, мовий, нилий, нилгун, нилранг, самовий;
In Uzbek there is only one word denoting the gray colour – “кулранг”,
while in English there are a lot of words denoting different types of this colour:
pearl-gray, linen-gray, iron-gray, grayish-lilac, charcoal-gray, silverily-gray,
stone gray, grayish black, platinum gray, ivory-gray, grayish.
The national world picture is verbalized with the help of nationally-specific
linguistic expressions, to which the followings are referred:
 non-equivalent lexics (names of clothes, meals, objects of daily round)
 anthroponyms and toponyms;
 names of holidays, tradition;
 expressions of speech etiquette;
 nationally-specific stylistic devices (images-bearing SD, antonomasia, litotes
euphemism);
 text fragments describing nationally specific events;
 nationally specific PhU., proverbs, aphorisms;
 nationally specific cultural concepts.
The study of the national linguistic world picture includes the following
stages:
a) the description of the “categorization of the reality”, reflected in the
paradigmatic relations of linguistic units (lexico-semantic and lexico-
phraseological groups and fields);
b) the analysis of nationally specific meanings and cultural components of
linguistic units, reflecting national mentality;
c) the analysis of lacunas (gaps) in the language, i.e. specific notions relevant to
one linguoculture and not quite appropriate for others;
d) the analysis of nationally specific imagery.
It is worth noting that the differentiation between the linguistic and national
world pictures is to some extent relative. This differentiation, in our opinion, may
be approved of only from the theoretical point of view. Practically the linguistic
world picture and the national world picture do coincide specifying either universal
or national human knowledge or experience. Everything depends on the approach
and the aims of the research. Accordingly, in every concrete case the analysis is
focused either on general or nationally specific features. In other words, the
linguistic world picture perpetuates general human experience, and the national
world picture reflects the experience of a concrete national community, its system
of views, stereotypes of thinking and behavior, perception, opinions and
judgements (Попова, Стернин, 2007).
It is to be noted that though separate linguistic units can be nationally
relevant, it is the text which reflects national culture in full measure as it transmits
sociocultural, aesthetic, emotional and evaluative information. It is acknowledged
that literary texts are directly related to culture and penetrated by a multitude of
cultural codes, that they accumulate and store information about history, cultural
events and traditions, national psychology, etc. According to V.A. Maslova, the
literary text is considered to be the main means of studying culture as a source of
cultural knowledge and information (Maslova, 2007). Any literary text can reflect
individual and national experience and knowledge about the national mentality,
national character, traditions, etc. Thus, literary texts can reflect: a) the national
mentality; b) national traditions, holidays, events; c) the national character; d) the
national lifestyle.
Let’s consider some examples. The description of the significant event in the
life of the British, which is the English Queen’s funeral in J. Galsworthy’s novel “
The Forsyte Saga” is worth analyzing:
The Queen was dead, and the air of the greatest city upon earth grey with
unshed tears. And to witness the passing of this Age, London--its pet and fancy--
was pouring forth her citizens through every gate into Hyde Park, hub of
Victorianism, happy hunting-ground of Forsytes. Under the grey heavens, whose
drizzle just kept off, the dark concourse gathered to see the show. The 'good old'
Queen, full of years and virtue, had emerged from her seclusion for the last time to
make a London holiday. From Houndsditch, Acton, Ealing, Hampstead, Islington,
and Bethnal Green; from Hackney, Hornsey, Leytonstone, Battersea, and Fulham;
and from those green pastures where Forsytes flourish--Mayfair and Kensington,
St. James' and Belgravia, Bayswater and Chelsea and the Regent's Park, the
people swarmed down on to the roads where death would presently pass with
dusky pomp and pageantry. Never again would a Queen reign so long, or people
have a chance to see so much history buried for their money. A pity the war
dragged on, and that the Wreath of Victory could not be laid upon her coffin! All
else would be there to follow and commemorate--soldiers, sailors, foreign princes,
half-masted bunting, tolling bells, and above all the surging, great, dark-coated
crowd, with perhaps a simple sadness here and there deep in hearts beneath black
clothes put on by regulation. After all, more than a Queen was going to her rest, a
woman who had braved sorrow, lived well and wisely according to her lights
(Galsworthy, Forsyte Saga).
The national cultural specifics of this text is determined first of all by its
semantic content, the description of the most significant historical and socio-
cultural event – the funeral of British Queen Victoria. The text is very rich in
cultural information therefore it is worthwhile to look at it in detail. From the
cognitive perspective the description of the funeral can be presented as a frame
including a number of slots:
 the funeral (the name of the frame);
 the day of the funeral;
 the place of the funeral;
 the people who came to the funeral;
 the Queen and her death.
The funeral as the mane of the frame embraces the whole situation and can
be regarded as a cultural model verbalized in the text with the help of some
periphrasis expressing image and propositional schemas:
the funeral – the show
the funeral – a London holiday
the funeral – dusky pomp and pageantry
It is of interest to note that the funeral, though very sad and depressing, is
described as a great, pompous event, a holiday and a show.
In the description of the day the major role is assigned to the epithets
expressing emotive evaluation. The words grey, dark, dusky are used not so much
to depict the weather as to activate negative connotations associated with people’s
feelings of grief (grey with unshed tears) and sadness (sadness deep in hearts).
Evaluations, as is known, constitute an essential part of culture. In this respect the
public positive evaluation of the Queen (the “good old Queen”, “full of years and
virtue, a woman who had braved sorrow, lived well and wisely”) is of great social
and cultural significance.
Of no less cultural importance is the place of the ceremony – London, Hyde
Park. London is characterized as the greatest city of the world, its pet and fancy.
As for Hyde Park its cultural significance is expressed by the periphrases: hub of
Victorianism, happy ground. Special attention should be attached to the culture
relevant term “Victorianism” denoting the time of Queen Victoria’s reign, the
epoch of great industrial advancements, the expansion of the British Empire, moral
standards, traditions and strict discipline.
Socially and culturally significant is the description of the people who came
to the funeral. To emphasize the importance of the event the author underlines the
fact of an enormous number of the people gathered in Hyde Park, and that is
evidenced by the use of special vocabulary, toponyms denoting geographical
places and including more than 15 names. Besides, the meanings of the words pour
forth, swarm, surge also imply the idea of a great mass of people present at the
funeral. It wouldn’t come amiss to mention that people of different social classes
and ranks, the rich and the poor, sailors, soldiers and foreign princes came to
commemorate the Queen. It is not accidentally that they all are described as “a
dark concourse”, “a dark-coated crowd”, the death of the Queen conveys the idea
of people’s unity and equality before the one common woe, and that can also be
considered a culture-relevant phenomenon.
The quintessence of sociocultural information is laid in the way the author
characterizes the Queen’s death using the following propositions: The Queen’s
death is passing of the Age, The Queen’s death is history buried for money.
So, the analysis of the above text proves that the national cultural specifics
of the text depends on both linguistic and extralinguistic factors or, to be more
exact, on their interaction.
Of great cultural value are the texts which depict English character.
According to psychological data, such features as politeness, gentleness, restraint,
self-possession and self-control, a sense of superiority are attributed to the English
character. Here are some examples from Maugham’s novel “The Painted veil”. The
main character of the novel Kitty married a man who possesses the features of a
real Englishman.
She wondered why he had ever fallen in love with her. She could not
imagine any one less suited than herself to this restrained, cold, and self-possessed
man (Maugham, Painted Veil).
It should be noted in passing that S. Maugham criticizes the so-called
“English character” considering it shameful, deceptive, inhuman and boring. This
is evidenced by Kitty’s attitude to her husband:
Oh, how he'd bored her, bored her, bored her! He thought himself so much
better than any one else, it was laughable; he had no sense of humour; she hated
his supercilious air, his coldness, and his self-control. It was easy to be self-
controlled when you were interested in nothing and nobody but yourself
(Maugham, Painted Veil).
Even politeness generally regarded as a very positive feature, is interpreted
by S. Maugham as indifference, coldness, aloofness. It’s clearly seen in the
description of Dorothy Townsend:
Of course no one could deny that Dorothy Townsend had a pleasant voice.
She was a wonderful mother, Charlie always said that of her, and she was what
Kitty's mother called a gentlewoman. But Kitty did not like her. She did not like
her casual manner; and the politeness with which she treated you when you went
there, to tea or dinner, was exasperating because you could not but feel how little
interest she took in you. The fact was, Kitty supposed, that she cared for nothing
but her children: there were two boys at school in England, and another boy of six
whom she was going to take home next year. Her face was a mask. She smiled and
in her pleasant, well-mannered way said the things that were expected of her; but
for all her cordiality held you at a distance. She had a few intimate friends in the
Colony and they greatly admired her (Maugham, Painted Veil).
As is known, the Englishmen cultivate such features as staunchness,
firmness, self- control, a sense of dignity and superiority. In this very spirit are the
children brought up. They are taught to be reserved, not to cry and not to give up,
to face the difficulties and challenges of life. The poem below is a sketch of the
school life:
There's a breathless hush in the Close to-night
Ten to make and the match to win –
- A bumping pitch and a blinding light,
An hour to play and the last man in.
And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat,
Or the selfish hope of a season's fame,
But his Captain's hand on his shoulder smote
- 'Play up! play up! and play the game!'
The sand of the desert is sodden red,
- Red with the wreck of a square that broke;
- The Gatling's jammed and the Colonel dead,
And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.
The river of death has brimmed his banks,
And England's far, and Honour a name,
But the voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks:
'Play up! play up! and play the game!'
This is the word that year by year,
While in her place the School is set,
Every one of her sons must hear,
And none that hears it dare forget.
This they all with a joyful mind
Bear through life like a torch in flame,
And falling fling to the host behind –
- 'Play up! play up! and play the game!'
(Henry Newbolt, Vitaï Lampada (The Torch of Life)
The poem emphasizes the importance of sport in school education and the
“sporting spirit” to be developed from childhood. The motto “play up”, many times
repeated in the poem, symbolizes the “will to win” equally significant in the game,
battle and life. Moreover it should be borne throughout the whole life (like a torch
in flame).
The next example indicates the features of restraint and discretion fostered in
children and highly appreciated in English culture:
It is not that the Englishman can’t feel – it is that he is afraid to feel. He has
been taught at his public school that feeling is bad form. He must not express
great joy or sorrow, or even open his mouth too wide when he talks - his pipe
might fall out if he did (E.M. Forster).
Politeness as the feature of the character that implies good manners and
socially correct behavior is considered an important property of English
linguoculture.
One of the illustrative examples of the English politeness is the following
extract:
I found myself late on a gray Saturday afternoon, on an exceptionally long
and empty train bound for Windsor. At Twickenham, I discovered why the train
was so long and so empty. The platform was jammed solid with men and boys in
warm clothes and scarves earning glossy programs and little bags with tea flasks
peeping out: obviously a rugby crowd from the Twickenham grounds. They
boarded with patience and without pushing, and said "Sorry" when they bumped
or inadvertently impinged on someone else's space. I admired this instinctive
consideration for others, and was struck by what a regular thing that is in Britain
and how little it is noticed. Nearly everyone rode all the way to Windsor—I
presume there must be some sort of parking arrangement there; Windsor can't
provide that many rugby fans – and formed a patient crush at the ticket barrier.
An Asian man collected tickets in fast motion and said "Thank you" to every
person who passed. He didn't have time to examine the tickets—you could have
handed him a corn-flakes boxtop – but he did manage to find a vigorous salute for
all, and they in turn thanked him for relieving them of their tickets and letting
them pass. It was a little miracle of orderliness and goodwill. Anywhere else
there'd have been someone on a box barking at people to form a line and not push»
[Bryson, 2001, p.50).
This excerpt describes the people boarding a train, their manners and
behavior (with patience and without pushing) demonstrates the way to keep a
necessary distance (impinged on someone’s space), so important for the British,
and their extreme politeness (sorry, thank you, a vigorous salute for all). The
author characterizes such a polite behavior as a miracle of orderliness and
goodwill.
So, the fictional text transmits sociocultural, aesthetic, emotional and
evaluative information about a particular linguoculture. It should be noted that
cultural information encoded in the text is of a gradual character because different
texts are characterized by different degrees of culture-relevant information. Most
interesting are the texts reflecting intellectual, spiritual spheres of human life. In
this respect nationally specific texts, where objective characteristics of reality are
interlaced with national views and personal appraisals are of special attention.
Interpretation of such texts requires linguocultural competence, that is the
knowledge of national cultural values and priorities (Ashurova, 2016, p.15).

3.3. The Author’s Individual World Picture

Along with the above-mentioned types of the world picture there is another
type – the author’s individual world picture. It deals with literary texts and the
problems of the individual style. The individual style is regarded as a complex
system of means and forms of verbal expressions, peculiar to certain authors and
reflecting their world vision, cultural and aesthetic values, subjective evaluation of
the described phenomena. Hence, the author’s individual world picture is
associated with the author’s personality, the peculiarities of an individual creative
process of thinking and subjective modality. According to some scholars, the
author’s individual world picture as a part of the literary world picture is
objectified in a literary text or a series of literary texts and marked by the authors
individual creativity and the unique usage of his mental abilities: perception,
cognition, attention (Щирова, Гончарова, 2006, p. 92]. In this field of research
good results have been achieved both in practical and theoretical aspects. Suffice it
to mention the works by V. V. Vinogradov (1976, 1981), G. O. Vinokur (1991),
I.R. Galperin (1958, 1981), I. V. Arnold (1974, 1990), V. A. Kukharenko (1988)
and others. These works give rise to theoretical discussions of the following
problems:
 the individual specifics of fictional texts;
 the author’s image and viewpoint;
 types of the narrator;
 a polyphonic structure of the literary text;
 the correlation of the individual style with general language norms;
 the individual style as a specific modus of language reality;
 the individual peculiarities of the language usage in the text.
At present, with the development of linguocultural studies much attention is
given to cultural aspects of the literary text, which reflect the author’s individual
world picture. Therefore, the above-mentioned issues should be supplemented with
those, which suggest cultural insight in the author’s world picture. They are as
follows:
 text as a cultural unit;
 cultural aspects of phraseology;
 cultural specifics of imagery;
 stylistic devices as cultural models;
 representations of cultural values in the literary text;
 cultural concepts and their role in the literary text.
These problems will be discussed in detail in the subsequent sections of
chapters IV, V, VI, here it is worthy of note that cultural aspects of the literary
text are closely interwoven with all the layers of the text, its semantic structure
and thematic content.
The key notion of the theory of an individual style is the notion of the
author’s image, which was introduced by V.V. Vinogradov. The author’s image is
a focus of the whole text, its content, compositional structure, the choice of words
and structures. As V.A. Kukharenko stated, the author’s image is an organizing
centre of the whole literary work; it combines its separate parts into a united whole
characterized by a single world outlook (Kухаренко, 1988, р.179).
At present a new impetus has been given to the problem of “individual
paradigm”, and a new term “cognitive style” has emerged. This term is defined as
a style of conveying and presenting information, its peculiar arrangement in the
text/discourse connected with a specific choice of cognitive operations or their
preferable usage in the process of text production and interpretation (КСКТ, 1996,
р. 80). Cognitive style is regarded as a style of the author’s individual
representation associated with his personality, the peculiarities of an individual
creative process of thinking and subjective modality.
The author’s individual world picture in the literary text is characterized by the
individual choice of linguistic means that presupposes the usage of:
 certain thematic lexical groups and key words;
 frequency in the usage of particular linguistic units;
 preference for certain types of stylistic devices, expressive means, set
expression and phraseological units;
 the use of individual symbols and recurrent expressions;
 a peculiar system of concepts forming the conceptual field of the literary
text.
Accordingly, the interpretation of the author’s world picture consists of three
stages: content analysis, stylistic analysis and conceptual analysis. Content analysis
is aimed at revealing the main themes of the texts under analysis. Stylistic analysis
reveals the peculiar features of the author’s individual style (idiostyle). Conceptual
analysis based on both content and stylistic analyses, reveals the author’s vision
and a specific way of conceptualizing the imaginary world. In this section we shall
exemplify the specific features of the author’s world picture on the material of
O’Henry’s short stories.
An important role in content analysis is assigned to thematic words,
repetitive and leitmotif words, symbols, synonymic and antonymic rows forming
the content inline of the literary text. All these linguistic units are called “key
signs” or “key words” which are used interchangeably. In the framework of the
literary text key words fulfill the function of text formation and various functions
of stylistic accentuation. Key words are the words and phrases repeated throughout
the text and characterized by a functional variety. The peculiar features of the key-
words are their relevance to the conceptual information and implicit associative
links with the components of the whole text. Therefore it is of prime importance to
conceptualize key words taking into account their semantic and structural
properties, distribution in the text and functions.
The key words are characterized by a high degree of recurrence in the
literary text occupying a significant place in the literary text space and expressing
the basic ideas of the author. Besides, in the literary text key words play a
particularly important role in setting semantic connections and organization of the
reader's perception. The key words help to determine the semantic dominant in the
context, to present information in a concise form. It is worth mentioning that all
these parameters presented in the text in various combinations and proportions
create the originality of the individual style and the world picture of the author.
Thus, one of the peculiar features of O’Henry’s short stories is recurrent use
of the key words “rich” and “poor”, including their derivatives (The Gift of the
Maji, The Furnished Room, Mammon and the Archer, Transients in Arcadia, A
Skylight Room, The Caliph, Cupid and the Clock, The Purple dress, While the
Auto Waits). There are many word combinations with these words: rich
suggestion, rich soil, rich harvest, rich milk, rich dish, rich colour, poor people,
poor beggar, poor wretch, poor body, poor house, poor creature, poor cat, poor
child, poor crop, poor quality, poor attendance, poor choice, poor company, poor
health, poor eyesight, poor excuse, poor figure, poor judgment, poor singer, poor
fish , a poor worm like him, a poor-spirited boy.
The key words frequently repeated in the literary text can obtain a “symbolic
meaning”. For instance, in the story “The Enchanted Profile” the words “money”,
“wealth”, “dollar” are very often repeated symbolizing the main heroine’s
“passion” for money, which she adores, saves and increases. What was striking
about Mrs. Brown is her friendship with a very poor girl working in the hotel and
her sympathy for the girl: “You have a face exactly like a dear friend of mine – the
best friend I ever had”. And only at the end of the story the reader understands
who was the dearest friend of the woman, it was the profile of the American
president on the silver coin of the dollar. The woman adored only “the dollar”,
which replaced all human feelings: “love” for she loved nobody, “friends” for she
had no friends, except for the girl whose profile reminded her of the profile of the
president on the dollar. “The dollar” in this story is the symbol of the lost moral
values.
The recurrent usage of the words “rich/richness” and “poor/poverty”
throughout many of O’Henry’s stories makes it possible to consider them in terms
of concepts. Conceptual analysis of the text is aimed to study concepts as
components of the author’s conceptual world picture.
Under the author’s individual concept or literary concepts we mean a multi-
dimensional mental entity, refracted through the author’s consciousness. These
individual concepts are the units of the literary (poetic) world picture. For instance,
the concept “richness” is a universal concept relevant to all cultures, but this
concept can obtain some specific features which are determined by the individual
world picture. In the literary texts the concepts may acquire additional
connotations. The analysis of this concept in the works by O. Henry allows to
outline differential conceptual features. In the story “Brickdust Row” the author
describes the episode where a rich man dines at a restaurant where the visitors
openly show their contempt to his richness: In the evening Blinker went to one of
his clubs, intending to dine. Nobody was there except some old fogies playing
whist who spoke to him with grave politeness and glared at him with savage
contempt. Everybody was out of town. But here he was kept in like a schoolboy to
write his name over and over on pieces of paper. His wounds were deep
(O’Henry, Brickdust Row, 30).
In this excerpt the concept “Richness” is allotted with the following set of
conceptual features: grave, savage, contemptuous, boring, tiresome, burdensome,
distressing. The conceptual features inferred from the extract have very negative
characteristics of the concept, thus expressing the author’s evaluation.
The next story “Transients in Arcadia” narrates about a woman who wants
to represent herself as a rich lady: “I’ve been saving up out of my wages for a year
just for this vacation. I wanted to spend one week like a lady if I never do another
one. I wanted to get up when I please instead of having to crawl out at seven every
morning; and I wanted to live on the best and be wanted on and ring bells for
things just like rich folk do...”
“ This dress I’ve got on –it’s the only one I have that’s fit to wear – I bought
from O’Dowd and Levinsky on the installment plan”.
“But, oh, I couldn’t help deceiving you up till now, for it was like a fairy tale
to me. So I talked about Europe and the thing I’ve read about in other countries,
and made you think I was a great lady.”
The author implicitly compares the rich and the poor. The poor woman is
ready to suffer the whole year, but to have a vacation week “like a lady”, to enjoy
life “like rich folk do”. The conceptual features: false, deceptive , manipulative,
pretending, insincere, untrue, artificial, lying inferred from the extract are also of
a negative character. Here, O’Henry expresses his ironical attitude to the people’s
shame of being poor and their desire to be or to look rich and prosperous.
So, the above examples prove that the analyzed concept in O’Henry’s stories
assumes a new very negative evaluation which is different from the conventional
interpretation of this concept in lexicographical sources. It is a new insight into the
cognitive structure of the concept that defines the specific features of the author’s
individual world picture, in this case, O’Henry’s world picture.
Stylistic analysis is an essential part of conceptual analysis aimed at the
author’s world picture interpretation. It is accounted for by the fact that stylistic
means especially stylistic devices are regarded as means of transmitting the
conceptual information of the text representing the author’s individual world
picture and knowledge structures.
Thus, O. Henry’s short stories describing the life of ordinary people,
unemployed clerks, waiters, and policeman are characterized by a highly humorous
and ironical attitudes, by a witty criticism and surprise endings. It is achieved by
 the use of terms, foreign words, words used in opposite meanings:
He is mighty fine pig. He looks better to me this morning. I was raised on a
farm, and I’m very fond of pigs. Used to go to bed at sundown, so I never saw one
by lamplight before (O’Henry, The Ethics of Pig)
As we can see from the example, the first word contains the positive
components, whereas the second word is of a negative evaluation. The clash
between “highly positive” and “highly negative” words (fine pig) produces an
ironical effect.
Who had stolen the plaza – or the carramba?! (O’Henry, The Ethics of
Pig)
“Vass!” he cried. “Is dere people in de world mit der foolishness to die
because leafs dey drop off from a confounded vine? I haf not heard of such a thing
(O’Henry, The Last Leaf)
In the first example humorous effect is created by the fact that the
speaker using the Spanish words, doesn’t know its meaning. In the second example
the humorous effect is achieved by the combination of the German and English
phrases within one sentence.
 the use of many stylistic devices aimed to achieve an ironical effect: irony,
zeugma, pun;
I tell you, she's a beauty that would take the hydrogen out of all the
peroxides in the world (O’Henry, No Story)
Here, the word “beauty” is used ironically, because it implies not real but
artificial, unnatural beauty. The word peroxides serves here as a context to
understand the ironical sense of the word “beauty”.
 description of humorous, ridiculous situations
I want you to consider Jacob Spraggins, Esq., after he had arrived at the
seventh stage of his career. The stages meant are, first — humble origin; second,
deserved promotion; third, stockholder; fourth, capitalist; fifth, trust magnate;
sixth, rich malefactor; seventh, caliph; eight — X. The eighth stage shall be left to
the higher mathematics (O’Henry, A Night in New Arabia).
 convergence of stylistic devices, i.e. an accumulation of stylistic devices and
expressive means within one fragment of the text.
As is known, the convergence of stylistic devices is one of the means of
foregrounding, regarded as a cognitive procedure of selecting the most essential,
relevant information; it stands out as a stimulus or “key” in the process of text
interpretation. In this respect the selection of stylistic devices by O. Henry such as
metaphors, metonymies, similes and epithets presents his unique way of the world
representation. The stylistic devices created by O. Henry are diverse and
conceptually relevant.
"This town", said he, "is a leech. It drains the blood of the country. Whoever
comes to it accepts a challenge to a duel. Abandoning the figure of the leech, it is a
juggernaut, a Moloch, a monster to which the innocence, the genius, and the
beauty of the land must pay tribute. Hand to hand every newcomer must struggle
with the leviathan. You've lost, Billy. It shall never conquer me. I hate it as one
hates sin or pestilence or — the color work in a ten-cent magazine. I despise its
very vastness and power. It has the poorest millionaires, the littlest great men, the
lowest skyscrapers, the dolefulest pleasures of any town I ever saw. It has caught
you, old man, but I will never run beside its chariot wheels. It glosses itself as the
Chinaman glosses his collars. Give me the domestic finish. I could stand a town
ruled by wealth or one ruled by an aristocracy; but this is one controlled by its
lowest ingredients (O’Henry, the Duel).
The extract describes one of the most famous cities of America – the city of
New-York, and that accounts for its cultural significance. The convergence of
stylistic devices (metaphor, gradation, oxymoron) emotionally emphasize
contrasts, contradictions of this megapolis, its greatness and misery, richness and
poverty, power and weakness. This effect is achieved by the excessive use of
oxymorons expressing the author’s ironical and sarcastic vision of the described
phenomenon.
 defeated expectancy
The most conspicuous feature of O. Henry’s stories is a surprise ending
based on the psychological effect of defeated expectancy. Defeated expectancy in
its turn is another type of foregrounding based on the phenomenon of
predictability. It follows that each subsequent statement or event is to some degree
predictable and proceed from the foregoing according the logical rules of
succession. It means that the sequence of statements and succession of events
described in the text are subordinated to some logical rules and each subsequent
sentence is to some degree predictable. The violation of logical links causes much
surprise on the part of the reader and produces a great emotional impact on him.
By the way of illustration the story “October and June” can be taken. The story
tells us about the Captain who was in love with a lady and proposed to her. A
surprising ending consists in the fact that the reader up to the end is sure that the
Captain is an elderly man. It becomes evident from the following sentences:
 In the closet near by was stored his faded uniform, stained and worn by weather
and service;
 Those old days of war’s alarm;
 Veteran that his was of country’s strenuous times;
 How long ago it seemed now!;
 Yes, there were many years between their ages;
 Truly Fate and Father time had tricked him surely;
The author keeps the reader under suspense until the end of the story. But
the end appears to be quite unexpected. To the reader’s great surprise the Captain
turned out to be very young; he was only nineteen and the girl was much older.
Besides, O. Henry’s stories abound in allusions and mythologemes, the use
of which activate knowledge structures necessary for text perception and
interpretation:
“Had the Queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would
have let her hair hang out of the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her
Majesty's jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his
treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time
he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy”. (The Gift of the Magi).
The use of allusions Queen Sheba, King Solomon activates religious
knowledge structures in the reader’s mind. Both of these biblical characters are
famous for their wealth, power and wisdom. In the fragment above, the author uses
these allusions to underline how proud the Dillingham’s were of their possessions.
Another conspicuous feature of the author’s world picture is the use of
individual symbols. Symbol, as is known, is a trope characterized by 1) recurrence
of its usage; 2) accentuation of some linguistic units; 3) representation of
knowledge structures; 4) conceptualization of linguistic means (Джусупов. 2006).
There are various types of symbols: universal, nationally specific, individual,
the latter plays an essential role in the author’s world picture representation. It is
worthy of note that individual symbols make the author’s cognitive style
recognizable. Here are some examples:
 Rain – a symbol of unhappiness, loneliness and suffering in the works be E.
Hemingway;
 Sandcastle – a symbol of illusive, love and unreal dreams (A. Murdock);
 White fang – a symbol of courage, wisdom and superiority (J. London);
 White Monkey – a symbol of spiritual bankruptcy (G. Galsworthy).
In conclusion it should be once more stressed that the problem of the
author’s individual world picture and its linguistic representation is one of the
fundamental issues of cultural linguistics since it provides a deep insight into text
semantics thus revealing the complex relationship between “language – man –
culture”.

QUESTIONS AND TASKS FOR DISCUSSION

1. How is the notion of the conceptual world picture defined?


2. What are the peculiar features of the conceptual world picture?
3. What factors cause changes of the conceptual world picture?
4. How do you understand the notion of the linguistic world picture?
5. What is the difference between the conceptual and the linguistic world picture?
6. What is the national world picture?
7. What are the essential features of the national world pictures?
8. What linguistic expressions specify the national world picture?
9. Provide example, illustrating the national perception of some objects?
10. What nationally specific linguistic expression can be singled out?
11. What stages of analysis does the study of the national world picture include?
12. What is the role of literary texts in the national world picture representation?
13. What does the author’s individual world pictures deal with?
14. What are the peculiar features of the author’s individual world pictures?
15. Provide examples to illustrate the peculiarities of the national world picture;
the author’s individual world picture.

RECOMMENDED LITERATURE
1. Воробьев В.В. Лингвокультурология. –М.: РУДН, 2008.
2. Колшанский Г.В. Объективная картина мира в познании и языке. М. 1990
3. Маслова В.А. Лингвокультурология. – М.: Изд.центр академия, 2007
4. Телия В. Н. Русская фразеология. Семантический, прагматический и
лингвокультурологический аспекты. М., 1996.
CHAPTER IV. LINGUOCULTUREME AS A BASIC UNIT OF
LINGUOCULTUROLOGY

4.1. The notion of linguocultureme and its types

Linguoculturology as an independent science has elaborated its own


terminology, notions and methods of analysis. The main notions of
Linguoculturology are: linguocultural units (linguocultureme), cultural concepts,
cultural values, cultural universals, conceptual, linguistic and national world
pictures.
Linguocultureme is a basic unit which conveys cultural information. For
example such lexemes as Christmas, pub, lord, lady, Thames, turkey, gentleman
contain information about English culture, its holidays, traditions, concepts, etc.
There are many researches and different approaches to this notion. Suffice it to
mention the works by V.V. Vorobyov, V.A. Maslova, S.G. Vorkachev, Yu.S.
Stepanov, V. I. Karasik and others. However, all these authors are unanimous in
regarding linguocultureme as the basic linguistic unit including both aspects – the
cultural content and the form of its linguistic expression.
Unlike a word, a linguocultureme includes not only linguistic meaning,
but also the cultural (non-linguistic) sense. For example, the word pub stands
for “a public house” (linguistic meaning). But it is of great cultural significance for
the English people. In Great Britain pubs serve as places where people gather to
relax; some of them spend evenings after a hard working day in a good company
in order to discuss business affairs or political issues in a more comfortable
atmosphere.
There distinguished many approaches to the classification of
linguoculturemes ranging from the classification of the sources of
linguoculturemes to their structural and semantic properties.
The survey of the linguistic literature and our own observations enable us to
determine the main sources of linguoculturemes. They are as follows: phenomena
and realias of everyday life, images and comparisons, myths, speech etiquette,
traditions and customs, religion, literature, superstitions and legends, historical
facts, events and personalities.
Phenomena and realia of everyday life are presented by words- realia or non-
equivalent linguistic units. Images can be represented by a number of stylistic
devices and comparisons: metaphors, similes, euphemisms, antonomasia, symbols,
etc. Myths are represented in the language by mythologemes. Speech etiquette is
another source providing formulas of speech etiquette in various situations, such
as greeting, agreement/ disagreement, compliments and others reflecting cultural
phenomenon. Phraseological units, symbols, aphorisms, quotations also reflect
traditions and customs, religion, literature, history and other sources. The main
sources of linguoculturemes are as follows:
 Phenomena and realias of everyday life;
 Images and comparisons;
 Myths;
 Speech etiquette;
 Traditions and customs;
 Religion;
 Literature;
 Superstitions and legends;
 Historical facts, events and personalities
From the structural point of view linguoculturemes can be expressed by a
word, a word combination, a paragraph, a whole text. For instance,
linguoculturemes expressed by a word are gentleman, privacy, home, lady, lord
due to its cultural connotations (cf. choykhona in Uzbek, пельменная in Russian).
Linguoculturemes can be expressed by word combinations. For instance, such
word combinations as: a small talk, husband’s tea, an iron bit, five o’clock tea,
English breakfast, oatmeal porridge being culturally marked are regarded as
linguoculturemes (cf. beshik to’y, challari in the Uzbek, русская душа, русское
масло – топленое масло in the Russian).
Linguocultureme can also be expressed by a paragraph. The following
passage is illustrative in this respect:
Say the Word! He checked his shout too late. Two whitemen burning leaves
turned their head in his direction. Bending low he whispered into her ear, "The
Word. The Word." - "That's one other thing took away from me," she said, and
that was when he exhorted her, pleaded with her not to quit, no matter what. The
Word had been given to her and she had to speak it. Had to (Morison, Beloved).
This paragraph presents the situation describing the importance of the
religious Word; the whole paragraph is devoted to the notion of the Word in its
religious meaning. According to Collin’s English Dictionary “The Word” means:
Scripture, the Bible, or the gospels as embodying or representing divine revelation
often called the Word of God.
Finally, linguoculturemes can be represented by the whole text, both micro-
and macrotexts.
To microtexts we refer proverbs, quotations, epigrams. Here are some
examples: an Englishman’s home is his castle; to be penny wise and pound
foolish; the proof of the pudding in its eating.
Macrotexts are usually expressed by long spans of the text (stories, novels,
poems, etc.). The stories “A Christmas Carol” by Ch. Dickens, “The Lion’s Skin”
by S. Maugham, “England, my England” by D.G. Lawrence, many extracts from
“The Forsyte Saga” by G. Galsworthy can serve as illustration. Let us analyze the
poem by F. Heman:
The stately Homes of England,
How beautiful they stand!
Amidst their tall ancestral trees,
O'er all the pleasant land.
The deer across their greensward bound
Thro' shade and sunny gleam,
And the swan glides past them with the sound
Of some rejoicing stream.

The merry Homes of England!


Around their hearths by night,
What gladsome looks of household love
Meet in the ruddy light!
There woman's voice flows forth in song,
Or childhood's tale is told,
Or lips move tunefully along
Some glorious page of old.

The blessed Homes of England!


How softly on their bowers
Is laid the holy quietness
That breathes from Sabbath-hours!
Solemn, yet sweet, the church-bell's chime
Floats thro' their woods at morn;
All other sounds, in that still time,
Of breeze and leaf are born.

The Cottage Homes of England!


By thousands on her plains,
They are smiling o'er the silvery brooks,
And round the hamlet-fanes.
Thro' glowing orchards forth they peep,
Each from its nook of leaves,
And fearless there the lowly sleep,
As the bird beneath the eaves.

The free, fair Homes of England!


Long, long, in hut and hall,
May hearts of native proof be rear'd
To guard each hallow'd wall!
And green for ever be the groves,
And bright the flowery sod,
Where first the child's glad spirit loves
Its country and its God! –

Felicia Hemans offers a highly sentimental, idealized view of English home


life. “Home” is one of the basic concepts of English culture. It is not only a
dwelling place, it is an environment arousing the feelings of love, pleasure,
happiness, worship; it is a valued hearth offering security and refuge; it is a place
of beauty and quietness. The poet admires glowing orchards, tall ancestral trees,
silvery brooks, the flowery sod, the woods and plains of the blessed, free and fair
Homes of England. The whole poem is penetrated with cultural codes and
emotional evaluations: it glorifies the motherland, countryside and cottage Homes
of England.
Linguoculturemes can also be classified from the semantic perspective, i.e.
from the perspective of their cultural meaning. It should be mentioned that cultural
information can be presented either in the denotative or connotative meanings of
the word. Lexemes containing cultural specific denotative meaning are subdivided
into three groups:
a) linguistic units, denoting idioethnic realia: shawl, silver-studded boots,
penny-in-the-slot machines, toast, a domestic post, the kidnapper, a first class
actor, high up people, a page boy in a hotel, golf, bridge, the rubber.
b) linguistic units, denoting phenomena of social life and historical events:
free-lancer, Rectory life, a twopenny-halfpenny clerk, the third return, the
Ministry of Requirements; Sammy, The men in the Wooden Horse; the Fifth
Column.
c) linguistic units, denoting universal cultural values: friendship,
independence, love, hope, dream, hatred, etc.
As for connotations, their cultural specifics can be expressed in two ways: a)
through stylistic connotations; b) by means of sociocultural background.
Proceeding from the assumption that there are frequent correlations between
stylistic and culture specific properties of linguistic units (Ashurova, Galieva,
2016), stylistic meanings in most cases can be regarded as indicators of cultural
information. It is not accidental that many phraseological units, derivatives,
compound words differentiated according to register and genre reference such as
neologisms, archaisms, slang, jargonisms and terms are charged with cultural
information.
Let us consider the following example. According to the dictionary
definitions the words girl, maiden, lass, lassie, chick, baby, young lady can
indicate one and the same person. Nevertheless the words are characterized by
quite different stylistic connotations. The first word “girl” is neutral and is the
dominant in this synonymous row. All other words of the group have various
connotative meanings. “Maiden” is an archaic word with the poetic meaning.
“Lass” and especially “lassie” have emotional connotations: they are diminutive
words used in dialects. “Chick” and “baby” refer to slang. “Young lady” is often
used ironically. Thus, the connotative meaning is composed of emotional,
expressive, evaluative and functional-stylistic components, at the same time
indicating different sociocultural situations these words can be used in.
Sociocultural background is another means of creating culture relevant
linguistic units. The word “house” and “home” is a vivid example of it. Cultural
connotations of the word “house” are conditioned by the fact that Englishmen
prefer to live in their own houses with separate entrances, gardens full of trees and
flowers, evergreen lawns. It was reported that 82 percent of British families live in
a house and only 15 percent live in a flat. This contrasts to continental Europe
where flats are more popular.
Another word whose cultural potential is much stronger is “home” since its
cultural information is presented in both denotative and connotative meanings. Let
us turn to the definitions of the word taken from explanatory and encyclopedic
dictionaries:
Home
 a house, flat, etc. where one lives. One’s home is considered to be a safe and
comfortable place which others enter only by invitation (LDELC);
 an establishment providing residence and care for people with special needs
(MWСD);
 the social unit formed by a family living together; a place of origin (MWСD);
 someone's or something's place of origin, or the place where a person feels they
belong; the type of family you come from (CIDE).
As is seen from the definitions, “home” is not only a dwelling place; it
includes information about the family, origin and ancestors. The polysemantic
structure of the word contains very positive evaluation (safe, comfortable, happy,
valued) of this cultural concept. The cultural significance of this concept is
sustained by a great number of phraseological units, proverbs and sayings
including the component “home”: to feel at home, make yourself at home; home
and dry (to feel safe); a home bird (someone who likes staying at home); a broken
home; hit a home run (achieve success); a wise man is always at home; at home
grounds (safe); bring home the bacon (earn money for the family); keep the home
fires burning (maintain in good order one’s family home); East or West home is
best; dry bread at home is better than roast meat abroad; home is where the heart
is; an Englishman’s home is his castle; there is no place like home.
So, the meaning of the word “home” includes the following cultural
components: family, safety, happiness, comfort, value, success, love, wisdom.
Besides structural and semantic approaches to the classification of
linguoculturemes they can be differentiated according to the type of linguistic units
they are expressed by. Maslova V.A. points out the following types of
linguoculturemes: 1) non-equivalent lexicon; 2) mythologemes, i.e. myths,
legends, rituals expressed by words, phraseological units, proverbs and images; 3)
proverbs and sayings; 4) symbols, stereotypes, etalons; 5) images; 6) stylistic
means; 7) speech behavior; 8) formulas of speech etiquette; 9) religiously marked
linguistic units (Маслова, 2007). Some other scholars regard cultural concepts as
linguoculturemes (Карасик, 2004, Попова, Стернин, 2007) and that is certainly
beyond doubt since cultural concepts are the major means to convey cultural
information and represent the conceptual world picture. Further, in the subsequent
sections we shall elaborate on some most significant types of linguoculturemes.

4.2. Culture-specific vocabulary

The problem of non-equivalent lexicon attracted and continues attracting


attention of many researchers, among them are P.A. Newmark (1998), S. Vlakhov,
S. Florin (2006), A. Nida (1975), L.S. Barkhudarov (1975), Ya.I. Retsker. (2005),
E.M. Vereschagin, V.G. Kostomarov (1983), G. Salomov (1978), A.O. Ivanov
(2006), A.V. Fedorov (2002), G.V. Chernov (1958, 2009), V.N. Komissarov
(2005), A.D. Schweitzer (1988), etc.
It should be mentioned that there is a variety of terms and notions under the
term “non-equivalent lexicon”:
 culture-specific items – abstract or concrete words that may relate to a religious
belief, a social custom, or even a type of food (Baker, 1992, p.21); items that do
not exist in the target language or have different functions and/or connotations
(Aixelá 1996, p. 58).
 non-equivalent lexics – words that do not exist and have no equivalent in other
languages (Чернов, 1958; Фёдоров, 2002);
 realia – words denoting objects, concepts and situations that do not exist in the
practical experience of people who speak a different language (Влахов, Флорин,
2006; Бархударов, 1975);
 cultureme – a cultural phenomenon that exists in culture X but does not exist in
culture Y (Nord, 1997, p.34).
 culture-specific references – words relating to different aspects of everyday life
such as education, politics, history, art, institutions, legal systems, units of
measurement, places, food and drinks, sports and national pastimes, experienced in
different countries and nations of the world (Gambier, 2004 (2007), p.159);
 lacuna – a situation common in one culture, but not observed in other cultures
(Марковкина, Сорокин, 2008, Муравьёв, 1980);
 cultural words – culturally marked units (Newmark, 1998, 1988);
 ethno-cultural vocabulary (ethnolexemes) – lexical units relevant to the system
of knowledge about the specific culture of a particular nation from historical and
ethnic points of view (Шейман, 1978);
Despite the variety of the terms used in the linguistic literature, it should be
noted that there is much in common between all of them. The most general term, in
our opinion, is realia or non-equivalent vocabulary, understood as a special
category of linguistic expressions nominating nationally-specific objects and
notions of a certain nation, its lifestyle, culture, social and historical development
peculiar to one linguoculture and not found in others.
The word “realia” comes from medieval Latin, in which it originally meant
“the real things”, i.e. material things, as opposed to abstract ones. Currently, in the
English language teaching, the word “realia” is usually used to denote objects or
activities relating to the real life (MWOD). However, the notion of realia in
translation theory means culturally marked words and expressions, which denote
notions peculiar to one culture and non-existing in other cultures, therefore it is
difficult, if possible at all to translate them into other languages. The term in this
sense was first coined by Bulgarian translators S. Vlahov and S. Florin who
defined realia as words (and expressions) representing nominations of objects,
concepts, typical phenomena, a particular geographic place, social-historical
peculiarities of some people, nation, country, tribe, that for this reason carry a
national, local or historical coloring; these words do not have exact equivalents in
other languages (Влахов, Флорин, 2006). Later, the term “realia” was used in the
works by many famous linguists such as Barkhudarov L.S., Komissarov V.N.,
Fedorov A.V., etc. However, some scholars cosider realia to be a particular
category of “non-equivalent vocabulary”. E. Vereschagin and V. Kostomarov
(1980) define “non-equivalent vocabulary” as “words and word-combinations used
to denote the notions of a nation which are unfamiliar to another one. They are
associated with specific cultural elements existing within a particular culture but
those that cannot be found in another” (Верещагин, Костомаров, 1980, p. 53). In
any case, both terms “realia” and “non-equivalent vocabulary” denote words that
are as bearers of the national and/or historical colouring, usually do not have
equivalents in other languages, and therefore can not be translated “on the common
ground”, requiring a special approach.
As the survey of the linguistic literature has shown, there are different
approaches to realia/non-equivalent vocabulary classification.
P. A. Newmark embraces the following areas:
● Ecology. Words in this category include geographical features specific to a
particular culture: flora, fauna, land shaft, winds, islands, hills;
● Material culture: a) food; b) clothes; c) houses and towns; d) transport;
● Social culture: a) work; b) leisure;
● Organizations, customs, activities, procedures, concepts: a) political and
administrative; b) religious; c) artistic;
● Gestures and habits (Newmark, 1988, p.95)
Another scholar V.V. Vinogradov suggests the following classification:
I. Household realia (house, clothes, food and drink, tools of labour, currency and
units of measurement, musical instruments, national holidays and customs);
II. Ethnographic and mythological realia
III. Nature realia (flora, fauna, lad shaft, relief);
IV. Social and political realia (names of organizations, parties, classes,
institutional and legislative power);
V. Onomastic realia (anthroponyms and toponyms);
VI. Associative realia – vegetative symbols, animalistic symbols, colour symbols,
allusions.
G. D. Tomakhin (1988) proposes the following classification on the material
of American realia:
A. Household realia (house, clothes, food and drinks, households, transport,
communication, leisure, customs, currency and units of measurement, behavior
(behavioral acts in culture specific situations, speech etiquette);
B. Geographical realia (toponyms, names of shoreline features, varieties of bays,
straits, bays, the names of relief features, hydrographic names, political and
economic, geographical realia relating to administrative-territorial division;
С. Flora (names of trees, shrubs, wild grass, flowers and their features);
D. Fauna (names of animals, birds, snakes, natural and mineral resources, and
features of their development);
D. Social and political realia (state symbols, realia connected with the
constitution of the states, terms denoting legislative and institutional power; the
executives of the White House, including everything related to the US president;
executive agencies, agencies, civil servants, the judiciary, state government and
local government, elections, political parties and public organizations);
E. The system of education, religion and culture (education system: school
education, higher education; religion and literature: the names of literary genres,
famous literary works, aphorisms and winged words, famous fictional and folklore
characters, theater and cinema, mass media, fine arts, musical culture);
F. Onomastic realia – the names of historical personalities, public figures,
scientists, architectural complexes, the names of urban areas, the names of theaters,
concert halls, etc.
As has already been mentioned, culture-specific vocabulary/realia present
national-cultural information concerning lifestyle, religion, mentality, ethnography,
geography, administrative organization, social and political systems, values,
manners, behavioral patterns of a particular nation. They are inseparable part of a
national world picture of a certain linguoculture and demonstrate national-cultural
specifics of a particular nation. It can be vividly illustrated by the analysis of
English, Uzbek and Russian realia.

I. Ethnographic realia
 Household realia:
а) food and drinks:
Engl.: muffin, pudding, English breakfast, cobbler, beef Wellington, crumble,
faggots, kippers, crumpets, jellied eels, toffee, butter-scotch, toast, hot-dog, scone,
maple syrup, the sherry, cooked ham, Irish stew, brandy, Scotch whisky; Uzb.:
сумалак, айрон, палов, норин, хасип, халим, чўпонча, жиз, холвайтар, гўжа,
парварда; Rus.: щи, рассольник, солянка, квас, борщ, тульские пряники,
окрошка, пельмени, кулич, пирожки, кисель, калач;
b) clothes, shoes, decorations, headdress:
Eng.: kilt, bowler hat, brogue shoes, garter, parka, jeans, sporran, moccasins,
stockings with garter flashes, riding-cloak, jack-boots, leine (shirt), trews
(trousers); tweed jacket; Uzb.: жияк, нимча, гуппи, чачвон, румча, яктак,
лозим, калиш, паранжа, қалпоқ, маҳси, дўппи; Rus.: лапти, сарафан,
душегрейка, кокошник, портянки, кожух, опашень, тафья, чёботы, кичка,
кафтан, косоворотка, валенки, повойник
c) types of residence, kitchen utensils, household items:
Eng.: fireplace, plug, knocker, thatched cottage, PayPoint key, Pyrex, three-pin
plug, chalet, ranch, trailer, walk-in-kitchen, walk-in-closet, detached house; Uzb.:
сандал, токча, тандир, хонтахта, кўрпача, жойпуш, лула-болиш,
тахмонпўш, чимилдиқ; Rus.: изба, хата, буржуйка, клеть, сусек, кубышка,
лавка, мшаник, хоромы, горница, подклет, светлица, терем, сени, житница,
пирожковая;
d) realia, indicating local institutions/establishments
Eng.: pub, takeaway, drive-in, motel, boatel, drillroom, drugstore, Wool-worth's
or cent stores; Uzb.: чойхона, маҳалла; Rus.: дом культуры, дом отдыха,
дача, хата, изба
e) realia, indicating the vehicles and those who govern them
Eng.: cab, double-decker, couch, stagecoach, roadster, pullman car, roomette,
couchman, hackney-coach, brougham, hansom; Uzb.: аравакаш, арава; Rus.:
ямщик, сани, тройка;
f) forms of address:
Eng.: Lord, Mister, Miss, Missis, sheriff, duke, doctor, buddy; Uzb.: бекача,
қоқиндиқ, янга, ўргилай, айланай, биби; Rus.: товарищ, барин, боярин, князь,
сударь, сударыня, гражданин, гражданка;
 Realia denoting labour and tools of labour: а) working staff; б) tools of
labour; в) labour organization (including special establishments)
Eng.: professional queuer, bed warmer, pet food taster, waterslide tester, the
ravenmaster (in the Tower), pet psychologist, Befeater, golf ball driver, butler
(chief male servant), book-maker, carhop, hash house, cowboy, valet, busboy,
groom, redcap, caddy, rain belter; foot guard, yeomen, sabbath-hours; Uzb.:
сангтарошлик, дегрезлик, қалам қоши, маҳсидўз, зардузлик, кузгар, дўппидўз,
кетмон, теша, кўкчи; Rus.: передовик, ударник, бондарь, стряпчий,
колпачник, истопник, маклак, выжига, бурлак, чумичка, половой, колхоз,
совхоз, главк, бригада;
 Realia of culture and art
а) music and dance
Eng.: blues, jazz, Limericks, ragtime, Auld Lang Sune, Maypole dance, Morris
dance, hoodening, swing, rock-and-roll; Uzb.: карнай-сурнай, бахши, тановар,
шошмақом, омонёр, лапар, тарона, ёр-ёр, алла, Андижон полька, Сурхондарё
рақси; Rus.: частушки, гопак, балалайка, калинка, берёзка, барыня, журавль,
метелица (dance), во поле берёза стояла (song);
b) musical instruments
Eng.: bagpipe, banjo, harp, triple, warpipes, whistle, fiddle, pibgorn,
crwth (Welsh); Uzb.: доира, карнай, сурнай, най, рубоб, сато, чанқоуз; Rus.:
балалайка, гусли, гармонь, рожок, волынь, свирель, ложки, домра, жалейка,
кугиклы, колюка, бубенец;
c) folklore
Eng.: Beowulf, Robin Hood, Browney, Little John, King Arthur, Camelot, Lady
Godiva, Jack the Giant Killer, Jack O’Kent, the monster of Glamis, Paul Bunyan,
Blue Ох; Uzb.: Сиёвуш, Афросиёб, Насриддин Афанди, Гўрўғли, Юсуф ва
Зулайҳо, Рустам, Алпомиш, Барчиной; Rus.: былина, частушка, богатырь,
Алёша Попович, Добрыня Никитич, Илья Муромец, Змей Горыныч, Владимир
Красное Солнышко, Василиса Микулишна;
d) theatre and theatrical performances
Eng.: The Globe, Broadway, London Coliseum, Piccadilly Theatre; Hamlet,
Pigmallion, Twelfth Night, the School of Scandal; Uzb.: Чимилдиқ, Майсаранинг
иши, Соҳибқирон Темур, Искандар, Тумарис, Дилором, Муҳаббат султони,
А.Навоий номидаги катта театр, Ўзбекистон Миллий академик драматик
театр; Rus.: арлекин, петрушка, каспер, панч, полишинель, конёк горбунок,
Бесприданница, Недоросль, Чайка, Большой театр, Мариинский театр,
Александринский театр, Михайловский театр, театр на Таганке;
e) art and artistic objects:
Eng.: toby jug (a beer mug in the form of a stout old man wearing a three-cornered
hat); oak swill basket (made using cleft oak which has been boiled and split
further by hand into thin strips before been woven around a hazel ring); Uzb.:
сузана, атлас, руиджо, белбоғ, икат, банорас, зардўзлик, зарчопон, ироқи,
жулхирс-гилам, бешкашта-гилам; Rus.: хохлома (декоративная роспись
деревянной посуды и мебели), палех (роспись шкатулок, панно и др.), гжель
(керамика, расписанная в бело-голубых тонах);
f) artists and singers:
Eng.: the Beatles, the Rolling stones, John Lennon, Amy Winehouse, Paul
McCartney, Elton John; Uzb.: Тамара Ханум, Мукаррам Тургунбаева, Аброр
Хидоятов, Шукур Бурхонов, Ботир Зокиров, Ялла, Юнус Раджаби, Мухтар
Ашрафи; Rus.: Аркадий Райкин, Эльдар Рязанов, Мираж, Земляне, Эдита
Пьеха, Ф. Раневская, В. Высоцкий.
g) customs, rituals
Eng.: Guy Fawkes Night, Twelfth Night and Epiphany, Ascot Ladies Day, Straw
Bear, Lent, Pancake day, Notting Hill Carnival, Maundy Thursday, Easter bunny,
Easter basket, Bonfire Night, Valentine's Day, Beggars Night, Ground-hog Day,
Candlemas Day; Uzb.: бешик тўй, сабзи тўғрар, суннат тўй, қулоқ тишлаш,
нон синдириш, дам солиш, мушкул-кушод, мавлуд; Rus.: святки, масленица,
крестины, Иван Купала, вербница, августовские спасы, Ильин день,
проведок, ряженые, мартеница.
h) holidays and games
Eng.: May Day, Boxing Day, the Queen’s birthday, Christmas, Easter,
Thanksgiving Day, St. David’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween, Simon says (game),
Limerick, Clementine, pop-goes-the-weasel, scavenger hunt (game); Uzb.: Навруз,
ҳосил байрами, кўпкари, кураш, оқ теракми-кўк терак, чавгон; Rus.: волчьи
праздники, лапта, городки, гопак, хоровод, мазурка, частушки, День
Победы, майские праздники
i) mythology
Eng.: dwarfs, ogre, Fairy Queen, Bean Nighe, Elves, Gremlin, Lantern man,
Church grim, Bogeyman, boggart, Dearg-Due, gwillgy; Uzb.: ҳумо, семурғ, жин,
чилдўхторон, пари, алвасти, чилтон, дев, Умай; Rus.: василиск, Алатырь,
Белбог, Чернобог, Перун, Боян, Гамаюн (вещая птица) спорыш, домовой,
леший, Баба Яга, ночницы, дивы, берегиня, скарбник.
j) religious directions and their followers
Eng.: baptism, Presbyterian, puritan, Protestantism, Mormons, Young Men's
Christian Association; Uzb.: Нақшбандия, суфи, дарвеш, тасаввуф, кубравийа,
яссавийа, қодирийа, мурид, мутасаввуф, шайх, муршид, пир; Rus.:
православие, пятидесятники, обновленцы, несторианство;
 Measures and money: a) currency: b) units of measurement;
Eng.: pound sterling, penny, pence, sixpence, shilling, dollar, a nickel, a dime,
foot, inch, ounce, mile, gallon, guinea, yard, hand, pint, barrel, gallon, chain;
Uzb.: сўм, танга, тийин, таноб, чақрим, чиндим, қарич; Rus.: рубль, пуд,
копейка, аршин, пядь, верста, локоть, вершок.
II. Geographical realia
a) geographical and meteorological objects;
Eng.: prairie, fjord, sierra, tidewater, cordillera, canyon, coulee, bald, mesa,
tidelands, sun belt, tornado, cyclone, tsunami; Olympic mountains; Uzb.: тақир,
туқай, юлғун, яйлов, Чимён, Зомин, Ҳисор тоғлари; Rus.: тундра, степь,
село, тайга, солончак, Урал, Кавказ, Эльбрус, Байкал, Волга;
b) endemic realia (flora and fauna peculiar only to a particular region)
Eng.: coyote, sequoia, buffalo, kangaroo, prairie chicken, grizzly, opossum,
skunk, Carolina/mourning bird, buck, caribou, prairie dog, rainforest,
Western hamlock, canoe birch, Douglas fir, bristlecone pine, Sitka spruce (types of
trees),wiregrass, bush rat, bush sparrow, bush titmouse, coppice-wood, plane-
tree; Uzb.: саксовул, мархур, джузгун, жайрон; Rus.: снежный баран,
выхухоль, амурский лемминг, байкальская нерпа, голомянка, морщинистый
скосарь, стерх, пион каказский, фиалка иркутская;
c) geographical objects connected with human activity
Eng.: cyclone cellar, levee, Stonehenge, Fullham road, bush field, federal range,
Uzb.: ариқ, жилға; Rus.: польдер, крига, язовир, грид, чалтык

III. Realia that reflect social and political issues


 Realia of administrative-territorial organization
а) administrative-territorial units:
Eng.: county, hitch-town, up-town, downtown, city hall, metropolitan county, sub-
district, municipality, plantation, borough (boro), shire, court-yard, promenade,
hick town, cow town; Uzb.: тўман, вилоят, қишлоқ хўжалиги, фермер
ҳўжалиги; Rus.: край, губерния, автономная область, воеводство
b) settlements, parts of settlements, architectural structures:
Eng.: Stonehedge, Big Ben, British National Museum, Westminster Abbey,
London Coliseum; Tower Bridge, Windsor Castle, Cambridge University; Uzb.:
Регистон, Арк, Гўр-Амир, Биби-хоним, Оқ Сарой, Ал-бухори, Далверзинтепа,
Фаёзтепа, Афросиёб, қишлоқ, овул; Rus.: Кремль, Казанский собор,
Эрмитаж, Питергоф, Спасская Башня, станица, аул, хутор, стойбище
c) authority and executive power:
Eng.: county board, mayor, city council, Scotland Yard; Uzb.: ҳоким, оқсоқол,
маҳаллаком; Rus.: мэр, домком, губернатор;
 Social and political realia:
a) political organizations and executives
Eng.: House of Common, House of Lords, Tory, Democratic Party, Congress, the
Senate, Member of Parliament, Congressman, House of Representatives,
backbencher, ranking member, senior senator, lobbyist, White House Office; Uzb.:
Оқ уй, Вазирлар Маҳкамаси, Олий мажлис, ҳокимият, маҳалла; Rus.:
государственная Дума, госкомитет, Народное собрание, исполком,
большевик, меньшевик;
b) patriotic and social organizations
Eng.: Peace Corps, John Birgh Society, Young Men's Christian Association, Ku-
Klux-Klan, Red Cross; Uzb.: Ёшлар иттифоқи, Қизил ярим ой жамияти,
Хотин-қизлар қўмитаси; Rus.: пионер, комсомол, дворец культуры,
дружинник, партизаны;
c) social movements and their representatives
Eng.: Boy Scouts, Camp fire Girls, Pearly kings and queens, hippies, bikers,
Rotarian; Uzb.: жадидлар, ёш фидоийчилар отряди, ҳашарчилар; Rus.:
декабристы, октябрята, стиляги, пионер, комсомол, нац. патриот. фронт
«Память», общ.патриотич. движение «Держава»;
d) titles, degrees, addresses
Eng.: sheriff, marshal, dutch, lord, peer, duke, Your Higness; Uzb.: жаноб
олийлари, амир, бек, хон, хон; Rus.: барин, барышня, князь, пария, мужик;
e) estates and castes
Eng.: middle-class, low-income people, ruler class, the disadvantaged; Uzb.:
саид, хўжа, эшон, оқ суяк, фуқаро; Rus.: дворянин, простолюдин, голубая
кровь;
f) signs and symbols that reflect social and political order
Eng.: Union Jack, the Great Seal of the United States, American eagle, Stars and
Stripes, magnolia (symbol of Louisiana); sunflower (symbol of Kansas), redwood
(California); Uzb.: Ярим ой, пахта кўчати, Ҳумо, Семурғ; Rus.: двуглавый
орёл, скипетр и держава, шапка Мономаха, штандарт президента РФ;
 Onomastic realia, especially symbolic
a) Anthroponyms:
 Eng.: Robin Hood, Sherlock Holmes, Dorian Grey, Scarlett O’Hara, Honest
Abe (Abraham Linkoln), Scrooge, Babbit (middle-class representative), Gatsby,
Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Rockefeller, Santa Klaus, Margaret Thatcher,
Robinson Crusoe, Charlie Chaplin, Florence Nightingale, Peter Pan; Uzb.:
Фармон биби, Фарход ва Ширин, Лайли ва Мажнун, Алпомиш, Барчиной;
Rus.: Анна Каренина, Евгений Онегин, Кощей Бессмертный, Баба Яга,
Добрыня, Иванушка Дурачок, Тарас Бульба, Татьяна Ларина, Василиса
Прекрасная, Илья Муромец;
b) Toponyms:
Eng.: Downing Street, Scotland Yard, Baker Street, the City, the Hill (the place
where American Congress is situated); White House, House of Parliament; Uzb.:
Регистон, Мустақиллик майдони, Оқ уй, Оқ Сарой, Қирқ Қиз, Минораи
Калон, Арк, Самарқанд, Бухоро; Rus.: Москва, Красная площадь, Кремль,
Зимний дворец, Эрмитаж, Царское село
So, the above examples illustrate cultural specifics of each language. By way
of illustration let us compare terms of family relationship in Uzbek and English
linguocultures. First of all, in Uzbek, there are more terms to denote family
relations than in English, because the Uzbek people differentiate between the
relatives on the mother’s side and those on the father’s: “тоға”, “хола” to call
uncles and aunts on the mother’s side and the words “амаки”, “амма” on the
father’s side, the word “амакивачча” to denote cousins on the father’s side and
“холавачча” on the mother’s. However, in English, there are limited words to
describe these kinds of relationships (uncle, aunt, cousin, cousine). This fact, in our
opinion, emphasizes the role and significance of family and family relations in
Uzbek linguoculture, and at the same time define its national specifics.
In conclusion, it should be stressed that despite different approaches to the
classification of culture-specific vocabulary, they complement each other and
embrace all spheres of life including political, social, historical, cultural,
geographical, ecological, etc. isssues.

4.3. Phraseological units as linguoculturemes

At present, the researches aimed at the study of phraseological units as


transmitters of cultural information and embodiments of cultural values, etalons,
patterns, symbols have become very topical because Ph.U. as has been
acknowledged are the most “culture specific and nationally relevant” linguistic
units. This idea is emphasized in many works by V.N. Telia (1996), V.G. Gak
(2010), M.L. Kovshova (2016), etc.
V.N. Telia, the founder of linguocultural approach to the study of
phraseological units claims that “phraseology is the mirror where the human’s
national and cultural identity is reflected” and “Ph.U. … are associated with
cultural and national standards, stereotypes, myths, etc. reflecting the world picture
of a certain linguocultural community (Телия, 1996, 1999). S.G. Ter-Minasova,
one of the influential scholars in the field of intercultural communication states that
“the phraseological layer of the language, being specific for each nation, stores the
values, morals, attitudes to the world phenomena, people and other nations.
Idioms, proverbs and sayings manifest the way of life as well as geographical
position of a nation, the history and traditions of the community united by one
culture” (Тер-Минасова, 2008, p.80). V.A. Maslova also asserts that Ph.U. reflect
national and cultural values; regarded as the soul of each national language; they
express the spirit of the language and the uniqueness of the people. The scholar
considers that phraseological units do not simply describe the world around us –
they interpret and evaluate it, express our subjective attitude to it (Маслова, 2007).
M.I. Rasulova supports other scholars’ ideas and indicates that phraseological units
reflect the culture of people who speak a particular language, and fix in their
semantics everything that characterizes a certain nation, its way of life and its
national psychology. That is why, Ph.U. of any language, as the scholar asserts, is
deeply national and gives opportunity to understand nation’s history and character
(Расулова, 2005, с.207).
However, it should be noted that not all phraseological units are nationally
and culturally specific. There are some Ph.U. that exist in all languages because
they are based on universal human perceptions and experience. It can be illustrated
on the example of Ph.U. with somatic component, i.e. parts of body. The choice of
the identical equivalents is usually conditioned by the fact that many Ph.U. with
the component “head/голова/бош” belongs to the semantic group “thinking,
intellect”, Ph.U. with component “eye/глаз/кўз” to the semantic group
“perception, attention”, Ph.U. with component “hand/рука/қўл” to the semantic
group “possessing”. That is why, Ph.U. containing somatisms, i.e. parts of the
human body usually coincide in many languages because parts of body are
associated with similar functions in all cultures: a sharp tongue ‒ острый язык ‒
тили ўткир; have a head on one's shoulders иметь голову на плечах, come into
one's head ‒ прийти в голову ‒ калласига келмоқ; look through one's fingers ‒
смотреть сквозь пальцы, to get out of bed on the wrong foot ‒ встать в левой
ноги ‒ чап оёғидан турмоқ; escape smb’s lips – сорваться с языка – тилидан
чиқиб кетмоқ; hold one's head high ‒ высоко держать голову – бошини
баланд кутариб юрмоқ; to listen open-mouthed — слушать разинув рот –
оғзини очиб эшитмоқ. to bite one's lips – кусать губы – лабини тишламоқ.
According to many researchers, national-cultural specifics of phraseological
units is connected with the so-called non-equivalent or lacunar phraseological
units, which exist in any language. There are cases when some Ph.U. in different
languages having the same meaning, create different images expressing national
specifics. For example: to carry coals to Newcastle – ездить в Тулу со своим
самоваром; at a snail’s pace – черепашьим шагом – тошбақадек; золотые
руки – green thumb – қўли гул.
Nationally specific and culture relevant phraseological units can be
classified according to semantic, thematic and etymological criteria.
From the semantic point of view national specifics can be presented in Ph.U.
at two levels: 1) at the level of idiomatic meaning of Ph.U.; 2) at the level of a
national specific component of Ph.U.
1. Phraseological units of the first level are characterized by idiomatic
meanings which have no equivalents in other languages. For instance, toffee nosed
– высокомерный – такаббур; Nosey Parker/Paul Pry – совать нос в чужие
дела\\любопытная Варвара – бировнинг ишига бурнини тиқмоқ; channel fever
– тоска по родине – ватанни соғиниш; the green eyed monster – ревнивый
человек – рашкли инсон; cut (slice) the melon – распределять прибыль –
фойдани бўлиш; pull up trees – многого добиться – кўпга эршмоқ, a bed of
roses – безмятежная жизнь – енгил ҳаёт; a couch potato – лежебока – ялқов,
дангаса; small potatoes – мелкие людишки – кичкина одамлар; cool as
cucumber –невозмутимый, не теряющий хладнокровия человек – совуққон
одам; white-livered – трусливый – қуён юрак; feel blue – грустить – хафа
бўлмоқ;
2. Phraseological units of the second level are presented by Ph.U., the
components of which express some national realia. For example: Wardour-street
English – speech full of archaisms (comes from the name of the street in which
antic shops are located); Blue stocking – a scholarly, educated, literary, intelligent
woman (from the blue worsted stockings worn by the members of the 18th-century
Blue Stockings Society led by Elizabeth Montagu (1720–1800); at latter Lammas
– never (from the name of a harvest holiday that is celebrated on the 1 st of August);
Carry coals to Newcastle – to do smth. useless (the city of Newcastle is the center
of coal production and that is why there is no use of carrying coal there); Hobson’s
choice – to have no real choice (related to Thomas Hobson, the owner of the stable
in Cambridge, England, who offered customers the choice of either taking the
horse in his stall nearest to the door or taking none at all).
A large amount of realia used in English phraseology is expressed by:
a) anthroponyms – Darby and Joan (an old couple loving each other);
Gretha Green marriage (marriage by love); Peeping Tom ( a too curious person);
Sister Ann (a devoted friend); John Bull (nickname of an Englishman); John
Barleycorn (personification of alcoholic drinks); the life of Riley (an easy and
luxurious life); Brown, Jones and Robinson – ordinary people;
b) toponyms – enough to puzzle Philadelphia lawyer (a very difficult
situation); Downing street (the governmental organizations); Fleet street (the
centre of press); to send somebody to Coventry – to boycott, ostracise someone
deliberately; Smithfield match (marriage of convenience); set the Thames on fire
(to do smth. unusual); a wooden Indian – reserved person; Bond street –
fashionable and expensive clothes (centre of fashionable boutiques); Harley Street
– doctors (centre of doctors’ office);
c) the names of monetary units and units of measure (weight, volume,
length): a bed penny – smth. undesirable; to be ten a penny – very common,
ordinary; turn an honest penny – to earn money legally; inch perfect – very
accurate); come within an inch of smth. (to almost get, achieve smth.);
According to the thematic principle nationally specific and culture relevant
Ph.U. can be classified into the following groups:
 Phraseological units, reflecting customs and traditions of the English
people:
Baker’s dozen (according to the old medieval English custom, buyers when
buying dozen, i.e. twelve loafs of bread, received the thirteenth loaf from the baker
for free);
long in the tooth – very old (related to the custom of checking a horse’s
teeth in order to identify its age while buying, because horses’ teeth unlike
humans’ tend to grow with age);
put on the black cap – to impose accusatory sentence (in England when a
judge announced death penalty he wore a black cap);
wooden spoonist – the last in competition (comes from the custom of giving
a wooden spoon to the student who got the lowest mark for exam in mathematics
in Cambridge);
nail to the counter – to expose lie or slander (related to the custom of sellers
to nail the counterfeit coins to the counters);
Wet your whistle – to have a drink, especially alcoholic (came from a custom
of having a whistle in the rim or handle of beer mugs in pubs; when the visitors
needed a refill they blew it);
Graveyard shift – a late-night or early-morning work (related to the custom
of attaching bells to coffins to avoid premature burial; someone was hired to sit
outside and monitor the grave in case of a bell ring. Related to this custom are
Ph.U. dead ringer and saved by the bell.
 Phraseological units associated with superstitions:
A black sheep - the black sheep, the shame of the family (according to the
old belief black sheep is marked by the seal of the devil);
Lick in shape – to create shape, appearance; make a man out of anyone, to
finish work//An unlicked cub – very young, green (connected with the medieval
superstition by which the cubs are born formless and bear licking them, gives them
the better shape).
medical/middle/ring finger (according to the old popular belief, in the
human’s middle finger there is a nerve connected with the heart of a person, that is
why the person can feel if he is healthy or ill by massaging the middle finger);
cross one’s fingers – wishing luck (according to a very common superstition
crossing fingers brings luck and success);
have kissed the Blarney stone – it is believed that people kissing the stone at
Blarney Castle in Ireland are given the gift of persuasive and flattery speech;
 Phraseological units associated with the names of the British and
American famous people, scientists, writers, politicians
According to Cocker – smth. reliable, correct (Cocker (1631-1675) is a
scientist known in mathematics and arithmetic, the author of the book in arithmetic
popular in the 17 century);
The Admirable Crichton – an educated man (by the name of James Crichton,
a famous Scottish scientist of the XVI century);
According to Hoyle – correctly, in accord with the rules or authority
(Edmond Hoyle (1672-1769), the English barrister and the author of several works
on card games in which he put a strict set of rules);
a Florence Nightingale – a woman who is very kind and takes care of ill
people (Florence Nightingale is the English nurse, organizer of a social movement
who trained nurses during the Crimean War).
According to the etymological principle, i.e. the origin of phraseological
units, they can be classified into the following groups:
 Phraseological units, reflecting the historical facts:
the curse of Scotland (card.) – nickname of the card game “Nine Diamonds”
(the playing card which is similar to the emblem of the Count of Dilprim Steyner
who caused hatred in Scotland by his pro-British policy);
By/with bell, book and candle – for forever, without chance to change (this
Ph.U. is related to the ceremony of excommunication or anathema from Catholic
church. Ceremony consisted of closing the book, quenching the candle and tolling
a bell, as for someone who had died. Excommunicated person was deprived from
the society and had no any rights.
According to the etymological principle, i.e. the origin of Ph.Us, they can be
classified into the following groups:
 Phraseological units of the biblical origin:
As is known, the main religion of European culture is Christianity. The
Bible, as the basis of Christian culture, has become an eternal and inexhaustible
source of ideas, images and motifs in all spheres of life and art. They have
penetrated into all spheres of social life, thus becoming a specific way of ideology
and the conceptual world picture. The Bible contains much of deep ancient
wisdoms, and inspires writers to use characters, phrases, images, legends, proverbs
from it. On the one hand, the Bible, being an essential part of the overall picture of
the world, has a great impact on people’s mentality, cultural values and moral
ideals, and on the other hand, the biblical language has a great influence on the
language and literature, providing them with a great number of phraseological
units. Many biblical phraseological units assimilated in European languages and
are widely used in everyday speech, their religious origin being forgotten:
Alpha and Omega – альфа и омега – das Alpha und das Omega – L’alpha
et omega; prodigal son – блудный сын –der verlorene Sohn– enfant prodigue;
Sodom and Gomorrah – Содом и Гоморра – Sodom und Gomorrha – Sodome et
Gomorrhe; wash ones’ hands – умывать руки – siene Hände in Unschuld
waschen – s'en laver les mains; the brand of Cain – Каинова печать – Das
Kainzeichen tragen – le signe de Caïn.
A distinctive feature of the above Ph.U. is their universal character since they
are used in different languages. However, along with the universal Ph.U. of the
biblical origin in the English there are lots of non-equivalent Ph.U., which have no
analogues in other European languages. Here are a few examples of such Ph.U. in
English: Adam’s ale – water, to suffer fools gladly – to be tolerant towards silly
people, to entertain the angel unawares – having a guest not knowing his high
status/rank, to fall on stony ground – to be infertile, having itching ears – be eager
for news; as patient as Job – to be very patient, Job’s news – sad news, Job’s post
– the person who brings bad news.
 Phraseological units borrowed from folk tales and fables:
Fortunatus's purse – an inexhaustible purse (Fortunatus – is a character
of a fairy tale who met the goddess of Fortune and received from her a purse which
was continually replenished);
Tom Thumb – an extremely small person (character of English folklore
who was no bigger than his father's thumb, and who was swallowed by a cow,
tangled with giants, and became a favourite of King Arthur);
to carry water in a sieve – using an inappropriate tool or means for
achieving smth. (a character of Grimms’ tale Master Pfriem who is forced to solve
the impossible task of carrying water in a sieve);
 Phraseological units based on the legends and myths:
Halcyon days - calm, peaceful days, quiet time (halcyon - Kingfisher,
according to ancient tradition, the kingfisher brings chickens in the nest, floating in
the sea during the winter solstice, and at this time, about two weeks, the sea is
quite calm);
Rising like a phoenix from the ashes – to become successful again after fall
(phoenix – a legendary bird that is cyclically regenerated or born again from the
ashes of its predecessor);
Davy Jones’ locker - the bottom of the sea; the mythical place/state of dead
of drowned sailors (Davy Jones is believed to be an “evil spirit”. Some think that
this is a reference to a British pub owner who imprisoned drunken sailors into his
ale locker and then made them serve in ship, the others believe that it is reference
to Saint David of Wales, the patron of mariners);
 Phraseological units of literary origin:
The phraseological units created by Shakespeare have considerably enriched
the English phraseology. This is the second biggest group after the Ph.U of biblical
origin. Most of them can be found in the works by Shakespeare only once, but they
are fixed in dictionaries as phraseological units. Let us consider the most popular
of them: a fool's paradise (Romeo and Juliet) – illusory happiness, fantasy world;
have an itching palm (Julies Caesar) – be a bribe-taker, be greediness; the the wish
is father to the thought (King Henry IV) – the desire creates the idea, people are
willing to believe to what is wanted; the green-eyed monster (Othello) – jealous
person.
Besides Shakespeare, many other English writers and poets contributed
idioms to the English language: bite the hand that feeds you (E. Burke, Thoughts
and Details on Scarcity); not for ears polite (A.Pope, Essay on Man); be under
somebody's thumb – entirely in the hands of someone, under the heel of one’s wife
(S. Richardson, The History of Sir Charles Grefindson); catch (take) somebody
red-handed – to catch someone while crime (W. Scott, Ivenho); to grin like a
Cheshire cat (L. Carrol, Alice in Wonderland).
 phraseological units derived from Greek and Roman myths
Pandora’s box – a source of many unforeseen troubles (from Greek
mythology Zeus gave to Pandora a box with instructions not to open it but she
gave in to her curiosity and opened it. As a result all the miseries, evils and
diseases flew out to afflict the mankind);
Achilles’ heel – a seemingly small but actually crucial weakness; a place of
especial vulnerability, especially in a person’s character (from the mythological
legend about Greek hero Achilles, who was killed by arrow pointed at his heel, the
only vulnerable place in his body);
Trojan horse – a subversive group or device placed within enemy ranks(the
hollow wooden horse in which, according to the legend, Greeks hid and gained
entrance to Troy, later opening the gates to their army);
In conclusion it should stressed that phraseological units are culture relevant
linguistic units since they reflect people’s culture, their history and literature,
cultural values, customs and traditions, beliefs and superstitions, i.e. they represent,
store and transfer cultural knowledge and accumulated experience of generations
that a society has been collecting over a long period of time.

4.4. Proverbs and sayings as culturally marked units

Relationships between language and culture are most clearly seen in


proverbs. It is accounted for by the fact that a proverb by its very nature is one of
the forms of culture. It is a proverb that first and foremost transmits sociocultural
information. Proverbs and sayings are considered to be cultural relevant units,
since they reflect cultural values and concepts (S.G.Vorkachev, V.I. Karasik, V.A.
Maslova, W. Mieder).
There are many definitions of proverbs given from different perspectives.
I.R. Galperin defines proverbs as “brief statements showing in condensed form the
accumulated life experience of the community and serving as conventional
practical symbols for abstract ideas” (Galperin, 1977, p.181). W. Mieder points out
that proverb is “a short, generally known sentence of the folk which contains
wisdom, truth, morals, and traditional views in a metaphorical, fixed and
memorizable form and which is handed down from generation to generation.
(Mieder 2004, p.3). The definitions specify such features of proverbs as a laconic
form, reflection of conventional wisdom and other cultural values.
Many scholars in their definitions emphasize cultural significance of
proverbs. Accordingly, C.B. Palmer regards proverbs as cultural texts which fix
knowledge, experience and expertise of generations, they manifest basic concepts
and, thus reflect the specific cultural knowledge, and associations, which underlie
the perception of the world (Palmer, 1996, p.25). According to Y. Deng and R.
Liu, “proverbs may provide interesting little glimpses or clues to a people’s
geography, history, social organizations, social views, attitudes. People who live
along sea coasts and whose livelihood is dependent on the sea will have proverbs
about sailing, about braving the weather, about fish and fishing…In cultures where
old age is revered, there will be proverbs about the wisdom of the elders. And in
societies where women’s status is low, there will be a number of sayings
demeaning them” (Deng, Liu, 1989, p. 47-48).
Indeed, proverbs and sayings are the most valuable source of information
about the culture and mentality of people. They always reflect customs and
traditions, morals and the world outlook of people, historical events and changes
in society, the development of economy, culture, trade, etc. Cultural values
usually are not explicitly stated, but rather, are passed on from generation to
generation through proverbs. Proverbs and sayings of different cultures have a lot
in common, however there are specific features, characterizing the peculiarities of
national culture. Proverbs and sayings convey deep conceptual senses and
national wisdom, which have roots far in the past. They reflect the people’s way
of thinking and perception of the world. Many proverbs are culture specific: An
Englishman's home is his castle; Good fences make good neighbors; praise is not
pudding; To pick the plums out of the pudding; Good wine needs no bush; One
cannot run with the hare and hunt with the hounds; A cat may look at a king;
Love me, love my dog; He that loves the tree, loves the branch; Nothing must be
done hastily but killing of fleas; Rain before seven, fine before eleven; Business
is business; If a job is worth doing, it is worth doing well; If you buy quality, you
only cry once; Keep your breath to cool your porridge; A penny saved is a penny
earned; The best things come in small packages; Before criticizing a man, walk a
mile in his shoes; Beggars can't be choosers.
There are many functions of proverbs: to advice, inspire, teach, persuade,
convince, etc. Most proverbs are of an instructional character and provide deep
philosophic insight into many phenomena of life. Proverbs guide people, teach
them to differentiate between right and wrong, to lead a regular life, to establish
good relations with the community members: Better die with honor than live with
shame; When the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch; Better be an
old man’s darling, than a young man’s slave; Where there is a will, there is a way;
The early bird catches the worm; Love is not found in the market; A woman’s work
is never done; Better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all; What
can’t be cured must be endured; One man’s meat is another man’s poison.
Some proverbs reveal and criticize people’s negative characteristics: the
fox changes his skin, but not his habit; a leopard cannot change its spots; like
father, like son.
Many proverbs summarize knowledge and experience of people’s daily
life: The best wine comes out of an old vessel; Soft fire makes sweet malt; Hunger
drives the wolf out of the woods; Don’t count your chickens before they are
hatched; All that glitters is not gold; If you play with fire you get burnt; You buy
land, you buy stones; You buy meat, you by bones.
The analysis of English proverbs made it possible to classify them into the
following groups, reflecting: 1) the peculiarities of lifestyle; 2) geographical
position; 3) customs and traditions; 4) religious views; 5) Greek and Roman myths;
6) English literature; 7) historical events. Let us consider them in detail:
 proverbs reflecting the peculiarities of lifestyle
Many proverbs are associated with people’s everyday life and work. They
express people's simple routine and concerns. A great number of proverbs were
created by working people such as seamen, hunters, farmers, workmen,
housewives, cooks and so on, using familiar terms that were associated with their
trades and occupations. For example: the proverb Living without the aim is like
sailing without a compass was first used by seamen; If you run after two hares,
you will catch neither – by hunters; April rains for corn, May, for grass; Make
hay while the sun shines – by farmers; Too many cooks spoil the broth – by cooks.
Such expressions were all colloquial and informal and initially confined to a
limited group of people engaged in the same trade or activity. But they proved to
be so vital and significant that later they broke out of their bounds and gradually
gained wide acceptance. As a result, their early stylistic features faded in some
way and many have become part of the common language, now being used in
different occasions.
 proverbs reflecting geographical location of the country
Britain geographically is an island country and people’s life is closely
related to the sea, navigation and the sea products. As a result, numerous proverbs
related to this sphere have appeared: Little leaks sink the ship; The sea refuses no
river; A smooth sea never makes a skilful mariner; He who would catch fish must
not mind getting wet; The sea has fish for every man; Living without an aim is
like sailing without a compass; Hoist sail when the wind is fair; It is a silly fish
that is caught twice with the same bait; All is fish that comes to the net; The best
fish swim near the bottom; Fish where the fish are.
 proverbs reflecting customs and traditions
Many proverbs reflect different national traditions and customs. For
example: Good wine needs no bush. This proverb reflects an ancient English
custom. In the past, English wine merchants used to hang some ivy bushes or a
picture of ivy bushes on their doors as a sign of wine selling. But some
merchants’ wine was so good and popular that it needn’t any labelling.
Some proverbs are related to ancient people’s deeply rooted beliefs and
superstitions. For example, in the past, English people believed that spilled salt
brings misfortune and bad luck. This superstition is reflected in the proverb: Help
me to salt and you help me to sorrow. According to another popular superstition,
it is unlucky to marry in May: marry in May, rue for aye. The proverb One for
sorrow; two for mirth; three for a wedding; four for a birth reflects English
superstition, according to which the number of magpies seen on a particular
occasion portends either sadness, or happiness and joy.
 proverbs reflecting religious views
As is known, Christianity is a dominant religion in English-speaking
countries and therefore the Bible, a sacred book of all Christians, became the
richest source of English proverbs. It is believed that European cultures are greatly
influenced by the Bible. Consequently, many sayings and quotes from the Bible
have taken deep roots in people’s consciousness; however, their origin has been
forgotten. Here, some examples: Every man must carry his own cross; One
doesn't live only by bread; Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth; If
the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch; Forbidden fruit is sweetest.
 proverbs originated from Greek and Roman myths
Many English proverbs originate from Greek and Roman myths, i.e.
fabulous stories about the world creation and destruction, gods and heroes, their
deeds, victories and defeats. These myths are well known in all European
countries, in particular English-speaking countries, because they were a part of
education and art (paintings, sculptures, books): The Devil too has Achilles'
heel; Not even Hercules could contend against two; Without Ceres and
Bacchus, Venus grows cold.
Many English proverbs are also taken from The Fables of Aesop. These
proverbs are very concise and humorous, and they reflect people’s life experience.
For example: The camel going to seek horns, lost his ears; The grapes are sour; A
barleycorn is better than a diamond to a cock; One swallow does not make a
summer; Slow but sure wins the race; Kill not the goose that lays the golden eggs.
 proverbs originated from English literature
Many English proverbs reflect events or characters of English literature.
Shakespeare’s works are undoubtedly the greatest literary source of many English
proverbs. The English use Schakespear’s quotes not realizing their origin, for
example: All is not gold that glitters; Patience perforce is medicine for a mad dog;
Brevity is the soul of wit; Sweet are the uses of adversity; Cowards die many times
before their deaths.
There are proverbs from other literary sources as well: A little learning is a
dangerous thing (Pope); Knowledge is power (Bacon); A thing of beauty is a
joy forever (Keats).
 proverbs borrowed from other languages
The processes of the world integration and globalization stipulate the
development of linguistic contracts, which, in turn, have a certain influence on the
language system in general, and lexical and phraseological subsystems in
particular. It is evidenced by a great number of borrowings from one language to
others. As for proverbs, they are also subjected to this tendency, therefore a lot of
proverbs were borrowed from other languages, including Greek, Latin, German,
Italian, Spanish, Dutch and other languages, among which Latin, Greek and
French provide the richest nutrition. Most of the borrowed proverbs in English,
due to the remoteness of time, have already assimilated or merged into the English
language with their traces almost impossible to follow.
Many English proverbs originated from French due to the historical facts.
William, Duke of Normandy, France, landed his mighty army and defeated Saxon
king Harold. William was crowned as king of England, and extended French
culture, language and architecture in Britain. The conquerors had been ruling
England for a long period of time, and French used to be an official language.
Although England finally won its sovereignty, many French proverbs remained:
Don't put the cart before the horse; Venture a small fish to catch a great one; If
the lion's skin cannot, the fox's shall .
Many English proverbs are of Latin origin, because firstly Britain used to
be a part of the Roman Empire for some time; secondly Christianity was
introduced in Latin and thirdly the influence of the Renaissance. Many Latin
words and proverbs gained wide acceptance in English culture: Fortune favors the
brave; He who says what he likes, shall hear what he does not like; I fear the
Greeks, even when bringing gifts; There is no rule without an exception.
It is necessary to mention that a number of proverbs in English borrowed from
Latin and French have remained more common in their original form rather than
in translations: In vino veritas (Latin); Honi soit qui mal (French); Caveat emptor
(Latin).
As has already been mentioned, proverbs vividly demonstrate the national
character and the national mentality of different nations.
For English people’s national character such qualities as independence,
desire to keep privacy, steadiness and respect for traditions and customs are most
typical and therefore they are reflected in English proverbs: You never know what
you can do till you try; God helps them, who help themselves; Shoot first and ask
questions afterward; The best defense is a good offense; Good fences make good
neighbors; A hedge between keeps friendship green; Every man must skin his own
skunk; Every tub must stand on its own bottom; He travels fastest who travels
alone; Nothing can bring you peace but yourself; Paddle your own canoe; Stand
on your own two feet.
For Uzbek people, on the contrary, such qualities as respect to elderly,
obedience to parents and authority, patience and humility are most characteristic:
Каттанинг ҳурмати – қарз, кичикка салом – фарз; Ош каттадан, сув
кичикдан; Сабр – умр хазинаси; сабр этган – муродга етган; Катта
иззатда, кичик хизматда; Уста бўлсанг, устозинг унутма; Дард келар, дард
кетар; Азоб кўрмай, роҳат йўқ; Устозингга тик қарасанг, тўзасан –
хурмат қилсанг аста-аста ўзасан.
Russian people are known as open, friendly, happy-go-lucky and a little bit
lazy people: Гром не грянет, мужик не перекрестится; Как на охоту ехать,
так собаки не кормлены; Голь на выдумки хитра; И волки сыты, и овцы
целы; Жизнь прожить – не поле перейти; Вместе тесно, а врозь скучно; Не
в службу, а в дружбу; Не имей сто рублей, а имей сто друзей; Старый друг
лучше новых двух.
Many proverbs reflect the national priorities and preference. As is known,
England has always been an industrial and commercial country. There is a big
number of English proverbs that reflect the economic and business sphere of life:
Business before pleasure; Business is business; Business is like a car, it will not
run by itself except downhill; Business neglected is business lost; Buy in the
cheapest market and sell in the dearest; The customer is always right; If you don’t
speculate, you can’t accumulate; Keep your shop and your shop will keep you;
Never mix business with pleasure; One business begets another; Pay beforehand
was never well served; Punctuality is the soul of business; There are tricks in
every trade; trade follows the flag; The buyer needs a thousand eyes, the seller
wants but one; Business is the salt of life; First come, first served; A bargain is a
bargain; A penny saved is a penny gained; Don't throw good money after bad. It
is of interest to note that the business vocabulary of the Russian and Uzbek
languages include many English words (бизнес, супермаркет, банк, банкрот,
дилер, депозит, фонд, инвестор, инвестиция, маклер, ордер, тендер)
Uzbekistan, on the contrary, has always been an agricultural country,
cultivating grain, cotton, different types of fruit and vegetables, melons and
watermelons, etc. Even today agriculture, especially cotton-growing remains the
main pillar of Uzbekistan’s national economy; hence, in the Uzbek language there
are many proverbs concerning agriculture: Арпага – ўрим, бўғдойга – кўрим;
Бўғдой эксанг, кузда эк – яхши ҳайдаб, бўзга эк; Деҳқон ишлаб дон сочар –
элга ризқ йўлин очар; Деҳқоннинг ҳазинаси – ер, калити – тер; Ер – дон,
деҳқон – ҳазинабон; Пахтага соя ҳам керак эмас, ҳамсоя ҳам; Пахтадан
эчки ўтсин, жўҳоридан – туя; Қовун эккан, қовоқ олмас.
Cattle breeding is also very important for Uzbeks agriculture. Many Uzbek
proverbs evidence this fact: Деҳқон – ер султони, чўпон – яйлов султони;
Саккиз сигир асрагунча, битта говмиш асра; Семиз қуйнинг умри калта;
Сигири бор – оч қолмас; Туяли бой – дунёли бой; Қўзининг сараси, узоқдан
билинар; Қўйни боқсанг, қўзилар; Молни боқсанг бузоқлар.
Due to the fact that there are many desert territories in Uzbekistan, water
plays an exceptionally significant role in people’s life. Presumably, that is the
reason why many Uzbek proverbs emphasize the role of water in people’s life:
Сув – зар, сувчи – заргар; Сув келди – нур келди; Сув қатраси – дур қатраси;
Сувсиз ер – жонсиз жасад; Сув бор жойда, ҳаёт бор; Кариз суви – жон
суви; Сувсиз – ҳаёт бўлмас, меҳнатсиз роҳат.
In contrast, a great number of English proverbs about water are of negative
character. In our opinion, it can be explained by the fact that England is an island
surrounded by water where many accidents occur: It’s no safe wading in an
unknown water; Only a fool tests the depth of the water with both feet; Don't go
near the water until you learn how to swim; A small leak will sink a great ship;
Fire and water are good servants, but bad masters; After a storm comes a calm;
Beware of a silent dog and still water.
As it was mentioned, European cultures are greatly influenced by
Christianity and therefore there are many English and Russian proverbs taken
from the Bible (Engl.: Do not let the sun go down on your wrath; Let the dead
bury the dead; The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak; Take the plank out of
your own eye first; There’s nothing new under the sun; Where there is no vision,
the people perish; Rus.: Не судите, да не судимы будете; Бездна бездну
призывает; Возлюби ближнего твоего, как самого себя; Всему своё время;
Нет ничего тайного, что не сделалось бы явным).
In Uzbekistan the main religion is Islam. Consequently, in the Uzbek
language there are proverbs associated with the sacred book of Muslims – the
Quran. However, it is worth mentioning that the biblical proverbs in English and
Russian are mostly direct quotations from the Bible, whereas Uzbek proverbs are
not word by word citations from the Quran: тавба қилганни, эл кечирар; дуо ол,
дуо олтин эмасми; садақа балони ер, тавба гуноҳни; ота-онасини
танимаган, тангрини танимас; ҳалол иш – лаззатли емиш; ҳалол ишла,
ҳалол тишла; ҳалол меҳнат ерда қолмас; ҳалол пишиб чиқар, ҳаром тешиб
чиқар; ҳаромдан келган ҳаромга кетар; ҳаром молнинг баракаси йўқ. This
can be explained by the two facts: first – the Quran has been translated into Uzbek
only in the end of XXth century, and second – Muslims learn surahs (verses from
the Quran) in Arabic.
It should be noted that many proverbs of different nations being equivalent
in their contents, convey quite different images to express the same ideas. For
example, the Uzbek proverb “Бир қозонда икки қўчқорнинг боши қайнамас”
reflects the mode of life of Uzbek cattle-breeders, using the image of ram that is a
symbol of power. In the equivalent Russian proverb the image of bear is used:
“Два медведя в одной берлоге не уживутся”. This image, being widely used in
Russian folklore, sayings, fairy-tales and songs has become a prototype of Russian
people.
In the Russian proverb “Волков бояться в лес не ходить” the lexemes
“волк” (wolf) and “лес” (forest) are used. In the Uzbek proverb expressing the
same idea “Чумчуқдан қўрққан тариқ емас” the lexemes “чумчуқ” (sparrow)
and “тариқ” (millet) are used. In these examples, we observe the similar from the
semantic point of view proverbs, which, however, are built on quite different
images. This phenomenon can be explained by different geographical positions
Russia and Uzbekistan occupy. Vast territories of Russia are covered with woods
inhabited by wolves. Whereas the territory of Uzbekistan consists of valleys,
mountains, where wolves are not so numerous. In the following Russian proverb
the image of wolf appears again: С волками жить – по волчьи выть. English
people have an equivalent: Who keeps company with the wolf will learn to howl.
However, in Uzbek, a proverb conveying the same idea is expressed with the help
of another image: “Қўшнинг кўр бўлса, кузингни қис”, meaning word for word
“If your neighbor is blind, you should also winkle”. The image of “neighbor” in
the proverb reflects cultural traditions of “mahalla” – “city neighborhood” that
goes back to the 9th century. At that time, many members of “mahalla”
specialized in specific trades such as metalworking, music, or food production.
Later, mahallas have become local autonomous institutions monitoring different
social events and services for community residents. Members of “mahalla” help
each other in social rituals and events, family affairs, financial matters; gather
together to talk, discuss news, to have traditional Uzbek “pilaf” and drink green
tea. Such joint activities promote friendship and solidarity, and sustain community
life. That is why, good relationships with neighbours are considered to be a great
fortune. And that is the reason, why in many Uzbek proverbs the idea of
community and neighborhood found its reflection: Авлиё ҳам қўшнисини қўллар;
Қўшнинг ёмон бўлса, ёмонлик келар, қўшнинг яхши бўлса – омонлик; Қўшни
келди – кўмак келди; Қўшнида пишар, бизга ҳам тушар; Ховли олма – қўшни
ол; Кўп бирикса, тоғ қулар; Қўшни қўшнидан эрта туришни ўрганар; Қўшни
– қўшнининг бозори; Айрилганни айиқ ер, бўлинганни бўри ер; Бир қизга
етти қўшни – ота-она; Ёмон қўшни – жон қўшни; Бирликда барака бор.
Now, let’s turn to the analysis of proverbs which describe the relations
between parents and children, the influence of parents on their children: Like
father like son; like mother, like daughter; Отанг ким бўлса, шунинг уғли сен;
Каков батька, таковы и детки.
These proverbs emphasize the parents’ role in the formation of their
children’s character and behavior. The same idea is expressed in many proverbs
with the help of various images; referring mainly to the vegetation and animal
world: As the old cock crows so the doth learns; As the tree, so the fruit; Яблоко
от яблони недалеко падает; Илондан илон, чаёндан чаён; Пишакнинг боласи
пишак туғади; Айғир қандай бўлса, от шундай; эр боласи – эр, шер боласи –
шер.
The next group of proverbs under study are proverbs devoted to the family
and family relations. Family is an important unit of any society, and therefore
from the socio-cultural point of view such proverbs are most interesting. It is
worth mentioning that an overwhelming number of such proverbs is presented in
the Uzbek language. Uzbek culture is characterized by specific moral and
behavioural norms: respect to the old and elderly people; parents’ love to children
and children’s obedience and respect, children should be worthy of their parents:
отадан – ўғил, онадан – қиз; амри падар – аршдан аъло; онангга бошингни
хам қил, отангга гапингни кам қил; ота олдида кек урма, одобингга чек
урма; Қобил ўғил роҳат келтирар, ноқобил ўғил – меҳнат;яхҳши бола шон
келтирар, ёмон бола қон келтирар; ота ғайратли бўлса, бола ибратли
бўлар; ота-онам — давлатим; ота – ақл, она – идрок; ота – билак, она –
юрак; бола азиз, адаби ундан азиз; бола бошидан, уғлон ёшидан; ота рози —
худо рози; оталар сўзи — ақлнинг кўзи.
The child is very much treasured in all cultures, and this idea is perfectly
reflected in the following proverbs: англ.: He that has no children knows not
what is love; Children are a poor man's riches; узб.: Болалик уй – мозор, боласиз
уй – мозор; Болалик уй – хандон, боласиз уй – зиндон; Болалик уй – бўстон,
боласиз уй – гўристон; Бол ширин, болдан – бола ширин; Она билан бола –
гул билан лола; Фарзанд – жонга пайванд; Ўғил – уйнинг булбули, қиз –
уйнинг гули; рус.: Полна хата детьми – так и счастливо в ней; Изба детьми
весела. However Uzbek proverbs related to the topic “parents and children”
considerably outnumber Russian and English proverbs. This fact can be explained
by the national specifics of Uzbek culture which regards family relations as the
main priority.
It should be mentioned that Uzbekistan is the only country, Constitution of
which contains the article about children’s responsibility for advanced in years
parents. For English people the fact that children’s duties are legalized may seem
strange, but this is national specifics of Uzbek people's culture.
So, proverbs and sayings conveying cultural information and expressing
cultural values and concepts, constitute an essential part of the national world
picture, reflecting a certain ethnic culture based on people’s life experiences, their
traditions and customs, history and literature as well as cultural values.

4.5. Mythologemes as linguoculturemes

As is known, myths are understood as legends about gods and heroes, stories
and fables about superhuman beings taken by the preliterate society for a true
account, usually of how the world and natural phenomena, social customs, etc.,
came into existence. Myths reflect basic elements of religion, philosophy, science,
art, etc. Myths are based on archetypes – an inherited pattern of thought or
symbolic imagery derived from the past collective experience and present in the
individual unconscious (Юнг, 1997).
Myths are represented in the text by means of “mythologemes” – linguistic
units denoting important mythological personages, situations or events transiting
from one myth to another and shared by cultures throughout the world; “stable
images and motives that are repeated in the mythological systems and are
represented in the fictional text” (Левитская, Ломакина, 2004).
Mythologemes in language can be represented by different linguistic units:
а) common nouns: …and you might catch sight of little fawns galloping through
the glade on the back of a bearded centaur (Maugham, Red); The satyr in him
suddenly took his possession, and he was powerless in the grip of an instinct which
had all the strength of the primitive forces of nature (Maugham, The Moon and
Sixpence).
b) anthroponyms: Perhaps, it would have been possible to see in him a new
Prometheus (W.S. Maughm, The Moon and Sixpence); It’s three Gorgons in one.
Or it’s Pan. You see him and die…(O’Neil, Long Day’s Journey into Night). She
may be just a sort of enchantress, a Circe, a spiritual Penelope keeping her suitors
spellbound and enslaved (Murdoch, The Unicorn);
c) toponyms: They had glowered upon him like Scylla and Charybdis, but they
had let him go through (Murdoch, The Unicorn);
d) word-formation units: John would’t be surprised… to catch a glimpse of pink
nymph-skin…. (Fitzgerald, The Diamond as Big as the Ritz);
e) phraseological units: The night operator answered the phone. “This is Perry
Mason” he said. I suppose Paul Drake is wrapped in the arms of Morpheus
(Gardner, The Case of the Runaway Corpse);
f) sentences: Prometheus Enriched was calling to witness forgotten sacrifices,
forgotten rituals, prayers obsolete before the birth of Christ (F.S. Fitzgerald, The
Diamond as Big as the Ritz);
d) texts: Eliduc (J. Fowles); Ulysses (J. Joyce); The Pyramid, The Scorpion God (W.
Golding), The Labours of Hercules (А. Christie);
The mechanism of mythologemes is based on the cognitive operation known
as conceptual integration or blending. This theory holds that meaning construction
involves integration of structures that give rise to more than the sum of its parts. A
distinctive feature of mythologemes is their intertextuality. Two conceptual
domains, those of the precedent and the recipient texts are brought together and
integrated into one on the basis of a mythologeme, thus evoking an array of
associations and new conceptual senses.
In this respect the story “The Diamond as Big as the Ritz” by F.S. Fitzgerald
serves as a good example. The whole text of the story is penetrated by
mythologemes mainly of Greek origin (Hades, St. Midas, a goat-foot piping his
way, pink nymph-skin and flying yellow hair, woody rattles of Nemesis,
Prometheus Enriched, myrrh and gold, golden age, God was made in man’s
image). The usage of these mythologemes in the text activates extralinguistic
mythological knowledge of the reader, thus focusing his mind on the conceptually
relevant information. Let us embark on a detailed analysis.
The main hero of the story John Unger lives in a small provincial city
Hades:
John T. Unger came from a family that had been well known in Hades  a
small town on the Mississippi River  for several generations.
The name of the city makes it possible to draw a parallel between this
provincial old-fashioned city and the mythological underworld kingdom of Hades.
According to ancient Greek mythology Hades is the underworld abode of the dead.
The term Hades in Christian theology is close to the concept of Hell ‒ the neither
realm, the place or state in which the damned suffer everlasting punishment
(LDCE; MWCD). The description of the city (small, provincial, out of the world,
old fashioned, they (inhabitants) make a show of keeping up to date in dress and
manners and literature, (John) had danced all the latest dances from New York
before he put on long trousers, (inhabitants) has the earnest worship of and respect
for riches as the first article, felt radiantly humble before them (the riches) creates
the atmosphere of provinciality and misery the citizens of Hades lived in. Moreover,
the implicit links between the notion of Hades and hell revealed in the process of
their conceptualization, give evidence to the fact that the name of the city contains
the conceptual metaphor “Hades is Hell”, entailing an array of emotions and
associations. The following scheme is illustrative of it:
HADES HELL

Lower world, underworld, neither region, abyss,


Place of dead, underworld, neither world, unseen,
bottomless pit, infernal, hellish, devilish,
hell fire, Hell, agony, hot, bottomless, suffering,
punishment, painful, burning, suffering, torment,
torment, gloomy, dark, abyss
hell fire, endurance, damned, gloomy

SUFFERING MISERY

Sorrow, grief, sadness, inconvenience, despair, Suffering, sorrow, gloomy, dark, adversity,
bitterness, dissatisfaction, unhappiness, torment, misfortune, hardships, wretchedness, depressing,
desolation, displeased, anguish, purgatory, pain, distressing, despair, bitterness, destructive,
torture, agony, sting, hell in life, living death, agonizing, inconvenienced, poverty, painful,
misery, wretch, poor, hopeless, desolate, unlucky, starving, beggary, broke, neediness, unfed,
remorseful, mournfulness dependent, propertyless, hell upon earth.

HADES = HELL = MISERY

The associative fields of the lexemes Hades and Hell correlate with the
notions of darkness, gloom, underworld, hell, punishment, eternal fire, pain and
suffer (place of dead, underworld, neither world, hell fire, Hell, agony, hot,
bottomless, suffering, torment, gloomy, dark, abyss, neither region, infernal,
hellish, devilish, punishment, painful, burning, torment, gloomy) convey the idea of
Suffering and Misery and their associations with the notions of sadness, grief,
anguish, despair, torment, pain, hopelessness, dissatisfaction, loneliness, misery
and poorness (sorrow, grief, sadness, gloomy, dark, suffering, distressing, despair,
dissatisfaction, unhappiness, bitterness, depressing, torment, desolation, anguish,
purgatory, painful, torture, agonizing, hell in life, living death, poor, hopeless,
remorseful, mournfulness, hardships, wretchedness, destructive, hell upon earth).
So, the mythological name of the city embodies a deep conceptual sense
decoded in process of its conceptualization.
Let us continue the analysis. John’s parents decided to send him to the most
prestigious school named “St. Midas”.
Nothing would suit them but that he should go to St. Midas’ school near
Boston  Hades was too small to hold their darling and gifted son…
St. Midas’ is the most expensive and the most exclusive boys’ preparatory
school in the world… the fathers of all boys were money-kings.
The name of the school has reference to the ancient Greek myth about the
king famous for his countless riches. The word combination “St. Midas” consists of
two incompatible components. The lexeme “saint” has a very positive meaning that
characterizes a person of an extreme virtue, exceptional holiness or goodness while
the proper name “Midas” has an abruptly negative meaning and refers to a greedy
king famous for his passion for gold. This oxymoronical combination in the line
with such nominations as St. Edward’s University, St. Paul’s school becomes a
parody of a sarcastic sense expressing the idea that richness and luxury are the
main virtues for the pupils of this school. In this respect it is of interest to note that
the mythologeme “Midas” used in the school’s motto “Pro deo et patria et St.
Mida” (For God, Motherland and St. Midas) together with such axiologically
significant notions as God, Motherland, considerably intensifiers an ironical and
sarcastic effect of the utterance.
At school John met Percy Washington who invited him to spend the summer
together. Stunned by the infinite wealth of the Washingtons, John felt very excited
and happy. To describe his psychological state the author uses the mythologemes
related to Pan or Faunus – god of nature, joy, music, fertility and the season of
spring always followed by beautiful nymphs.
John wouldn’t have been surprised to see a goat-foot piping his way among
the trees or to catch a glimpse of nymph-skin and flying yellow hair between the
greenest of the green leaves.
But soon John became aware of what the rich had to pay for the wealth they
owned. The Washingtons’ house was attacked by military planes:
The chateau stood dark and silent, beautiful without light as it had been
beautiful in the sun, while the woody rattles of Nemesis filled the air above with a
growing and receding complaint.
The mythologeme “Nemesis” used in the sentence is associated with the
Greek goddess of justice and vengeance on those who commit a crime or break the
law. The planes sent by Nemesis in the context of the story symbolize a just
punishment for the family of the Washingtons. It is not accidental that the neutral
lexeme “plane” is substituted here by a stylistically marked unit “woody rattles”.
The implications and inferences drawn from the associative links of the word
“woody” (insensitive, unfeeling, unresponsive, unsentimental, heartless, soulless,
inhuman, inexcitable, stolid) and the word “rattle” (formidable, redoubtable,
frightening, dreadful, grim, grisly, ghastly, horrible, terrible, creepy, macabre,
appalling) reveal the emotions of cool vengeance on the one hand, and those of
horror – on the other.
One of the most conspicuous features of mythologemes in the work of
fiction is their occasional usage. In the analyzed story the head of the family
Braddock Washington is called Prometheus Enriched:
Prometheus Enriched was calling to witness forgotten sacrifices, forgotten
rituals, prayers obsolete before the birth of Christ.
According to the myth Prometheus is an ancient Greek Titan known for his
wily intelligence. He taught people the arts of civilization such as writing,
mathematics, agriculture, medicine, and science, and stole fire from heaven to give
it to mortals. For this he was punished by Zeus and kept in chains. In the text the
image of Prometheus (Prometheus Bound) is substituted by Prometheus Enriched,
that entails its negative interpretation based on the analogy: Prometheus was in
chain and bound to the rock, likewise B. Washington was in chain of his property
and bound to his wealth and luxury.
So, mythologemes, as the analysis has shown, play a considerable role in the
representation of the author’s conceptual world picture. In the story under review
the author uses mythologemes to depict, contrast and ironically evaluate the two
worlds: the world of the poor and that of the rich. The poor people are criticized for
their weakness and servility, while the rich are condemned for their cruelty,
immorality and inhumanity.
To conclude, the results of the analysis can be summarized as follows:
● mythologeme is a linguistic representation of myths in the fictional text;
conceptually and culturally relevant unit aimed to activate mythological
knowledge structures;
● mythologeme serves as a signal of intertextuality integrating the conceptual
domains of the precedent and recipient texts into a single whole, thus generating
new conceptual senses;
● mythologeme plays a significant role in representing the author’s conceptual
world picture, and in accordance with the author’s purport it is liable to various
occasional transformations.

4.6. National-cultural specifics of speech etiquette

Etiquette is a set of customs and rules for polite behavior. Speech etiquette
consists of polite speech formulas and set expressions accepted in the society and
used on different social occasions: greetings, farewells, congratulations,
condolences, apologies, compliments, invitations, thanks, etc.
Speech formulas of etiquette are much dependent on the situaltions and role
relations of the communicants. For, example, greetings can be formal, informal and
neutral, direct and indirect:
How do you do? (formal);
Hi! (informal);
Good morning (neutral);
Hello, good morning (direct);
Mr. Wilson? Henry? (indirect).
Greeting in English linguoculture are accompanied by some elements of
phatic communication: Lovely day, isn’t it?, Glad to see you! Nice party!
There are some rules of greeting: the man greets woman, the junior greets a
senior, the subordinate greets his boss.
Farewells are usually followed by some wishes: Good-bye (Bye-bye); Have
a nice day!; Good luck!; See you!; See you soon!; My love to…; Regards to…; Say
hello to …; Take care!; etc.
Compliments are expressions of positive evaluation. They are used to
express admiration or approval of someone’s work, appearance, taste. All in all,
compliments can be classified into 3 categories:
 appearance/posessions: Your blouse looks beautiful (nice, good, pretty, great,
cute); I really love your car (admire, be impressed); You look gorgeous!
 performance/skills/abilities: You did a great job!; You are such a wonderful
writer!
 personality traits: You are so sweet!; What a lovely baby, you have!; How kind
of you!
Apology is a written or spoken expression of one’s regret or sorrow for
having hurt, insulted, upset, injured someone. Apology consists of:
 explicit expression of an apology: I am sorry (very, awfully, terribly,
extremely); I regret…; I apologize…; Forgive me …
 taking on responsibility (self blame, lack of intent, justification, etc.): It’s my
fault; You are right; I wasn’t thinking.
explanations, reasons: I was sick…; there was an accident…; I forgot…; it’s
because of the traffic jam…; I was very busy.
 offer of repair: Let me help you…; I’ll pay…; I’ll carry it out; I’ll check.
 promise of forbearance (promising that the offence will not happen again): It
won’t happen again; it will be done immediately.
Speech etiquette in many languages is characterized by some similarities,
especially on formal occasions. They are usually very laconic and direct:
Ladies and gentlemen! – Хонимлар ва жаноблар! – Дамы и господа!
Welcome! – Хуш келибсиз! – Добро пожаловать!
Good-bye! – Хайр! – Досвидания!
I am glad to see you! – Сизни кўрганимдан ҳурсандман! – Рад вас
видеть!
Good-bye. Thank you very much – Хайр. Катта рахмат – Досвидание.
Спасибо вам большое.
Informal greetings are usually used between friends to enhance solidarity or
to create a humorous language environment. They are often very ironical. For
example:
- Still alive?
- Alive and kicking.
- Привет. Как дела?
- Как сажа бела.
- Тирикмисан, ўртоқ?
- Бўлади. Юрибман амаллаб.
Speech etiquette is of great importance in any culture. It consists of a
complex system of communicative formulas accepted in a particular linguoculture
determined by standards of social behavior norms and rules. Knowledge of the
peculiar features of national etiquette provides successful communication and
mutual understanding between representatives of different nations and languages.
However, as our observations prove speech etiquette in English and Uzbek is also
characterized by national specifics that can be observed in different communicative
situations. Let’s consider some of them.
As is known, greeting is crucial in everyday communication providing
opportunity to establish interpersonal relationships as well as to show addressers’
deliberate intention to contact an addressee.
English greetings are usually very brief and do not presuppose private
questions: How do you do?, Hello!, Hi!, How are you?, Good morning!, Good
afternoon!, Good evening!. Greetings in the English language also can be
accompanied by some elements of phatic communication: Lovely day, isn’t it?;
Glad to see you! Nice party!
Uzbek greetings, on the contrary, are very long, detailed and characterized
by emotiveness. They include questions about the health of the addressee and
his/her family members, about their activities, physical condition. Short and
emotionless greetings are regarded as impolite:
 Ассалому алайкум. Яхшимисиз? Чарчамай юрибсизми? Уйдагилар
тинчми? Болалар, неваралар соғ-омонми? Келин ойи яхшими?
 Эсонмисиз, омонмисиз? Яхши юрибсизми? Ишларингиз яхшими?
Уйдагилар яхшими? Чарчамай юришибдими? Акангиз яхши бўлиб кетдими?
Неваралар катта бўлишаяптими?
Addressing in English and Uzbek is also characterized by national-cultural
specifics. As is known, in English culture, the words such as Miss, Missis, Mister,
Sir, Madam are used to address and express respect to the interlocutor. These
expressions are usually used with or without the names of the people. For instance:
 Well, madam, - he said, recognizing the couple (Th. Drieser).
 What can I do for you, miss? – he inquired surveying her curiously (Th.
Dreiser).
“Sir” is particular used to address adult men of a higher social status or age.
"You are in the army now whether you like it or not, and you'll address all
officers as Sir!" (J. Allen. Days of Hope).
“Are you in a hurry?”
“Yes, sir,” came the answer, that sent a flash through the listener.
“For what”?
“I was going out, sir” (Lawrence, The Prussian Officer).
In Uzbek culture, in everyday speech while addressing strangers the words
denoting family relationship are commonly used: ака, опа, синглим, ўғлим, хола,
отахон, онахон, амаки, буви, бобо. It should be noted that the choice of words
depends on the adressee’s age and social position: ака, опа – to adult person,
синглим, ўғлим, болам – to younger person, хола, амаки – to elder person,
отахон, онахон, буви, бобо – to old people. It can be explained by the fact that
“family” is of great significance in Uzbek culture which is characterized by
collectivism rather than individualism.
 Ҳой, айланай, ўғригина болам, бошимда шундай мусибат турганда
кўзимга уйқу келадими? (Ғ. Ғулом, Ўғригина болам)
Moreover, adding suffixes such as -хон, -жон, -бек, -бой to Uzbek names
are an essential part and polite way of addressing the interlocutor:
 Азизахон, қараб юборасизми? Сизда ишим бор эди.
Another distinguishing feature of the speech etiquette in Uzbek concerns the
usage of personal pronouns “сен” and “сиз”. The main function of these pronouns
is to indicate singular and plural forms (“Cен” is singular, “сиз” is plural).
However, the plural form of the pronoun “сиз” in address indicates respect to an
interlocuter. In Uzbek, “сиз” is used not only to address people of an older age or
higher status, but also while addressing strangers and parents. The pronoun “сен”
is used only towards close friends and younger people. The usage of the pronoun
“сен” towards strangers or a person of an older age and higher position or social
status is considered to be very rude and offensive:
 “Сен менинг суянган тоғимсан, ўғлим… ( Ў. Ҳошимов)
 “Сиз, шу ерликмисиз? – деди онам бир маҳал ( Ў. Ҳошимов)
One of the cultural specifics of Uzbek speech etiquette is a frequent usage of
proverbs and sayings in everyday communication. Uzbek people use them to
instruct or convince the interlocutor in smth., to make their speech witty:
Рўзғорда бўлса кўз кўриб, қўл тутгутдай арзигулик буюм қолгани йўқ.
Бир чеккадан сотиб еб турибмиз. “Туриб еганда турумтоқ чидамас”, -
деганлар (Ғ. Ғулом, Менинг ўғригина болам).
-Кам кўстингни айт, нима керак?
-Бир товуққа ҳам дон, ҳам сув керак деганларидек ....
- Мақол қўшмай гапир. Мақол ҳам ўлсин, бўлар бўлмасга суқулмай.
- Мақол сўз кўрки, ўзингиздан қолар гап йўқ. Дўст бошга душман оёққа
қарайди деганларидек.... Туфлимнинг ранги ўчиб, тумшуғи ялпайиб кетибди.
- Уста Боқи ўлгурга тўғирлатсанг бўлмайдими?
- Эскини ямасанг эсинг кетади, деганларидек... ( С.Аҳмад, Келинлар
қўзғолони).
One of the peculiar features of English speech etiquette is that English
people tend to choose a safe and personally unobtrusive topics such as the weather.
It is commonly believed that English people like to talk about the weather.
Conversely, Kate Fox asserts that “Our conversations about the weather are not
really about the weather at all: English weather-speak is a form of code, evolved to
help us overcome our natural reserve and actually talk to each other. Everyone
knows, for example that, ‘Nice day, isn’t it?’, ‘Isn’t it cold?’, ‘Still raining, eh?’
and other variations on the theme are not requests for meteorological data: they are
ritual greetings, conversation starters or default ‘fillers’. In other words, English
weather speak is a form of ‘grooming talk’ – the human equivalent of what is
known as ‘social grooming’ among our primate cousins, where they spend hours
grooming each other’s fur, even when they are perfectly clean, as a means of social
bonding” (Fox, 2004, p.11). It follows from the above-mentioned that “weather”
can be used as a simple greeting; as an ice-breaker leading to a conversation; as a
filler when there is an uncomfortable silence during the conversation.
Fox states that the weather expressions ‘Oh, isn’t it cold?’ and all others
seve as an English code for “I would like to talk to you – will you talk to me?” or
simply another way of saying “Hello”. There are several guidelines for speech
etiquette concerning the weather. Firstly, the topic almost always is introduced in a
form of a question. For instance, “Raining again?”. Secondly, the person who
answers has to agree. “Failing to agree is quite a serious breach of etiquette. Or at
least if you disagree, you have to express it in terms of a sort of personal foible”
says Fox. If someone says: ‘Cold, isn’t it? And you say: ‘Well actually, no,’ the
person would be a bit taken aback, and feel that it was a discourteous thing to say.”
Hungarian humorist George Mikes states: “You must never contradict anybody
when discussing the weather” (Fox, 2004).
It should be noted that in English “the weather topic” helps to start a
conversation and it serves as an indirect way of greeting. Uzbek people while
speaking about the rain or snow are much concerned about agriculture and crops.
 Бу қора совуқ бодом ва ўрик гулларга зарар етказди.
 Эй нимасини айтасиз, айни мева тугиш даврида совиб кетдия-я.
Бунақада ҳосилимиз камайиб кетади.
One of the specific features of Uzbek culture is hospitality, which is
appreciated higher than the wealth and prosperity of the family. Hospitality is
clearly observed during meals when the hosts treat their guests using specific
formulas of speech etiquette”: “дастурхонга қараб ўтиринглар”, “олиб
ўтиринг”, “тортинманг”, “тортинмасдан олинг/ўтиринг”, “овқатга
қаранг/ошга қаранг”, etc.
So, the above said proves that speech etiquette is an essential cultural
category. It plays an important role in all scultures, spheres of life and different
communicative situations and reflects cultural mentality, life style and the national
world picture.

QUESTIONS AND TASKS FOR DISCUSSION


1. What is “linguocultureme”?
2. What are the main sources of linguoculturemes?
3. How are linguoculturemes differentiated from the structural point of view?
Provide examples of the structural types of linguoculturemes.
4. Speak on the peculiar features of linguoculturemes from the semantic
perspective
5. How is cultural information presented in the denotative meaning of linguistic
units?
6. What are the correlations between stylistic meanings and cultural relevance?
7. Discuss the issue of cultural connotations
8. What linguistic units are linguoculturemes expressed by?
9. What is speech etiquette?
10. What types of speech etiquette do you know?
11. What is cultural specifics of speech etiquette?

RECOMMENDED LITERATURE
1. Алефиренко Н.Ф. Лингвокультурология. Ценностно-смысловое
пространство языка. –М.: Флинта, Наука, 2010
2. Воробьев В.В. Лингвокультурология. –М.: РУДН, 2008.
3. Маслова В.А. Лингвокультурология. – М.: Изд.центр академия, 2007.
4. Телия В. Н. Русская фразеология. Семантический, прагматический и
лингвокультурологический аспекты. М., 1996.
CHAPTER V. CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE OF STYLISTIC DEVICES

5.1. Stylistic devices as cultural models

The development of new trends in linguistics requires that many traditional


notions and assumptions should be revised and reconsidered in a new light. In this
respect special attention is attached to the problem of stylistic devices.
Traditionally stylistic devices have been studied from the point of view of their
structural and semantic organization. However, a satisfactory account of these
phenomena can only be arrived at by means of their comprehensive analysis,
including cognitive and cultural aspects.
The linguocultural approach to the problem of stylistic devices requires a
new apprehension of these phenomena regarded as cultural models manifesting
elements of universal and national culture (Ashurova, 2013). This understanding of
a stylistic device puts forward the task of defining the notion of “a cultural model”.
Cultural models are the means of cultural knowledge organization;
knowledge structures and models of behavior which distinguish one culture from
another. Cultural models are common for the majority of the people of one nation
and are connected with the system of values of this nation.
The theory of cultural models goes back to Humboldts’s ideas about the
close relationships of cognition, culture and language. Currently they are studied
by D. Holland, N. Quinn (1987), A. Wierzbicka (1992), Т.В. Булыгина, А.Д.
Шмелев, (1997), Т.В. Ларина (2003), S.Levinson (2003), O.K. Iriskhanova
(2005).
According to N. Quinn, cultural models are “presupposed, taken-for-granted
models of the world that are popularly shared by the members of a society and that
play an enormous role in their understanding of that world and their behavior in it”
(Holland, Quinn, 1987, p.4).
D. Holland and N. Quinn, the authors of the research “Cultural models in
language and thought”, argue that cultural knowledge is organized in ‘cultural
models’ – “storylike chains of prototypical events that unfold in simplified
worlds”. They demonstrate that cultural knowledge may take either proposition-
schematic or image-schematic form, each enabling the performance of different
kinds of cognitive tasks. Metaphor and metonymy are shown to have special roles
in the construction of cultural models.
Cultural models emerge and develop in social groups, but they cannot be
easily changed by one member of the society. Some cultural models change in the
due course, others newly appear, and both types can coexist, but the currently
dominant ones are the most influential in the society.
Cultural models represent artifacts of culture, traditions, everyday behavior
and are reflected in the semantics of language units and expressions. B. Shore
distinguishes different types of cultural models: explicit and implicit (rituals,
games vs. specificity of national world perception); general and special (the model
of polite behavior and the model of request); linguistic and non-linguistic (the
children’s rhymes and gestures); cultural models for some practical purposes
(recipes, order, alms), etc. (Shore, 1998).
A special attention is paid to the structure of cultural models. Some scientists
claim that they are formed on the basis of propositions, i.e. a predicative semantic
structure. The analysis of the linguistic literature shows that there are two schools
of thought. Some scholars claim that cultural models exist without prior
metaphorical understanding. In other words, we are equipped with a primary literal
understanding of cultural models (e.g. Quinn 1991). Others, however, hold that
cultural models, especially those for abstract concepts are inherently metaphorical;
that is, they are constituted by metaphor (e.g. Lakoff, Johnson 1980; Lakoff,
Kövecses, 1987).
In the research by N. Quinn the cultural model “Marriage” (1987) is
represented by a row of propositions: Marriage is Enduring; Marriage is Mutually
Beneficial; Marriage is Unknown at the Outset; Marriage is Difficult; etc. The
author suggests considering the cultural models in terms of proposition-schemas
and image-schemas. Each of them or even both may constitute a cultural model.
But, they fulfill different cognitive tasks. Proposition- schemas identify concepts
and the relations between them. Image -schemas serve the other function: they may
contain some visual or kinesthetic images.
Another group of linguists (Iriskhanova K.M., Ashurova D.U., Buligina
T.V., Larina T.V., etc.) claim that “culture is transferred by cultural models
reflected in stylistic devices” (Ирисханова, 2004, p.16-22). In other words, the
role of stylistic devices projecting proposition and image-schemas from one
domain into another, is of great significance for the construction of cultural
models. Stylistic devices are regarded as cultural models (D.U. Ashurova, O.K.
Iriskhanova) and they are organized around a certain concept. Let us consider the
poem “Freedom” by Joyce Maxtone Graham:
Now heaven be thanked.
I am out of love again!
I have been long a slave, and now am free:
I have been tortured, and am eased of pain:
I have been blind, and now my eyes can see:
I have been lost, and now my way lies plain:
I have been caged, and now I hold the key:
I have been mad, and now at last am sane:
I am wholly I that was but half of me.
So a free man, my dull proud path I plod,
Who tortured, blind, mad, caged, was once a God (Graham, Freedom).
The whole poem, every line of it, is based on metaphors, which describe the
cultural concept “Love” in terms of slavery and freedom, torture and ease,
blindness and ability to see, lost ways and plain ways, etc. The stylistic effect and
conceptual value of the metaphors are reinforced by the use of antithesis presenting
image-schemas in contrast. Contrast setting one object or idea against another,
presents both of them in a more salient and conspicuous way. The cultural model
represented by the above stylistic devices reveals a complex, comprehensive,
diverse and contradictory nature of the cultural concept LOVE. It can be illustrated
by the following diagram:

One of the essential cultural categories is the category of politeness.


Politeness is a quality of people who have good manners and speak and behave in
a way that is socially correct and considerate of other people’s behavior. In speech
the principle of politeness was introduced by American scholar G.Leech who
elaborated this principle in terms of ethic norms of speech and behavior. The
principle of politeness is verbalized by means of lexical and syntactical units. At
the lexical level politeness is verbalized by:
lexical units: thank you, please, would you mind …, sorry, my apologies,
thanks a lot, excuse me, with all respect, I’ll be delighted, it will be appreciated;
softeners: I am afraid that...; I am not sure that…; It’s kind of you…; I
hope, you don’t mind; It would be appreciated, if you did it; I respectfully submit,
Mr. Chairman, that the witness be allowed to proceed; I should be delightful if you
would so; Can I speak to Mr.Smith, please?; I am afraid, he is not here at the
moment; Could you leave a message for him, please?; We might slightly run over
budget;
qualifiers: a little, a bit, a little bit, slight, slightly;
At the syntactical level politeness is verbalized by:
 unreal conditional sentences: If I were you I could not do that; It would be
appreciated if you helped me.
 interrogative sentences instead of affirmative sentences: Would you mind closing
the door please?; Will you give me a lift?
 the use of affirmative sentences instead of negative ones: I think he is not right –
I do not think he is right; I am unhappy with this agreement – I am not entirely
happy with this agreement; You do not understand what I am saying – I wish you
got what I want to say (polite)
 the use of impersonal sentences: It is demanded… instead of I demand; It is
required … instead of I require
 the use of passive constructions instead of active ones: C.f. You should do it on
time – It should be done in time.
It should be stressed that there are also stylistic means of expressing
politeness. They are euphemism and litotes. According to I.R. Galperin,
euphemism is “a word or phrase used to replace an unpleasant word or expression
by a conventionally more acceptable one” (Galperin, 1977, p.173). Euphemisms
are regarded as cultural models because, firstly, they realize the principle of
politeness, secondly, the use of euphemistic expressions are conditioned by
sociocultural factors. In any linguoculture, there are so-called “taboo-words”. For
example, the words “to die”, “death” should be avoided; instead of euphemisms
are used: to pass away, to depart, to join the majority, to be gone, to go west.
Euphemisms are widely used in all spheres of life: social, political, cultural,
medical, etc. Here some examples: invalid – disabled, handicapped,
disadvantaged; stupid – mentally challenged; old – a person of a golden age;
secretary – office manager; slums – substandard houses; pregnant – in a family
way; bombing – air support.
Another stylistic device expressing politeness is litotes. Litotes is a stylistic
device which is based on peculiar use of negative construction. The stylistic
function of litotes is to make the utterance less categorical and more ironical. It can
be expressed by two negations (not for nothing, not without, not unkind) and
negative plus noun or adjective with negative meaning (not bad, no coward): He
was not a bad man; It was not an easy task; He was no gentle lamb. Consequently,
the cultural specifics of litotes lies in the fact that it reflects the English character
and mentality. As for irony and humour, these are also the qualities the English are
not deprived of.
So, the above examples prove that stylistic devices can be interpreted in
terms of cultural model conveying cultural information and expressing cultural and
aesthetic values. It should be mentioned that all stylistic devices are characterized
by cultural insight. However, the most relevant to cultural specifics are the
following groups of stylistic devices:
 image-bearing stylistic devices (metaphor, metonymy, metaphorical epithet,
metaphorical periphrasis, symbol);
 stylistic devices, based on intertextuality, and activating various types of
knowledge structures (antonomasia, allusion);
 stylistic devices, manifesting the principle of politeness (euphemism, litotes).
We have discussed the cultural category of politeness and stylistic devices
expressing it. In the subsequent sections we shall dwell on image-bearing and
intertextual stylistic devices charged with cultural information.
5.2. Stylistic Devices activating knowledge structures

One of the most significant properties of stylistic devices as cultural models


is the fact that they represent knowledge structures. The notion of “knowledge
structures” being a key notion of Cognitive Linguistics appears to be of benefit for
Linguoculturology. It is acknowledged that knowledge is not an amorphous entity:
it is structured to present certain blocks of information, and that conditioned the
use of the term “knowledge structure”. So, knowledge structures are understood as
blocks of information containing a system of interrelated concepts.
There are different types of knowledge structures: a) linguistic (lexicon,
grammar, phonetics, word-formation, etc.); b) communicative (communicative
aims and intentions, conditions and circumstances of communication), c) cultural
(literature, art, cultural values, customs and traditions, etc); d) religious (beliefs,
faith, myths, legends, images). All these types of knowledge are subdivided into
two main groups: linguistic knowledge and non-linguistic one, i.e. knowledge of
the world presented in the human mind (See diagram):

Many stylistic devices serve as verbal signals aimed to represent certain


knowledge structures. In this respect such stylistic devices as antonomasia,
allusion, mythologemes should be specially outlined.
In the following excerpt allusion serves the function of transferring
knowledge of social character as in the following adverticement: “Limited Edition
Lacquer. No More Waity Katie. Snag your prince and make wedding bells ring”.
In the above advertisement of nail polish we come across the reference to
Kate Middleton – prince William’s wife. The journalists gave her a nickname –
Waity Katie, since she had been waiting for a wedding proposal for a very long
time: The conceptual significance is achieved not only by the precedent name -
Kate Middleton, but also by the appeal to break the cultural stereotype that
women should passively wait for the proposal. In other words, the cultural model
is expressed by the proposition: Modern women are free of stereotypes.
The following extract from the story “You touched me” by D.H. Lawrence
also illustrates the role of allusion in representing knowledge structures:
Matilda was a tall, thin, graceful fair girl, with a rather large nose. She was
the Mary to Emmie’s Martha: that is, Matilda liked painting and music, and read a
good many novels, whilst Emmie looked after house-keeping. Emmie was shorter,
plumper than her sister, and she had no accomplishments. She looked up to
Matilda, whose mind was naturally refined and sensible.
In the description of sisters Rockley the author uses allusions Mary and
Martha. The usage of these allusions activates certain knowledge structures in the
mind of the reader, focusing his/her attention on important information. In this
particular case the knowledge structures of religious character are activated.
According to the biblical legend, Martha and Mary offered hospitality to Jesus
during his travels. Mary sat and listened to him as he talked, but Martha was
distracted by cooking dinner and doing the housework. When Martha complained
Jesus advised Martha not to worry about small things, but to concentrate on what
was important as her sister Mary did. Due to this legend, the name Martha acquired
a symbolical meaning “a lady of the house, a housewife” whereas Mary means “a
wise woman or lady”. Using these allusive anthroponyms, the author describes two
characters in contrast: Matilda living a spiritual life (liked painting and music, read
a good many novels, refined and sensible) and Emmie dragging out a miserable
existence (looked after house-keeping, had no accomplishments).
Another example is illustrative of the literary knowledge structures:
He has a bit of a Jekyll and Hide, our Austin. I think Dorina is afraid of him
(Murdoch “An accidental man”).
Here the literary allusion expressed by the proper names Jekyll and Hide are
used. To understand the meaning of this allusion the reader is supposed to be
familiar with a short story “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide” by R.L.
Stivenson. The hero of the story is of a dual character. Sometimes he appears to be
a good-natured person (Dr. Jekyll), and sometimes he is an embodiment of evil
(Mr. Hide). In this context the proper nouns “Jekyll and Hide” reveal the
characteristic features of the personage and symbolize the concepts of “Goodness
and Evil”.
Another stylistic device that reflects knowledge structures is antonomasia.
From the stylistic point of view antonomasia is an image-bearing stylistic device
aimed to express emotional, subjective-evaluative attitude of the author. From the
communicative standpoint antonomasia realises the principle of linguistic
economy. Thus, in O’Neil’s play “Long day’s journey into night” we find the
author’s remark in the portrait description:
Jamie, the elder, is thirty three, He has his father’s broad-shouldered, deep
chested physique, is an inch taller and weighs less, but appears shorter and
stouter... Combined with his habitual expression of cynicism it gives his
countenance a Mephistophelian cast (Three American Plays, 1972).
Here the antonomasia, expressed by the derivative adjective, is motivated by
the proper name “Mephistophel” which contains knowledge structures associated
with Goethe’s “Faust”. In its turn the image of Mephistophel, symbolising evil,
malice, contempt to people, serves to characterise the personage of this play –
Jamie. So, the author uses one word “Mephistophelian” instead of long
explanations to characterise the personage of this play.
To conclude, the analysis of stylistic devices in the framework of
linguocultural studies proves that: a) stylistic devices are culture relevant units
conveying cultural information and aesthetic values to the reader; b) stylistic
devices as cultural models are presented either in proposition-schematic or image-
schematic forms, and manifest elements of universal and national culture; c) most
relevant to culture representation are stylistic devices based on imagery,
interdtextuality, and the principle of politeness.

5.3. Cultural Specifics of Imagery

Imagery is acknowledged to be one of the essential properties of any


language. I.R. Galperin defines imagery as “a use of language media which will
create a sensory perception of an abstract notion by arousing certain association
(sometimes very remote) between the general and particular, the abstract and the
the concrete, the conventional and factual” (Galperin, 1977, p. 264). In other
words, imagery is a “double vision” of the objects and phenomena described in the
text, an analogy between the world of reality and that of the author’s creative
imaginations.
From the cognitive perspective, imagery is a conceptual blending of two
mental domains – the source and the target domains, which are bound together on
the principle of analogy and similarity. The target domain is the domain being
described, the source domain is the domain in terms of which the target is
described. It is a target domain that usually contains abstract, general, mostly
culture specific notions. this can be illustrated by the following quotations:
Love is a sickness, full of woe (T. Daniel);
Friendship is the vine of life (E. Young);
Beauty is a form of Genius… like sunlight, or spring-time or the reflection in
dark waters of that silver shell we call the moon (O.Wilde);
A man can have but one life and one death,
One heaven, one hell (R. Browning);
Hope is a breakfast, but it is a bad supper (F. Bacon).
From the stylistic point of view, imagery is created by various stylistic
devices: metaphor, metonymy, simile, periphrasis, euphemism, antonomasia,
symbol. Besides, imagery can be expressed by derivatives, compound words and
phraseological units.
Imagery tend to express cultural values of different types:
 Vital: Life is a disease, and the only differences between one man and another is
the stage of the disease at which he lives (B. Shaw); Life is like riding a bicycle. To
keep your balance, you must keep moving (A. Einstein);
 Social: Evil comes at leisure like the disease. Good comes in a hurry like the
doctor (G. K. Chesterton); Good is a product of the ethical and spiritual artistry of
individuals; it cannot be mass-produced (A. Huxley); Evil enters like a needle and
spreads like an oak tree (Proverb);
 Political: Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth
(G.Washington); The anchor in our world today is freedom, holding us steady in
times of change, a symbol of hope to all the world (G. Bush); Freedom is the
oxygen of the soul (M. Dayan); Freedom is the open window through which pours
the sunlight of the human spirit and human dignity (H. Hoover);
 Religious: God’s acre, join the angels, the author of evil (phraseological units);
God is the only source of hope that’ll never disappoint. When we place our faith in
him, he provides joy, peace, and hope that overflows (R. Warren); Angels are like
diamonds. They can't be made, you have to find them. Each one is unique (J.
Smith); God is the source of all power, and prayer is essential to experiencing His
power in our lives (G. Smith)
 Moral: Kindness is the sunshine in which virtue grows (R.G. Ingersoll);
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see (M.
Twain); Kindness is a passport that opens doors and fashions friends. It softens
hearts and molds relationships that can last lifetimes (J.B. Wirthlin);
 Aesthetic: All that’s beautiful drifts away like the waters (W.B.Yeats);
Imagery is characterized by its relevance to the human who is the bearer of
language and culture. It is acknowledged that the human in the great diversity of
his social, cultural and individual activities, his mentality and consciousness, his
behavior and psychology are in the focus of attention of any culture. Therefore all
possible characteristics inherent in the human nature and their linguistic
externalization are of certain interest for Linguoculturology. There is a multitude
of aspects and features the human can be characterized by: “features of the
character”, “mental abilities”, “social activities”, “gender characteristics”, etc.
In accordance with the aims of this section, we shall consider the image-
schemas, representing both positive and negative features of the human, his social
status, mental abilities. It is of interest to note that presentation of negative
characteristics to a great extent prevail over positive ones. The following table
illustrates image-schematic representations characterizing the human according to
some parameters:

Examples
Features of the large-minded, open-handed, free-handed (generous); big
character nose, butter fingers (carelessness), earthly-minded
(practical), hard-fisted, tight-fisted (greedy), foxy,
lazybones, green-eyed
Mental abilities even handed, empty-headed, wooden-headed, goosey,
narrow-minded, cabbage-head, hairy ape,
Manners and slow-coach, ringleader, play the monkey, hang-dog look,
behavior agree like cats and dogs, fish in the air, act the ass, play
the bear, busy as a bee, a wet blanket, yes-man, blood-
sucker
Profession air-hostess, housewife, ale-wife, lord of the soil,
weatherman, newsdealer, sandwich man, Jack Ketch
Social status big fish, small fish, a new broom, big bug, small potato,
white-collar, blue-collar, back-bencher, red-neck,
chairman, blue blood, rough-neck
Financial status moneybag, the golden calf, to be in the red, church mouse,
skin flint, flat broke, down and out
Appearance rosy, piggy, tubby, bag of bones, lily-like, angelic,
cherubic, snow-white, moon-faced

The examples given in the table prove that image-bearing means describing
the person from different angles (appearance, features of the character, mental
abilities, manners, behavior, social and financial status) are mainly presented by
the following linguistic units: derivatives, compound words, phraseological units,
zoonyms. It is by no means accidental since these lexical groups are characterized
by divisibility, motivation and predicativity, which provide basis for two-term,
two-domain structures based on the principle of analogy, thus creating image-
schemas.
Special attention should be attached to the images expressed by zoonyms
because, firstly, such images are very widely spread and secondly, they are
characterized by national specifics. To draw an analogy between the human and an
animal has been laid down in cultural traditions of all the nations since ancient
times. Animals play an important role in people’s life, therefore the animals’ world
is an inalienable part of the conceptual world picture.
It is worthy of note that image-bearing linguistic units based on zoonyms are
mostly characterized by national specifics. It is accounted for by the fact, that
people of different nations associate the same animals with different notions and
ascribe them different conceptual features. It can be illustrated by comparative set
expressions of the English, Uzbek and Russian languages:
English Uzbek Russian
work as a horse эшакдек ишламоқ работать как лошадь
eat like a horse ---------------- есть как лошадь
as silly as a goose, товуқмия глупый как осёл
as silly as sheep глупый как баран
as strong as a horse филдек кучли сильный как медведь
to swim like a duck балиқдек сўзмоқ как рыба в воде
as tame as a dog, мушукдек мулойим, ласковый как котёнок
as gentle as a lamb қўйдек ювош
As coward as a chicken қўёндек қурқоқ трусливый как заяц
as hungry as a bear бўридек оч голодный как волк

The given examples prove that in different languages the same conceptual
features are expressed by quite different images evoking quite different
associations, and that can be explained by the peculiar features of the national
world perception.
It is general knowledge that some animals have acquired a symbolic
meaning. For example: Lion – is a symbol of strength and power; Wolf – a symbol
of insidiousness; Fox – a symbol of slyness; Cat – a symbol of magic; Owl – a
symbol of wisdom; Dog – a symbol of faithfulness; Lamb – a symbol of
obedience; Dove – a symbol of peace. It should be noted that symbols being one of
the powerful means of expressing imagery, play the most important role in
conveying cultural information and representing national and cultural specifics of
the language. Moreover, one of the trends of Linguoculturology focuses on the use
of symbols in language and culture. Some scholars believe that culture is a
“symbolic universe” some elements of which acquire a specific ethnic sense and
become symbols of nations. The cultural value of symbols is proved by the
multitude of researches in this field. Suffice it to mention such influential scholars
as A.A. Potebnya (1988), V.V. Vinogradov (1976), Yu.M. Lotman (1982, 1996),
A.F. Losev (1982), V. Terner (1983), E. Cassirer (1957), N. Frye (1965), Djusupov
(2006, 2011). Besides, there are special dictionaries of symbols (Tressider, 2005).
There are different approaches to the notion “symbol”, and it can be analyzed from
different angles: philosophical, literary, cognitive, stylistic, etc. Not going into the
details of the problem, we shall discuss symbols in terms of culture, from the point
of view of cultural information they convey.
The cultural significance of symbols becomes evident if we look at the
sources of image – symbols, are based on:
 animals and plants: “Tree” – a symbol of life. “Snake” – a symbol of evil.
“Dove” – a symbol of peace;
 colors and numbers: “White” – a symbol of purity and innocence. “Black”
– a symbol of evil and death. “Seven” – a symbol of completeness
perfection, luck, happiness. “Three” – a symbol of wholeness;
 minerals and stones: “Gold” – a symbol of wealth, “Pearl” – a symbol of
beauty and innocence;
 literary personages: “Othello” – a symbol of love and jealousy. “Don Juan”
– a symbol of numerous amours;
 religious notions: “Cross” – a symbol of Christianity, “Crescent” – a symbol
of Islam; “Menorah” – a symbol of Judaism;
 myths: “Zeus” – a symbol of power and justice, “Aphrodite” – a symbol of
beauty, love. “Nemesis” – a symbol of justice;
 planets and heavenly bodies: “The Sun” – a symbol of life, power and
royalty. “The Moon” – a symbol of immortality, eternity, resurrection.
So, in order to understand and interpret symbols, one is supposed to have
background knowledge about life, literature, mythology, religion, fauna and flora,
etc. In other words, symbols are signs which activate cultural knowledge
structures. For example, the symbolic meaning of Snake as evil originates from the
biblical legend about Adam and Eve. The serpent (snake) persuades Eve to take a
bite on an apple that God had forbidden them to eat. For this sin Adam and Eve
had to leave the perfect world of the Garden of Eden. As for the snake, it was
punished to crawl on the belly forever.
One of the major characteristics of image-bearing stylistic means in general,
and symbols in particular, is their national specifics, since they reflect the peculiar
features of national culture and ethnic consciousness. As is known symbols can be
subdivided into the following groups: universal, nationally specific and individual.
Nationally specific symbols represent countries, nations, ethnic groups. For
example, Birch tree – a symbol of Russia, Oak tree – a symbol of Great Britain,
Thistle – a symbol of Scotland, Maple – a symbol of Canada, Bear – a symbol of
Russia, Kangaroo – a symbol of Australia, The Bald Eagle – a symbol of the
USA. It is of interest to note that the same symbols in different cultures can
acquire quite different, sometimes even opposite symbolic meanings. For instance,
in English linguoculture “Raven” is a symbol of death and its meaning is
associated with E. Poe’s poem “The Raven”. However, the Chanti nation regards
“raven” as a symbol of life, spring and revival.
To sum up, the following conclusions can be made:
 imagery is characterized by cultural specifics conditioned by its relevance to the
human, his life and social activities, his mentality and behavior, his character and
lifestyle;
 from the linguistic point of view imagery is expressed by many stylistic devices
(metaphor, metonymy, symbol, simile, periphrasis, antonomasia, euphemism), also
by derivatives, compound words and phraseological units;
 figurative zoonyms constitute an essential culture specific part of the linguistic
world picture since animals play an important role in human life. Many zoonyms
are characterized by national specifics conditioned by particulars of national
perception and conceptualization of the world.

QUESTIONS AND TASKS FOR DISCUSSION


1. Discuss the problem of stylistic devices from the position of
Linguoculturology?
2. Interpret the notion of “cultural model”
3. What is the structure of cultural models?
4. Which stylistic devices are most relevant to cultural model representation?
5. What stylistic devices are most relevamt to knowledge structure
representation?

RECOMMENDED LITERATURE
1. Ashurova D.U., Galieva M.R. Text Linguistics. – Tashkent: Tafakkur
Qanoti, 2016
2. Ashurova D.U., Galieva M.R. Stylistics of Literary Text. – Tashkent: Turon-
Iqbol, 2016
3. Джусупов Н.М. Когнитивная стилистика: современное состояние и
актуальные вопросы исследования//Вопросы когнитивной
лингвистики. №3. – Тамбов. 2011. – С. 65-76
4. Молчанова Г.Г. Английский язык как неродной. Текст, стиль, культура,
коммуникация. –М.: Олма Медиа Групп, 2007
CHAPTER VI. CULTURAL VALUE OF CONCEPT

6.1. The notion of cultural concept

The notion of “cultural concept” is considered to be one of the main notions


of Linguoculturology and its branch Linguoconceptology. It is a subject of
frequent debate, and there are different approaches and views. Not going into
details, we shall give a general definition of this notion worked out on the basis of
the linguistic literature. Concept – is a complex mental entity, a component of the
basic world picture conceptually relevant either for individual linguistic
personality or the whole linguocultural community. As V.A. Maslova claims, the
formation of a concept is conditioned by the individual’s emotional, physical,
historical, personal and social experience acquired in the process of the world
perception (2004, 2007). The following traits of a concept relevant for
Linguoculturology can be outlined:
● concept presents knowledge structures about the surrounding world;
● concept is a cultural and nationally specific unit;
● concept is a multifold mental structure consisting of notional, image-bearing and
evaluative constituents;
● concept is characterized by a string of emotional, expressive components and
associative links.
In linguoculturology “concept” is defined as a basic unit of culture, its core;
a mental, cultural and nationally specific unit characterized by an array of
emotional, expressive and evaluative components; a constituent part of the national
conceptosphere; a unit of the collective cultural experience that becomes the
cultural property of the individual (Stepanov Yu.S., Arutyunova N.D., Karasik
V.I., Slishkin G.G., Vorkachyov S.G., Pimenova M.V.).
The properties of the notion “cultural concept” formulated in the work by
Yu. Stepanov «Константы. Словарь Русской Культуры» are worth mentioning.
Yu.S. Stepanov claims that concepts are characterized by emotiveness. He states
that “concept is a basic cell of culture in a man’s consciousness” and “includes in
contrast to the notion, not only the descriptive and classificatory characteristics,
but strong sensual and empirical features” (Степанов, 2004, p.43). V.I . Karasik
also emphasizes the fact that concept is “a quantum of emotional information”
(Карасик, 2004, c.128, 361).
Concept is externalized with the help of various linguistic means referring to
different linguistic levels. It can be expressed by words, derivatives, phraseological
units, proverbs, aphorisms and even texts. For example, the concept Beauty is
represented by:
 lexical units: beauty, charm, loveliness, handsomeness, attractiveness,
prettiness, glamour;
 word-formation units: adjectives: beautiful, charming, pretty, handsome,
good-looking, lovely, gorgeous, attractive, exquisite, beauteous, radiant,
enjoyable, captivating, alluring, superb, wonderful, fine, splendid,
admirable, great; verbs: to beautify, to adorn, to ornament, to glamorise, to
grace, to decorate, to adorn, to garnish, to embroider, to fancy up;
 phraseological units: graceful as a swan, as pretty as picture, as handsome
as a young Greek god, as handsome as paint, as shining as star.
 proverbs and sayings: beauty is a living thing; beautiful man creates
beautiful things; beautiful man acts beautifully; good fame is better than a
good face; a pretty girl, a heart of gall; handsome is as handsome does;
 quotations and aphorisms: All that’s beautiful drifts away like the waters
(W.B.Yeats); Beauty is all very well at first sight; but who ever looks at it
when it has been in the house three days? (G.B.Shaw); Remember that the
most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies
for instance (J.Ruskin).
 texts: a fragment of the text or the entire text (f.e. “Dorian Grey”, “The
Nightingale and the Rose” by O. Wilde);
One of the problematic areas in the concept theory is the concept structure.
There are different views and approaches to this problem. Not going into details of
this problem, we should stress that the majority of the researchers outline a three-
level structure of the concept, including notional, imagery and axiological
constituents of fields (S.G. Vorkachyov, Z.D. Popova, I.A. Sternin, V.I. Karasik,
etc.)
It should be noted that among these constituents the imagery constituent is of
a notable interest for Linguoculturology. It is subdivided into two types: cognitive
and perceptive images which in their turn fall into several subtypes.
Cognitive image of the concept includes moral, intellectual, psychological and
physical characteristics related to the human. For example, the image bearing
component of the concept Life includes the following cognitive images: moral (life
is not fair, honest life, cruel life; love is lawless); intellectual (silly life, life is a
teacher, life is a judge; love is mad; love and knowledge live not together);
psychological (happy/unhappy life, joyful life, life is suffer; love is crazy); physical
(broken life, ruined life, to kill life, to destroy life; love is blind).
The perceptive image also consists of several types of imagery:
 visual imagery, i.e. something that can be seen: youth is green; time is money;
life is a judge; words are weapons;
 auditory imagery is based on a sound perception: words echo, high-sounding
words, lovers cooing;
 tactile imagery expresses feelings evoked by touch: sharp words, cold love;
burning love, stinging word;
 olfactory imagery is based on a smell perception: youth’s smell, high-sounding
words, words echo;
 gustatory imagery is based on a taste perception: sweet life/love/word, embittered
friendship, tart words, bitter life;
 kinesthetic: life goes on, follow life, time flies.
No less important is axiological field, which according to the authors,
includes different additional features of a concept which can be divided into
several zones:
a) the evaluative zone (good or bad); b) aesthetic (beautiful/ugly); emotional
(pleasant/unpleasant); intellectual (clever/silly); moral (kind/cruel, legal/illegal)
features;
b) the encyclopeadic zone unites conceptual features based on experience and
knowledge of a concept denotate. For example, encyclopeadic zone of the concept
“Water” includes the following features: water is dangerous, the person can be
drawn in water, there is no life without water, water is covered with ice in winter ,
etc. Another example is the concept “London” – London is the capital of Great
Britain, London is a big and ancient city, there is the underground in the city, City
is a business centre, there are many historical sights and places of interest in
London: Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, the Tower, Big Ben, etc.
c) the utilitarian zone that unites conceptual features expressing pragmatic
aspects of the concept, including its situational characteristics. For example: car –
expensive, comfortable; dog – a devoted friend, guards the house; flu – virus,
illness, weakness, cough, high temperature, etc.
d) the regulative zone unites conceptual features that “prescribe” what should
be done or not done: the English language – should be learned, law – should be
followed; car – should be driven, etc.
e) the social-cultural zone unites conceptual features representing the
interrelationship between a concept and culture (art, traditions, customs, heroes,
folklore, precedent texts, etc.). For example, the concept “English Language” –
Shakespeare, Byron, Dickens; or the concept “Gentleman” – English, aristocrat,
nobleman, politeness, helps people;
f) the paremiological zone – conceptual features that are represented in
proverbs, sayings, aphorisms and quotations. For example, the concept FIRE is
presented in the conceptual features fire is dangerous – if you play with fire, you
get burned; don’t add fuel to the flame; don’t fight fire with fire; better a little fire
to warm us than a big one to burn us.
The outlined zones, as is seen from examples, present a lot of interest for
linguocultural studies.
6.2. Types of cultural concepts

The problem of concept typology/classification is one of the theoretical


problems of Cultural Linguistics and is in the focus of scholars’ attention. The
survey of the theoretical literature has shown that there are different classifications
of cultural concepts.
V.A. Maslova (2007) differentiates 9 types of cultural concepts according
to the thematic principle:
 world (Motherland, Universe, Winter Night, New Year);
 nature and nature elements (Water, Fire, Earth, Wind, Air, Flower, Fauna);
 moral concepts (Truth, Honesty, Honour, Shame);
 human characteristics (Kindness, Arrogance, Politeness, Generosity);
 social notions/events (Freedom, Liberty, Equality, Richness);
 emotive concepts (Suffer, Joy, Love, Hate);
 the sphere of artefacts (Church, House, Altar);
 scientific concepts (Philosophy, Philology, Algorithm, Atom);
 the sphere of art (Music, Dance, Literature, Sculpture) (Маслова, 2007).
S.G. Vorkachyov (2004, 2007) distinguishes the following types of concepts
according to their reference to certain groups:
a) universal concepts, existing in all cultures (Faith, Love, Beauty, Freedom,
Labour, Family, Motherland, God);
b) unique or ethnic concepts, specific to one particular ethnic group (English –
Kelt, Gentleman, Halloween, Lady, Lord, Cowboy; Uzbek – Ҳужа, Махалла,
Чойхона, Сандал, Гап; Russian – Балалайка, Баба-Яга, Хоровод, Тайга,
Товарищ);
c) individual concepts;
d) group concepts (professional, gender, age).
The scholar also distinguishes types of concepts according to the level of
abstractness:
a) universal concepts of spiritual culture (Happiness, Beauty, Freedom, Home,
Honour, Family);
b) symbolic concepts (Dove, Swan, Palm, Rose, Olive Leaf, Lion, Crescent);
c) emotive concepts (Love, Fear, Anguish, Joy, Hate). It should be mentioned that
this type can be referred to universal concepts of spiritual culture and occupy
middle between visual and abstract concepts (Воркачёв, 2007).
One of the researchers who contributed much to the development of concept
typology is M.V. Pimenova who suggested their classifications according to
cultural categories:
1) universal categories of culture (Time, Space, Sun);
2) socio-cultural categories (Freedom, Labour, Privacy);
3) national culture categories (Gentleman);
4) ethical categories (Truth, Honesty, Duty);
5) mythological categories (Angel, God) (Пименова, 2004:10).
Very interesting is the classification of concepts done according to three
notional categories suggested by M.V. Pimenova and O.N. Kondrat’yeva:
I. Basic/main – key concepts of the conceptual system and world picture. This
category includes a) cosmic concepts (Sun, Moon, Star); b) social concepts
(Freedom, Labour), c) Spiritual concepts (God, Faith, Sin, Virtue);
II. Descriptive concepts – qualify basic concepts: 1) dimensional concepts
(shape, size, weight, deep); 2) qualitative concepts reflecting the quality (warm -
cool, whole - partial, hard - soft); 3) quantitative concepts, reflecting quantity
(only, much/many, few);
III. Relative concepts (denoting relationships): 1) evaluative concepts (good –
bad, right – wrong, useful – useless, tasty – not tasty); 2) positional concepts
(against, together, near, for, up-down); 3) concepts of privacy (mine –
strange/alien, to give – to take, to have – to lose, to include – to exclude).
It should be mentioned that these types are divided into several subtypes. For
instance, the class of cosmic concepts (sky, earth, moon) also includes:
a) meteorological concepts (Rain, Snow, Thunderstorm, Comet);
b) biological concepts (Human, Bird, Insect, Animal, Fish, Grass, Fruit);
c) landscape concepts (Field, Forest, Mountain, Lake, See, Ocean, River, Road);
d) artefact concepts (Factory, Mechanism, Instrument, Dish, Building).
In their turn, social concepts are subdivided into:
a) political, ideological and concepts of social status (Governer, Elite, Aristocrat,
Worker, President, Emperor, the Rich, the Poor, Intelligent, Scientist);
b) concepts of nationality (Russian, Chinese, German, French);
c) concepts of power and management (Democracy, Freedom, Will, Tyranny);
d) concepts denoting interpersonal relations (Slavery, Power, Piece, War);
e) moral/ethic concepts (Honour, Duty, Shame, Devotion);
f) concepts denoting various activities (Labour, Game, Education, Holiday, Deed);
g) religious concepts (God, Pray, Sin, Confession, Virtue).
Psychological concepts are divided into:
a) concepts of inner world (Soul, Consciousness);
b) concepts of character (Arrogance, Bossiness, Modesty);
c) emotive concepts (Happiness, Joy, Sadness, Jealousy, Anguish, Worry);
d) mental concepts (Knowledge, Thought, Memory, Inspiration, Mind);
e) concepts of will (Wish, Desire, Duty) (Пименова, Кондратьева, 2011).
So, there are a lot of approaches to the problem of concept typology. The
scholars provide a number of classification based on different criteria. It should be
stressed that concept typology is not a simple matter and any discussion of it is
bound to reflect more than one angle of vision.

6.3. Cross-cultural analysis of the concept

The concept “Water/Сув” is one of the universal concepts represented in all


societies and cultures. Water considered to be a source of life on the Earth, gave
rise to many religious legends and cosmogonic myths about the world. According
to Hinduism and Islam all living creatures on the earth emerged from water.
Mesopotamian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Philippine and other mythologies also assert
that at the beginning the Universe consisted of water; Greek goddess of love
Aphrodite, was also born of the sea.
A vital role of “water” in people’s life accounts for its highly symbolic and
sacred status. “Water” is a key element in many religious rituals around the world
aimed at purifying, annihilating sins, creating holiness, transforming the world, etc.
Water is considered to be a source of purification in physical and symbolic sense:
the rituals of ablution in Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism before praying or
entering a temple. Water also represents rebirth in many religions: the ritual of
Epiphany/Christening in Christianity and Amrit Sanscar (baptizing) in Hinduism;
the ritual of washing the dead bodies before burying so that they could go to
another world purified and rebirthed. In many religious legends water is believed
to have magic powers, capable of healing and repelling evil: holy water in
Christianity, amrita in Sikhism and Hinduism, Zamzam water in Islam.
In many mythological legends Water is often personified as God, Goddess
or divine entity: Ganges is regarded as a goddess whose purity eliminates the sins
of the faithful, Neptune/Poseidon – the Greek-Roman god of the ocean and the
king of other sea gods, Anahita – Persian goddess of water and fertility, Tefnut –
Egyptian goddess of water, moisture and fertility, etc. Water also often represents
the border between the world of the living beings and the world of the dead: for
instance, according to ancient Greek mythology the souls of the dead were carried
to the underworld across waters of the River Styx.
The first step of linguistic analysis of any concept presupposes the analysis
of its notional constituent based on the detailed analysis of the dictionary
meanings. The analysis of the dictionary definitions done on the basis of several
dictionaries (MWCD, CIDE, OALD, LDCE) has shown that the dictionary
meanings of the lexeme “water” in the English and Uzbek languages can be
summarized in the followings:
Water is colourless, tasteless liquid
‒ a clear, colorless, odorless, and tasteless liquid, H 2O, essential for most plant and
animal life and the most widely used of all solvents; a colorless, transparent,
odorless, tasteless, liquid that forms the seas lakes rivers and rain; a colorless
liquid that is a compound of hydrogen and oxygen;
Water is a source of drinking water and agriculture
‒ liquid that is essential for plant and animal life and constitutes, in impure form,
rain, oceans, rivers, lakes, etc.;
‒ to irrigate or provide with water: to water the land; he watered the cattle; to
supply (land, a region, etc.) with water, as by streams or irrigation.;
The definition of the lexeme “сув” as “life and soul” given in the Uzbek
dictionaries represents both notional and evaluative components of the concept
“Water”:
Сув – ҳаёт-мамот масаласини хал қилувчи, ҳаёт берувчи Сув; ҳаёт
бағишловчи, жонга файз киритувчи нарса: Улар ўз ерларига, ўз уйларига ҳаёт
суви келтириш учун, курашга борадилар. Одамлар ташна, ер чанқоқ, юрт
қақроқ эди. Хамма сув деб талпинар, сувга интилар эди (М. Исмоилий
Фарғона тонг отгунча)
This meaning is culturally specific for Uzbek culture and conditioned by
extralinguistic factors, in particular by geography. As is known, Uzbekistan is
situated in Central Asia, the territory of which is mostly covered by deserts and
steppes and has no access to any sea or ocean. This fact conditions the lack of
water and its exceptional value for Uzbek people.
The analysis of phraseological units with the component “water” has shown
that they mostly represent the evaluative constituent of the concept “Water”
relevant to many aspects of people’s life. It is worthy of note that phraseological
units with the component “water” represent both positive and negative evaluation.
In the phraseological units water is regarded as valueless and temporal
substance in comparison with other liquids, substances and products that are
considered to be more valuable: engl.: bread and water, shed blood like water,
spend money like water; uzb.: сув кетар тош қолар; сув текин; сувники сувга
кетти; сувга оқизмоқ. Fluidity, mobility, changeability of water also caused its
usage to denote “uselessness of smth”: written in water; draw water in a sieve;
pour water into a sieve; as welcome as water in one's shoes, limn on water (to
dream); uzb.: элакда сув ташимоқ, сувга оқизмоқ. Water is perceived as a
destructive, ruinous nature element that is unpredictable and uncontrolled: engl.:
come hell or high water; uzb.: сув балоси, сув офати.
Phraseological units with the component “water” also represent the notions,
associated with 1) different aspects of people’s life: in smooth water (to be
successful); troubled waters (complex situation); in hot water (to be in a difficult
situation); defeat in smth., destruction of smb); blow out of the water, under water;
рour/throw cold water on smth.; 2) description of individuals’ characteristics:
moral, physical, emotional: as weak as water, long drink of water (very tall
person); uzb.: сувдан қўруқ чиқмоқ, сувни лойқалатмоқ, сувга тушса
чўкмаслик.
One of the most conspicuous properties of the analyzed concept on
phraseological level is its religious and mythological essence. For example,
phraseological unit “Living water/water of life” is a biblical phrase used for
denoting God, but in fact, it reflects mythological legends and fairy-tales about
restorative powers of water and fountains, springs, wells of Youth. People believed
that elderly people who drink or bathe in its waters could be young again.
Phraseological unit “holy water” reflects religious views of European, in particular
English linguoculture. Holy water is the water that has been sanctified by a religious
figure and is used for spiritual cleansing and as a protection against evil. It is kept in
the holy water stoups, fonts or automatic water filters put at the entrance to the
church, so that the faithful could sprinkle themselves with it on entering the church.
It is a key element in many religious rituals: baptizing children, blessing, liturgies,
making a sign of the cross for cleansing from venial sin, etc.
The image-bearing and evaluative components of the concept “Water” are
widely represented in proverbs and quotations. Here, it should be mentioned that
image-bearing and evaluative constituents of the concept in most cases are closely
interlinked. In other words, examples can be viewed both from the point of view of
imagery and evaluation. It is conditioned by the fact that imagery and evaluation are
usually interwoven especially in proverbs, aphorisms and fictional texts which
reflect the national world picture of a certain culture (beliefs, customs, ethics and
morality, behavioral norms, speech etiquette, etc.). Used in the proverbs and
quotations, the concept “Water” acquires a multitude of conceptual features
constituting its complex structure. Thus, the concept Water forms several
conceptual metaphors such as “Water is Beauty”, “Water is Life”, “Water is
Gem”. Let us consider some of them:
Water is Beauty
Everywhere water is a thing of beauty, gleaming in the dewdrops; singing in
the summer rain; shining in the ice-gems till the leaves all seem to turn to living
jewels; spreading a golden veil over the setting sun; or a white gauze around the
midnight moon (J.B.Gough); Water is the grand epic of creation; and there is not a
human soul but feels the influence of its majesty, its power, or its beauty (S. J.
Hale); Water – the mighty, the pure, the beautiful, the unfathomable (L.E.
Landon); Ой сулуви – нур, сой сулуви – сув; Сув келди – нур келди.
Water is Life
Water is the soul of the Earth (W.H. Auden); Water is the basis of life and
the blue arteries of the earth! Everything in the non-marine environment depends
on freshwater to survive (Sandra Postel); Water is everywhere and in all living
things; we cannot be separated from water. No water, no life (R. Fulghum); Water
is the mother of the vine, the nurse and fountain of fecundity, the adorner and
refresher of the world (Ch. Mackay);
Water is Gem
In the Uzbek proverbs, “water” metaphorically associated with precious
stones: ер – хазина, сўз – гавҳар; сув қатраси – дур қатраси; сув – олтиндан
азиз; чилла суви – тилла суви; сув – зар, сувчи – заргар.
It is conditioned by the role of precious stones and jewelry in Uzbek
linguoculture. Over centuries, jewelry has been an inseparable part of weddings,
engagements, anniversaries. The art of creating jewelry in Uzbekistan has passed
on from generation to generation for thousands of years. There is a great variety of
jewelry: bracelets, rings, earrings, necklaces, belts, patterns of bridle and other
horse equipment, etc.
Evaluative component of the concept “Water” is presented by conceptual
features which express both positive and negative evaluation of the concept:
Water as a source of life without which nothing can exist
Thousand have lived without love, no one without water (W.H. Auden); No
water, no life. No blue, no green (S. Earle); There's plenty of water in the universe
without life, but nowhere is there life without water (S.A. Earle); Water is the
lifeblood of our bodies, our economy, our nation and our well-being (St. Johnson);
Water is life, and clean water means health (A.Hepburn); Life comes but in a
droplet (A. T. Hincks); A single water drop contains all the necessary building
blocks needed for life (A. T. Hincks); Without water, life would just be rock (A.T.
Hincks); Cув – ҳаёт манбаи; Сув бор жойда, ҳаёт бор; Сувсиз ер – жонсиз
ер; Сувсиз ҳаёт йўқ; Томчи сувда – ҳаёт жилваси; Сувсиз – ҳаёт бўлмас,
меҳнатсиз роҳат; Томчи сувда тол кўкарар; Эл ҳаёти ер билан, ер ҳаёти сув
билан; Сув билан табиат жонланади, ҳаёт ниш уради, яшашга ошиқади, куч
қувватга киради (ТСҲЖ);
Water is precious and should be treasured
Water is the most basic of all resources. Civilizations grew or withered
depending on its availability (N.W. Snyder); Water is one of the most basic of all
needs – we cannot live for more than a few days without it (R. Alan); Never cast
dirt into that fountain of which you have sometime drunk; Cast no dirt into the
well that hath given you water; Cast not the foul water till you bring in clean; Сув
– деҳқоннинг қони, ер – унинг жони; Сув келди, нур келди; Сув келтирган
азиз; Сув берган савоб, ўт берган кавоб; ер-сув – битмас кон; Сувсиз ер –
жонсиз жасад; Сувсиз – ер мозор, сувли ер – гулзор; Сувсиз ерга қуш қўнмас,
ўтсиз ерга юрт қўнмас; Сув – ҳаѐт манбаи, уни увол қилишга ҳаққимиз йўқ
(ТСҲЖ);
Water is underestimated
We never know the worth of water till the well is dry (Thomas Fuller);
Water is one of the most basic of all needs – we cannot live for more than a few
days without it. And yet, most people take water for granted. We waste water
needlessly and don't realize that clean water is a very limited resource (Robert
Alan); For many of us, clean water is so plentiful and readily available that we
rarely, if ever, pause to consider what life would be like without it (M.
Samuelsson); Бугун чашма сувин қилсанг агар хор//Бошқа ичолмассан бу
сувдан зинҳор (Фахриддин Гургоний); Олдингдан оқар сувнинг қадри йўқ;
Water is powerful
…water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand
against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone (M.Atwood); A
persistent drop of water will wear away even the hardest stone (Autumn Morning
Star); Moving water . . . has a fascinating vitality. It has power and grace and
associations. It has a thousand colors and a thousand shapes (Roderick Haig-
Brown);
Water is miraculous and sacred
If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water (L. Eiseley); Water is
the grand epic of creation; and there is not a human soul but feels the influence of
its majesty, its power, or its beauty (S. J. Hale); Water is to me, I confess, a
phenomenon which continually awakens new feelings of wonder as often as I view
it (M.Faraday); I believe that water is the closest thing to a god we have here on
Earth. We are in awe of its power and majestic beauty. We are drawn to it as if it’s
a magical, healing force. We gestate in water, are made of water, and need to drink
water to live. We are living in water (A.Z. Moores); Water is intrinsically linked
to the mystery and excitement of discovering new worlds (Fennel Hudson);
As is seen from the examples, in the English language water is considered to
be a miraculous phenomenon the nature of which people cannot understand (a
magical, healing force, awakens new feelings of wonder, mystery and excitement).
In Uzbek linguoculture the stress is put on the sacred nature of water and related to
such notions as faith, sin, the Heaven and God:
Ўзбек халқи учун сув доимо муқаддас саналган. Ноннинг ушоғи ҳам нон
бўлганидек, сувнинг томчиси ҳам сувдир. Сувнинг бу дунѐда муқаддаслиги,
азизлиги рост.
The idea of holiness of water goes back to the history of religious views of
Uzbeks affiliated first to Zoroastrianism and then to Islam. First, according to
Zoroastrianism and its sacred book Avesta, water as well as fire was regarded as
sacred elements of nature that has a purifying power and that’s why everything
connected with water had to be kept pure and far from everything that could harm
it. In Avesta, water is merely a liquid manifestation of light and splendor and
regarded as glowing, resplendent and divine, mother of life, creator of mankind.
Therefore, those who commit sin by making water dirty are regarded as sinners
and are promised to be sent to hell: “Покиза сув ва ѐниб турган олов қаршисида
гуноҳлиқ қилган зотнинг дўзахда топгуси жазоси бу дунѐнинг жамийки
дарду озор- ларидан мудҳишдир”... (“Вандидод”, 4-фаргард, 54-банд).
In Islam, water considered to be a source of creation. Thus, according to
Koran, all things in the world, including people, were created from water: барча
жонли мавжудотни сувдан (пайдо) қилганимизни кўрмадингларми?” (Анбиё
сураси).
Water is important for people’s health
Water is the only drink for a wise man (H. D. Thoreau); Drinking water is
essential to a healthy lifestyle (S.Curry); Drinking water is like washing out your
insides. The water will cleanse the system, fill you up, decrease your caloric load
and improve the function of all your tissues (Kevin R. Stone); It is difficult to find
anything more healthy to drink than good cold water, such as flows down to us
from springs and snows of our mountains. This is the beverage we should drink. It
should be our drink at all times (Brigham Young);
Water is of dual character: it can be creative and destructive
Water creates so much beauty, life and mystery (Fennel Hudson); Water is a
very good servant, but it is a cruel master (C.G.D. Roberts); Water is so friendly
when you have it on your palms, but so evil when they have you on theirs (M.F.
Moonzajer); There was nothing like water in the world, Jim said. It made the desert
bloom but also turned rich bottomland into swamp. Without it we'd die, but it
could also kill us, and that was why we loved it, even craved it, but also feared it.
Never take water for granted, Jim said. Always cherish it. Always beware of it
(Jeannette Walls); You can't trust water: Even a straight stick turns crooked in it
(W.C. Fields); Сувнинг кўриниши мулойим – бағри тош; Сувнинг ози ҳам бир
бало, кўпи ҳам бир бало; Ерни бузадиган ҳам сув, тузадиган ҳам сув
Water is calm and harmonious
There's something about water that washes away the cares of the mind and
heart (P. R. Woodruff); The ocean is a mighty harmonist (W. Wordsworth); Water
is peaceful. I am at rest. In the water, I am safe and pulled in where I can't get out.
Everything slows down – the noise and the racing of my thoughts (J. Niven);
Heavy hearts, like heavy clouds in the sky, are best relieved by the letting of a little
water (Ch. Morley); Where the waters do agree, it is quite wonderful the relief they
give (Jane Austen).
So, a short cross-cultural analysis of concept “Water/Сув” in the English and
Uzbek languages has proved that its dictionary meanings and conceptual features,
representing its evaluative component mostly coincide. It is accounted for by the
fact that Water is a universal concept represented in all linguocultures and
understood as a source of life on the Earth. However, there are some nationally
specific features concerning its verbalization and functions.

QUESTIONS AND TASKS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Comment on the notion of a cultural concept.


2. What are the ways and means of concept verbalization?
3. Discuss the problem of the concept structure
4. Comment on different views and approaches to the problem of concept
structure
5. What are the main constituents of the concept structure?
6. Comment on the peculiarities of the evaluative constituent of the concept
7. What types of images does the image field of the concept consists of?
8. What are the main properties of the concept?
9. What are the main criteria for concept typology?
10.What types of concepts are distinguished?
11.Comment on the peculiarities of concept classifications from the cognitive and
cultural point of view

RECOMMENDED LITERATURE
1. Воробьев В.В. Лингвокультурология. –М.: РУДН, 2008.
2. Маслова В.А. Лингвокультурология. – М.: Изд.центр академия, 2007.
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Волгоград, 2005
GLOSSARY
Anthropocentric paradigm – a theoretical framework concerned with the
problem of “the human” in language, his mental and cognitive activity, the
linguistic world picture, representing universal and nationally-specific culture
values, national worldview
Conceptual world picture  a global image of the world and its essential features
reflected in the individual’s mind as a result of his spiritual activity.
Cross-cultural analysis – is based on comparing and contrasting languages and
cultures. It consists in cognitive interpretation of a) culturally and conceptually
relevant language units in the text (linguoculturemes); b) universal and nationally-
specific properties of language units including texts; c) cultural concepts
manifesting particular domains.
Culture specific concept – a culture specific and nationally oriented unit, a
multifold mental structure consisting of notional, image-bearing and evaluative
layers and characterized by emotional, expressive components and associative
links
Cultural categories – stereotypes, symbols, etalons, mythologemes and other
signs of national and world culture.
Cultural code – a particular system of signs denoting objects of national and
spiritual world, and which are categorized, structured and evaluated by the national
communities. Cultural code defines a set of images that are associated with
particular stereotypes in people’s minds.
Cultural connotation – the perception and interpretation of the denotative or
image motivated meanings in terms and categories of culture.
Cultural model – representation of cultural knowledge organized and structured in
terms of propositional and image-schemas.
Cultural values – the commonly held system of standards of what is acceptable or
unacceptable, important or unimportant, right or wrong etc., in a society. It
penetrates all spheres of human life describing objective characteristics of reality
interlaced with national views and personal appraisals. Cultural values are
subdivided into the following types: vital, moral, social, political, religious,
aesthetic.
Cultural connotation – the perception and interpretation of the denotative and
image-motivated meanings in terms and categories of culture;
Cultural space – culture represented in the human mind. It is formed by the
individual and collective consciousness of all representatives of a certain ethnic
group, therefore the culture space can be brought into correlation with the
cognitive space (Постовалова, 1999);
Imagery – an inherent, generic property of the literary text which creates a dual
sensory perception of an abstract notion by arousing certain associations between
the general and the particular, the abstract and the concrete, the imaginary and the
factual.
Individual style  a unique combination of language units, expressive means and
stylistic devices peculiar to a given writer. It makes the writer’s works easily
recognizable.
Intertextuality  a peculiar quality of certain texts to corelate with others both
semantically and structurally. Intertext contains explicit intertextual markers:
epigraph, repetition of text forms (structures, rhythm, lexical units), antonomasia,
allusion, quotation, etc.
Knowledge structures  a system of linguistic and nonlinguistic knowledge,
blocks of information structured in terms of “frames”, “gestalts”, “scripts”
containing a system of interrelated concepts.
Linguistic personality – a manifold, multi-component and structurally organized
set of language competences, a certain linguistic correlate of spiritual world of a
personality in the integrity of his social, ethnic, psychological, aesthetic
characteristics.
Linguistic world picture – the verbal explication of the conceptual world picture,
a means of transferring information about the world, people, relations.
Linguocultereme  a complex interlevel language unit, a dialectical unit of both
linguistic and extralinguistic factors, the correlation between the form of a verbal
sign, its semantic content and cultural sense. The sources of cultural information in
a linguocultureme are specific for each cultural phenomenon: realia, myths,
images, believes, outstanding people, customs and traditions.
Linguocultural field  a hierarchical system of linguistic units used in the text and
characterized by mutually correlated and interdependent meanings expressing a
system of corresponding cultural notions.
Linguoculturology (cultural linguistics) – a new interdisciplinary science aimed to
investigate the correlation between language and culture, between linguistic
meanings and the concepts of universal and national cultures.
Mythologeme – a verbal expression of an image or theme of mythological
character in the fictional text, a conceptually and culturally significant language
unit containing knowledge structures of mythology, an intertext integrating the two
conceptual domains of the precedent and recipient texts.
National-cultural specificity ‒ culturally and nationally marked language units
which transmit sociocultural, aesthetic, emotional and evaluative information, thus
reflecting national views and vision of the world, traditions and customs, values
and stereotypes.
National world picture – a specific way of the world perception and
conceptualization reflecting the experience of a certain national community, its
system views, stereotypes of thinking and behavior.
Non-equivalent lexicon – words which express notions non-existing in other
cultures and which have no equivalents in other languages.
Precedent text – well-known texts of vast significance both for universal and
national cultures. They are most often referred to in the recipient texts by means of
intertextual links.
The author’s image – a focus of the whole literary text, its context and
compositional structure; it joins the parts of the text together to make a single
whole characterized by the author’s world outlook.
World picture – a structured set of knowledge about reality, formed in the
people’s consciousness. It is divided into two main types: conceptual world picture
– regarded as a result of cognition, as a system of knowledge structures reflecting
the human experience in a certain historical period of life and linguistic world
picture – the verbal explication of the conceptual world picture, a means of
transferring information about the world, people, relations.
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