scholarly journals From a dictionary to an atlas: segmental mapping of the linguistic picture of the world

Author(s):  
S. N. Gagarin

'At the heart of any language lies a vision. It embraces the world around us in myriads of complex ways. It is the lifeblood of every people's identity. It is so essential and indispensable that few assets of humankind can rival it for value or timelessness. It is known as the linguistic picture of the world, and it is notorious for being among the knottiest study subjects of language science. No coherent methodology has been proposed to date as to how it should be consistently structured to result in a systemic and navigable map of its core words and concepts. This constitutes a conspicuous gap in contemporary linguistics, which the present article addresses from the perspective of cognitive lexicology and lexicography while engaging the linguistic picture of the world on a segment-by-segment basis. In keeping with the aforesaid approach, one segment at a time is selected, and the discourse that reflects it is analysed with a view to identifying transcendental notions contained therein. The latter are construed as a type of cognitive concepts which epitomise the core ideas inherent in a particular type of spoken or written discourse. Being verbalised by means of relevant verbal fields, these transcendental notions permeate the cognitive and textual fabric of the selected segment of a linguistic picture of the world. By way of demonstrating the feasibility of this approach, a new type of dictionary has been compiled by the author, which captures and reveals in a semantically structured way the verbal side of the transcendental notion "countering" in the socio-political discourse of English-language media. Along with other transcendental notions, such as "facilitation", "communication", "attitude", etc., it is viewed as part of a range of the cognitive pillars which are essential to a limited segment of a linguistic picture of the world, but are by no means reserved to it, stretching far beyond and reaching throughout the vision of the world enshrined in the English language. The present article asserts and demonstrates by example that by creating the described type of dictionaries a basis can be laid for engaging the broader linguistic picture of the world in a whole new way, as their structure enables the drawing of clear semantic boundaries between and within the verbal fields of major concepts. These, in turn, can be used for creating maps, or rather atlases, initially of the smaller segments of linguistic pictures of the world, which may over time, and with enough methodological evolution, transform into larger-scale projects covering different languages, which arguably contains a hitherto unexplored potential for comparing them at a new systemic level, that of the structure and internal semantic delimitation of linguistic pictures of the world.

2000 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 602-606
Author(s):  
Sachiko Ide

The assumptions made by readers of Language in Society and other English-language academic publications, when they begin to read, are so widely shared that they are seldom reflected on or made explicit. These assumptions have to do with European traditions of scholarship; and over time, they have made their way around the world because of the unquestioned belief in their universal applicability. But other approaches do exist, although most are never featured in publications in Western languages. I commented on this situation long ago, but it persists to this day: “The work done by Japanese sociolinguists is virtually unknown to non-Japanese readers. The reason is probably that this work has developed independently of the Western disciplines. The fact that Japanese researchers have worked independently of the Western tradition has inevitably resulted in unique assumptions, orientations or approaches when viewed from an international perspective”.


Author(s):  
M.B. Rarenko ◽  

The article considers the story by Henry James (1843 – 1916) «The Turn of the Screw» (1898 – first edition, 1908 – second edition) in connection with the emergence of a new type of narrator in the writer's late prose. The worldview and creative method of H. James are formed under the influence of the philosophy of pragmatism, which became widespread at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries thanks to the works of the writer's elder brother, the philosopher William James (1842 – 1910). The core of pragmatism is the pluralistic concept of William James based on the assumption that knowledge can be realized from very limited, incomplete, and inadequate «points of view» and this leads to the statement that the absolute truth is essentially unknowable. The epistemological statements of William James's theory is that the content of knowledge is entirely determined by the installation of consciousness, and the content of the truth in this case depends on the goals and experience of the human, i.e. the central starting point is the consciousness of the person. Henry James not only creates works of art, but also sets out in detail the principles of his work both on the pages of fiction works of small and large prose, putting them in the mouths of their characters – representatives of the world of art, and in the prefaces to his works of fiction, as well as in critical works.


2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 273-293
Author(s):  
Ying Huang ◽  
Weishan Miao

This paper surveys the status of Chinese English-language journals in the humanities and social sciences (HSS-CELJs). HSS-CELJs are an important vehicle for disseminating Chinese scholarly voices and culture throughout the world. We used a mixed-methods approach to investigate the status of HSS-CELJs according to a number of attributes: growth rate over time, type of publisher, discipline, region of publication, publishing frequency, independence versus co-publication, and inclusion in citation indexes. We discuss some of the challenges facing HSS-CELJ publishing and highlight several contradictions of internationalization in the Chinese context. As of March 2020, eighty-seven HSS-CELJs covered nineteen disciplines, among which economics (17 per cent) and law (13 per cent) accounted for the highest proportions. The establishment of HSS-CELJs has increased significantly since 2004. Fifty-two per cent of HSS-CELJs were jointly operated with international publishers under two different models of cooperation, and twenty-eight (32 per cent) were indexed in international databases.


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 222-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rup Narayan Shrestha ◽  
Bharat Raj Pahari ◽  
Jai Raj Awasthi

This article attempts to highlight the importance of English in the professional communication in the field of engineering in Nepal. The main objective of the article is to shed light on the role English language plays in the communication related to engineering. Based primarily on the review of some relevant literature available, the present article reveals the fact that English being one of the global languages used in a wide range of communicative fields all over the world, it serves as an important tool for professional communication in engineering in Nepal.Journal of the Institute of Engineering, 2016, 12(1): 222-227 


Author(s):  
Dov Waxman

No conflict in the world has lasted as long, generated as many news headlines, or incited as much controversy as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yet, despite, or perhaps because of, the degree of international attention it receives, the conflict is still widely misunderstood. While Israelis and Palestinians and their respective supporters trade accusations, many outside observers remain confused by the conflict's complexity and perplexed by the passion it arouses. The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: What Everyone Needs to Know® offers an even-handed and judicious guide to the world's most intractable dispute. Rather than presenting a traditional, narrative history, this book employs an accessible question-and-answer format. Writing in an engaging, jargon-free style, Dov Waxman, a leading expert on the Middle East, provides clear and concise answers to common questions, from the most basic to the most contentious. Covering the conflict from its nineteenth-century origins to the latest developments of the twenty-first century, this book explains the key events, examines the core issues, and presents the competing claims and narratives of both sides. Readers will learn what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is all about, how it has evolved over time, and why it continues to defy diplomatic efforts at a resolution.


Author(s):  
N.M. Mikava

The article is devoted to the consideration of the features of the verbalization of the concept HAIR in the English language. The purpose of the work is to examine the structure of the English concept HAIR as a fragment of the English-language picture of the world of the English-speaking society. The main attention is focused on the analysis of the language embodiment of the given concept in the naïve and professional varients of the picture of the world. The English concept HAIR is a fragment of the conceptual picture of the world, which is reflected in the language picture of the world, namely in its three fragments, verbalized by the constituents of the lexical-semantic groups, distinguished according to the somatic feature. They are head hair, facial hair, body hair. The analysis of the language and speech material showed that the structure of the English concept HAIR in the naive picture of the world is a three-component formation, which consists of a core, a nuclear zone and a periphery. The core includes such conceptual features as somatic and gender. The nuclear zone includes objective and various associative conceptual features, namely: age, thinness, protection, beauty, strength / success, value. The periphery of the concept consists of socially-identifying functions - professional, religious and social-group. The core of the concept HAIR in the professional picture of the world includes such conceptual features as somatic, gender, structure and development. The nuclear zone includes objective conceptual features, namely: health, age, protection. The periphery of the concept consists of professional, religious, and social-group social-identifying functions. Thus the periphery of the given concept in the two variants of the picture of the world is identical. The prospects for further research are seen in the consideration of the mentioned aspects of verbalization on the material of English artistic speech as well as professional discourse.


Author(s):  
Liudmyla Yasnohurska

The article is devoted to studying the peculiarities of the lexical verbalization of the concepts SAFETY/SECURITY in the Eng­lish language worldview on the basis of the comparative analysis of their components, including the basic elements and their de­rivatives. The author supposes that the scope of the concepts SAFETY/SECURITY in the English language worldview is based on the general meaning “protection, protection from risks, threats or lack of them”. It is security that is the cornerstone that ensures the stable functioning of a human in society and society itself as a whole. In this regard, the problem of perception and understanding of SAFETY/SECURITY concept is becoming especially relevant in today’s society. This article examines the implementation of the SAFETY/SECURITY concept in the English language picture of the world. The purpose of this study is to set the boundaries of the SAFETY/SECURITY concept in English on the basis of a study of the categorical definitions related to safety / security that make up the core of the concept and their derivatives. The following dictionaries were used for the study: The MacMillan English Dictionary, The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, the Cambridge International Dictionary of English, the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Afnan Bahaziq

<h1>Discourse is essential in communicating thoughts and ideas. People around the world communicate their ideas through stretches of language. In order to understand any discourse, it must achieve cohesion. The purpose of this paper is to define and describe the cohesive devices based on the work of Halliday and Hasan (1976). It also aims to emphasize the necessity of using these devices by analyzing a Michigan English Language Assessment Battery (MELAB) sample examination of a student’s essay writing. The student’s writing shows clear evidence of cohesion and demonstrates the use of grammatical and lexical devices. It is noticed that the most grammatical devices used are reference and conjunction. On the contrary, there is little evidence of using lexical devices. Although the essay is somewhat cohesive, some areas still need improvement.</h1>


Author(s):  
Zarema S. Guseykhanova ◽  
◽  
Kazimurza G. Sultanov ◽  

The research analyzes utterances verbalizing the concept of ISLAM in the English-language political discourse. Islam is considered in the paper not only as a religious and cultural phenomenon but also as a social and political phenomenon. This approach justifies the use of print media texts in order to expose ISLAM conceptual features in the contemporary picture of the world. Within the framework of the article, we analyze ISLAM contents, structure and means of expression. The purpose of the article is to identify the main features of ISLAM frame structure based on modern political discourse. ISLAM can be represented as a frame whose top levels are SUBJECT, TYPE, SOURCE, and ACTION. The main conceptual features attributed to ISLAM in the English-language political discourse are “dogmatism”, “globalism”, “good organization”, “fundamentalism”, “violence”.


Author(s):  
Michael Blake

Most discussions of intergenerational justice focus on distributive justice between generations. Much of contemporary thinking about justice, though, focuses on how people might reason together in a respectful and egalitarian manner—with, that is, justice in political discourse. This chapter seeks to apply this latter sort of theorizing to the intergenerational context. It identifies two ways in which discursive justice might be applicable to that context. First, the present generation might wrong future generations by making discursive justice more difficult in the future; it might, for instance, create a future in which political agents must display greater virtue—both intellectual and moral—than present generations have had to demonstrate. Second, if we accept that agents may have interests that outlive themselves, then one generation might wrong another by failing to listen to the claims that persist through time and across generations. This discussion is compatible with the conclusion that moral claims generally diminish in importance over time; as the world in which a given generation’s moral commitments were made changes, so too does the moral pull of those commitments diminish.


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