Factors which stipulate formation of Concept

Concept, in general, relates with Language, Cognition and Culture (as a language is a keeper, a store-house, a depository of a culture, and cognition is formed in a language and cultural surrounding)

The relations can be comprehended in the following way:

- Cognition is a sphere where Concept exists (it is kept there);

- Culture determines peculiarities of Concept (Concept is a mental projection of elements of Culture);

- Language (materialized through Speech) is a sphere in which Concept is realized, subjected.

Formation of Concept in Human Cognition is realized on the ground of:

- a man’s individual sensor experience (perception of reality with the organs of feelings and senses);

- direct operations of a man with objects and things that refer to his subjective activity;

- thinking operations of a man with other concepts (that have already been formed in his consciousness);

- language communication (explanation of the essence of a concept);

- own individual cognition of language units’ meanings which are learnt and mastered by a man (e.g., looking up into a dictionary to learn the meaning of a new word).

The phenomenon of Man is distinguished from the fauna of the world with the unique ability to cognize and, thus, with the phenomenon of cognition and the one of consciousness.

Cognition – mental ability to cognize the world: the process by which a man recognizes and understands things; the process by which knowledge and understanding is developed in the mind.

Consciousness – a certain comprehension of the world: someone’s mind and thoughts; the state of being able to use your senses and mental powers to understand what is happening.

Consciousness is stipulated by a number of general factors, such as the following:

1) psychic: the ability to feel, perceive the world, get experience and process it;

2) cognitive: the ability of a man to think and cognize the world and himself in it; the ability to process experience, get information, memorize it, as well as transform and develop;

3) psycholinguistic: the ability to speak and make thoughts come out in a language form;

4) cognitive-linguistic: the ability to form, keep and develop the system of a language (as peculiar knowledge);

5) general linguistic: the ability to use a language as a means of communication;

6) psychological: the ability to perceive the world and adopt in it in a peculiar individual way, etc.

Though there are some particular factors which also stipulate man’s consciousness, such as the following:

1) particular linguistic: the influence of a particular language on the way of perceiving the world, recognizing and understanding things;

2) cultural: the influence of a particular culture that directs traditional attitude to things;

3) social: the influence of a particular social group on the process of valuing (valuating) things;

4) age: the influence of the natural psychobiological laws in a particular stage of human development on the way of comprehending things;

5) gender: the influence of a particular gender on the attitude to things;

6) personal: an individual personal experience that stipulates the development of individual cognition, etc.

One of the phenomena that consciousness works out is a cognitive-linguistic phenomenon of Concept which is, on the one hand, a certain product of cognition, and, on the other one, a peculiar basic unit of consciousness.

Concept is a multisided complex phenomenon which is stipulated by a series of main factors, such as:

1) cognitive (general): the ability of men to think and cognize the world and themselves in it; the ability to process experience, get information, memorize it, as well as transform and develop;

2) linguistic (general): the ability of men to express their thoughts with a help of linguistic means, to present a thought in a language form in communicative purposes;

3) linguistic (particular): the influence of a particular language on perceiving things (e.g.: English is said to be a ‘predicative language’, rather ordered and quite a laconic one, Russian – ‘nominative’, ‘contemplating’ with quite a free order of words. Corresponding features can be followed in the Russian and English national characters);

4) cultural: the influence of a particular culture that directs traditional attitude to things (national mentality, customs, traditions, etc.);

5) social: the influence of a particular social group;

6) individual: unique attitude to the world.

Cognitive Linguistics studies Concept as a phenomenon which appears as a result of a certain collision of linguistic and psychological cognitive data.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14