The study of the problem of the existence of a special component in the meaning of a word, which at least to some extent contained information about the socio-historical reality in which this or that language exists and functions, has been carried out by linguists for many years.

In domestic linguistics, the issue of background knowledge was first considered in detail in the book by E.M. Vereshchagin and V.G. Kostomarov "Language and Culture". In her background knowledge are defined as “knowledge common to the participants in the communicative act”. In addition, there are a number of other definitions of background knowledge. So, for example, in the Dictionary of Linguistic Terms, background knowledge is defined as knowledge of realities by the speaker and listener, which is the basis of linguistic communication. A more detailed definition is offered by A.A. Nikitina, describing background knowledge as “a set of knowledge of a cultural, material-historical and pragmatic nature that is assumed by a native speaker” . In an even broader interpretation of G.D. Tomakhin, background knowledge is “practically all the knowledge that communicants have at the time of speech” . In a word, this is the information common to communicants that ensures mutual understanding during communication. Let's give a simple example: everyone in the family knows that the son has left to take the exam, and they are worried about him. Returning home from the exam, he can just say one word: “Great!” - and everything will be very clear to everyone. Or, for example, passing by an old mansion, you can say to your companion: "Eighteenth century" - and it will become clear that we are talking about an architectural monument of the 18th century. Also, only preliminary knowledge of N. Nekrasov’s poem “There are women in Russian villages ...” helps to fully understand a number of phrases and their meaning of N.M. Korzhavin’s poems:

The century has passed. And again,

As in that immemorial year,

Stop a galloping horse

He will enter the burning hut.

She would like to live differently

Wear precious clothes

But the horses keep jumping and jumping,

And the huts are burning and burning.

And finally, let's compare the phrase "garage sale" and its translation into Russian: literally "garage sale". But this isn't a garage sale, it's a second hand sale at the lowest prices; which is usually held for charitable purposes - a phenomenon typical of the cultural life of America.

In subsequent philological works, the definition of background knowledge changed, but the essence remained the same - background knowledge is heterogeneous. They can be classified, first, with respect to the scale of the social structure (social education) to which they belong. Secondly, regarding their relevance for a particular social group in a particular period of time. So, V.Ya.Shabes gives the following classification of background knowledge:

• 1. social (those that are known to all participants in the speech act even before the start of the message);
• 2. individual (those that are known only to two participants in the dialogue before the start of their communication);
• 3. collective (known to members of a certain team, related by profession, social relations, etc.)

V.Ya.Shabes emphasizes the fact that background knowledge can move from one type to another. For example, the death of a particular woman is a fact of individual knowledge, while the death of Princess Diana was a national, even world event, and thus this particular fact entered social knowledge. Or: the everyday fact of the appearance of mice in the house, in the kitchen is an individual knowledge concerning the life of a separate family (or one person). But the appearance of mice in the kitchen in the castle of Queen Elizabeth of England has become a fact of social knowledge.

E.M. Vereshchagin and V.G. Kostomarov also distinguish three types of background knowledge:

• 1. universal;
• 2. regional;
• 3. regional studies;

This classification, as the authors themselves note, is not entirely complete. It omits the social group knowledge inherent in certain social communities of people, doctors, teachers, drivers, etc. However, this omission is not significant, since the focus of their book is on the analysis of regional background knowledge, which is the main subject of research. Regional knowledge- this is "the information that all members of a certain ethnic or linguistic community have." Such knowledge is part of the national culture, the result of "the historical development of a given ethnic or state community in equal measure." They “form part of what sociologists call mass culture, that is, they represent information known to absolutely all members of the linguocultural community. Many writers are aware of the existence of geographic background knowledge, and this means that they are guided by them in their work not only intuitively, but also quite consciously. So, for example, the writer V. Soloukhin writes: “... there are concepts, phenomena and problems that are obligatory for every Russian person. You can study starfish, river mollusks, Ural minerals, the properties of rare metals, you can be an engineer, chemist, combine operator, football player, writer, ... but if you are a Russian person, you must know what Pushkin is, what is " A Word about Igor's Campaign, what is Dostoevsky, what is Field Kulikovo, Pokrov-on-Nerl, the Tretyakov Gallery, the Rublevskaya Trinity, the Mother of God of Vladimir.

Background knowledge as an element of culture, subject to its general pattern, is divided into topical background knowledge and background knowledge cultural heritage.

Actual background knowledge, reflecting various aspects of modern society, is observed, in particular, in the following cases:

One of the highlights of the holiday will be the summit of heads of state European Union and Russia;

The country has come era of privatization;

The market is crowded petrodollars;

Perestroika; consensus; Belovezhskaya agreement;

supermarket; small business; Show Business; i-phone; internet; PR; George Bush; Gwen Stephanie, Linking Park, etc.

From actual background knowledge of this type, it is necessary to distinguish actualized, reproduced, revived background knowledge that belongs to different time periods, but is transferred to the present and thus updated. Such revived background knowledge lies in linguistic expressions: the Northern Capital, St. Petersburg, St. Andrew's Flag, Sparrow Hills, Trafalgar square, Westminster Abbey, Capitol, White House, Liberty Statue, Palm Beach, etc.

As for the background knowledge of cultural heritage, they are rather “unstable”, since what was known to everyone yesterday often ceases to be relevant today. Here V.N. Visheratina proposes to draw an analogy with the development of the language: the language as a set of means of expression is constantly changing in the field of lexical composition, therefore the synchronous sections of the Russian literary language, reflected in the descriptions made every fifty years, differ from each other. The same thing, according to the linguist, can be observed in current culture: if we compare the totality of background knowledge characteristic of an educated Russian person in the middle of the 19th century with the regional knowledge of the beginning of the 20th century and our time, then all three synchronous slices will reveal considerable differences from each other. friend. V.N. Visheratina notes that especially great changes, both in the language and in the actual mass culture, take place during periods of great social transformations. I.S.Kon, who studied the issue of the relationship between current culture and cultural heritage, writes: “Modern youth knows immeasurably more about the physical structure of the world than graduates of the old “classical” gymnasium, but they do not know ancient languages, many biblical and mythological associations and images remain dead to her, incomprehensible. This interferes with the perception not only of ancient art, but even the understanding of art and literature of the 19th century. A similar phenomenon can be illustrated by the example of an excerpt from a poem by A.S. Pushkin: “The Kastalsky key with a wave of inspiration / In the steppe of a worldly exile waters”. Today, even to a quite intelligent person, if he is not a classical philologist by education, this image of the Castal Key may most likely seem obscure, and in order to understand it, one will have to turn to a mythological dictionary. Researchers argue that this state of affairs is absolutely normal, since the volume of actual culture has always changed, new knowledge, concepts and images have always replaced some part of the old ones, making them the property of museums and scholars. Now this process is going much faster than before.

Among the regional background knowledge, that part of them is also distinguished, which has the property of universal (for a given ethnic group or nationality) prevalence and is called weighted background knowledge. It is the weighted regional background knowledge that is of particular importance in the process of teaching foreign languages, as it is the source of selection and the necessary minimization of regional regional material for the purposes of teaching. Finally, scientists distinguish macro background, as a set of regional background knowledge of a given language community, and mini background- "the amount of background knowledge that the teacher models in the classroom for the reception of a particular work of art."

“Country background knowledge,” concludes E.M. Vereshchagin and V.G. Kostomarov, are exceptionally important for the so-called mass communication: a writer or journalist writing for a certain average audience intuitively takes into account weighted regional background knowledge and appeals to it.

Many linguists, such as A.A. Zalevskaya and L.A. Kuritsyna, consider the proposed definitions and classifications of background knowledge to be quite convincing, but they argue that other terminology may also correspond to them. It is associated with computer science, in which they operate with the term "thesaurus"- a set of data about any field of knowledge, which allows you to correctly navigate in it. Therefore, the thesaurus can be understood as different volumes of knowledge in general. It can be: global, international, regional, national, group, individual.

Global includes all the knowledge acquired and mastered by man in the process of his historical development; it is the greatest treasury of world culture. Regional And national thesauri are determined by the historically established volume of knowledge that is characteristic of a given geosocial zone or a given nation (batyr, madam, hut, baba-yaga, Robin Hood, castle, witch, cowboy, wigwam). Group and individual occupy the lowest rung in this division. Their volumes are negligible compared to the rest. In all these thesauri, a certain amount of knowledge is found, which is mastered in all regions and all developed nations. That's what it is universal (international) thesaurus. Each individual owns some part of it. In regional and national thesauri, there is a certain amount of purely national knowledge, which was not co-owned by other national groups.

Before continuing the consideration of linguistic and cultural problems, it seems more appropriate to use the term "background information", which corresponds to a purely national thesaurus and the concept of background knowledge, but is narrower in comparison with it. background information- this is socio-cultural information characteristic only for a certain nation or nationality, mastered by the mass of their representatives and reflected in the language of this national community. In this case, it is fundamentally important that this is not just knowledge, for example, the habits of animals that live in only one geographical area, or the musical rhythms of a given ethnic group, or recipes for preparing national dishes, although all this, in principle, also forms part of background knowledge, it is important that this is only the knowledge (information) that is reflected in the national language, in its words and combinations.

The content of background information covers, first of all, the specific facts of the history and state structure of the national community, the features of its geographical environment, the characteristic objects of material culture of the past and present, ethnographic and folklore concepts, and so on - that is, everything that is usually called in translation theory realities. Thus, realities are understood not only as facts, phenomena and objects, but also their names, words and phrases. Linguists do not consider this fact to be accidental, because knowledge is fixed in concepts that have one form of existence - verbal. Most of the concepts are universal, although they are embodied in a different verbal form. However, those concepts that reflect realities are national in nature and materialize in the so-called non-equivalent vocabulary. Along with this, the Russian linguist V.S. Vinogradov considers this term not very successful, since in translation such words find certain equivalents.

In addition to ordinary realities, marked by non-equivalent vocabulary, background information contains realities of a special kind, which can be called associative - realities associated with a variety of national historical and cultural phenomena and very peculiarly embodied in the language. Associative realities were not reflected in special words, in non-equivalent vocabulary, but were "entrenched" in the most common words. They find their materialized expression in the components of the meanings of words, in the shades of words and in the internal verbal form, revealing informational mismatches of conceptually similar words in the compared languages. Thus, it turns out that the words sun, moon, sea, red, etc. in the literary texts of a particular language are accompanied by regional background knowledge, background information. For example, the title of the novel by the Panamanian writer Joaquin Beleno "Luna verde" is translated into Russian literally "Green Moon". For a Russian reader, such an image is likely to cause only bewilderment or false associations. For a resident of Panama or Chile, this is a symbol of hope, a good omen, an image of the coming morning, because for many Latin Americans, green represents everything young and beautiful, symbolizes the joy of being, and the concept of the moon is associated with the spiritual state of a person, his mood, his fate (cf. the use of the word moon in phraseological units estar de buena (mala) luna - to be in a good (bad) mood; darle (a alguien) la luna - he is not himself, he has become clouded; quedarse a la luna (de Valencia) - stay neither with what, to be deceived in one's hopes; dejar a la luna (de Valencia) - to leave with nothing, to deceive, etc.).

The concept of background information is closely related to the broader and more ambiguous concept of implicit or implied information. Researchers include in it both the pragmatic preconditions of the text, and the situation of verbal communication, and presuppositions based on knowledge of the world, which are components of the statement that make it meaningful, and implications, and subtext, and the so-called vertical context and allusions, symbols, puns, and other implicit, hidden, additional content deliberately incorporated by the author in the text (cf. old man, old man, old man, old man, old man).

According to V.A. Zvegintsev, the most obvious in various linguistic concepts is the ambiguity of interpretations presuppositions And background knowledge, which are usually pointed out when discussing hidden, implied meanings. And since the concepts of presupposition and background knowledge occupy a central place in the coverage of issues of implicit categories, the insufficient development of these issues as a whole makes it difficult to differentiate between these concepts and see in them not only a terminological or generic, but also a qualitative and functional difference.

According to A.A. Kryukov, the allocation of implicit meanings as not explicitly expressed by linguistic means, however, implied mental content, has its own historical and linguistic prerequisites. In the linguistic literature, B. L. Whorf’s “hidden categories” are considered as such prerequisites: hidden categories(English covert categories) - a special type of linguistic meanings that do not have "open" (that is, formally distinguished, morphological) means of expression in the language, but, nevertheless, are included in the grammatical system of the language on the basis of "indirect" (for example, syntactic) features that allow us to talk about their presence. And, in addition, the "conceptual categories" of O. Jespersen and I.I. Meshchaninov: "conceptual categories"- closed systems of meanings of some universal semantic features or individual meanings of these features, regardless of the degree of their grammaticalization and the way of expression in a particular language.

In connection with the historical and linguistic prerequisites for highlighting implicit meanings, in many linguistic works, attention is drawn to the concept of "ellipticity" of G. Paul's speech, and the doctrine of the "nearest" (an internal form that makes it possible for the speaker and listener to understand each other) and "further" (at the level of individual perception) meaning of the word A.A. Potebnya. We also consider it necessary to point to an earlier anticipation of the categories of implicit meanings, found in the linguistic concept of W. Humboldt and contained in his following statement: “In each expression, as if something overflows the edge of the word, which has not found its final and complete embodiment in it. .. Many things are not contained directly in the language ... The human being has a premonition of some sphere that goes beyond the limits of the language and which the language, in fact, to some extent limits, but that, nevertheless, it is he who is the only means to penetrate into this sphere... The language, as it were, acquires transparency and gives a glimpse into the inner train of thought.

From the point of view of A.N. Kryukov, this statement prompts reflection on the status of the implied content behind linguistic expressions, that is, on the status of implicit meanings in terms of their linguistic or non-linguistic reference. In modern linguistic literature, there are many different statements that draw attention to the fact that implicit content, to one degree or another, is a constant companion of linguistic expressions. Based on this, it can be argued that implicit meanings and, in particular, background knowledge exist in a non-linguistic form.

As a result of the analysis of the concepts of implicit meanings presented in the linguistic literature, it can be assumed that the area of ​​implied content is an insufficiently clearly divided mental space covered by intersecting and overlapping concepts and, accordingly, terms. Often what is defined as presupposition is otherwise defined as background knowledge and vice versa. Apparently, this is due to the extensive use of the concept of "presupposition" in linguistic science due to the widespread distribution of the conceptual apparatus of logic. So, relatively few works are devoted to the actual linguistic study of background knowledge, in this terminological definition, while various interpretations of presupposition are contained in many works devoted to the study of the functional aspect of language. For example, New in foreign linguistics. -Issue. XVI, 1985;-Vol. ХХШ, 1988 and other works.

E. Sapir considers it unlawful to consider the predominant distribution of the concept of "presupposition" as only a terminological preference in relation to the designated phenomenon. According to him, the very scope of everything implied behind linguistic expressions provides a basis for distinctions within it, and, above all, a distinction between background knowledge and presupposition.

According to linguists, the fact that in various interpretations of implicit categories there is ambiguity in their interpretation has its own objective reason, among other things, also in the fact that the nomenclature of implicit meanings is not just a series, a list, a list of relevant terms or terminological concepts, but a certain a system of categories reflecting the complex interweaving and interaction of implicit meanings of different nature. This interaction greatly complicates the task of their differentiation. At the same time, however, two directions in the linguistic coverage of the problem of background knowledge attract attention:

• 1) one direction is characterized by an emphasis on the sociocultural realities of the idioethnic plan. Its representatives E.M. Vereshchagin, V.G. Kostomarov, G.D. Tomakhin;
• 2) another direction is focused on linguistic communication and a broad interpretation of the concept of "background knowledge", in the light of which "background knowledge ... exists in the form of numerous logical implications and presuppositions" . A broad interpretation of background knowledge and its assignment to a non-linguistic sphere, on the other hand, is accompanied by the recognition that the question of the nature of the relation of background knowledge to linguistic forms remains open.

Simultaneously with the broad interpretation of the concept of "background knowledge", there is an equally wide interpretation of the concept of "presupposition" in terms of scope of the implied area. This concept, as it were, absorbs all types of implied content, including background knowledge.

As a result of various interpretations of background knowledge and presupposition, it turns out that either presupposition is a kind of background knowledge, or background knowledge is part of presupposition.

Following the onomasiological principle, that is, the direction of the analysis from real facts to their categorization, it seems possible to single out the following types of implicit meanings: first of all, this is the implied content, due to everyday experience, current events, various circumstances of everyday life - economic, political, scientific and technical, cultural and educational, environmental, purely informational, everyday, etc. Such implied content depends solely on the context of the situation and is observed mainly in elliptical, as well as in full statements (microtexts). For example: - And where was a big piece of ham? - I cut it (that is, "that big piece no longer exists"). Yes! I "ve finally got it! (The speaker got a job, but this statement is clear only to those people who are aware of his affairs).

Such implicit meanings are present in everyday communication in live speech, as well as in textual communication, especially in the media - in newspaper texts, often in newspaper headlines. These implicit meanings are included in the communicative process through the corresponding linguistic expressions with which they are situationally related. Accompanying elliptical as well as full statements, such implicit meanings are preconditions And consequences in relation to the explicit content of the corresponding linguistic expressions. An example is the expression: Furniture center - seven days a week.

Implicit meanings, which are self-evident prerequisites due to everyday social experience and current events of everyday life, most of all, in our opinion, correspond to the concept "presupposition". Consider a few examples: “Ippolit Matveyevich looked askance at the old woman” (Ilf I.A., Petrov E.P. Twelve chairs); presupposition = he does not trust the old woman. Or: “Relationships were thus restored, and all three sat down on the bench again” (M. Bulgakov. Master and Margarita) = people in a quarrel try not to communicate and not be around. Also: “He was two years younger than I was, but he was about fifty times as intelligent” (J. D. Salinger. The Catcher in the Rye) = to be older means to be more intelligent.

The inferential meanings that follow from the entire content of the statement as consequences can obviously be defined as implications. For example, Elevator for office use. The use of implicit information of this type is especially typical for advertising texts. So, the advertising headline "What will replace the vacuum cleaner?" contains the implicit information "Something will replace the vacuum cleaner." "Why is 'Magical' especially useful?" (yogurt commercial) = "Magical is especially healthy." AOL online company slogan: “So easy to use, no wonder it" s number one "- AOL = "AOL number 1 in the world." GENERAL ELECTRIC HR department slogan: “There are no Whites working at G.E. No Blacks either. Just people. And we need more." Human Resources GENERAL ELECTRIC = Competitive recruitment based on discriminatory factors. And finally, "Quicker than Rudolf, bigger than Santa, more sensual than mistletoe, warmer than socks, miles better than charades and the biggest surprise of all” - Interflora flowers = Christmas is a great occasion to present flowers from Interflora flowers as a gift to your loved ones.

Another type of inferential implicit meanings are implicit meanings of a connotative plan, that is, connotations. Linguists E. M. Vereshchagin and V. G. Kostomarov define connotations as stylistic, emotional and semantic shades accompanying words that do not exist on their own, they are usually “grouped” in a word that has its own material-semantic content, superimposed on one of its meanings. For example, in many European languages, the word for fox has the connotation of "cunning" or "cunning". It is clear that these signs are not essential for this class of animals, since in order to call some animal a fox, we do not need to check whether it is cunning. Consequently, the sign of cunning is not included in the definition of this word, but nevertheless it is steadily associated with it in the language, as evidenced by the figurative use of the word fox (a) in relation to a cunning person. Connotations embody the assessment of the object or fact of reality denoted by the word, accepted in a given language community and fixed in the culture of a given society, and reflect cultural traditions. So, cunning and deceit are constant characteristics of the fox as a character in animal tales in the folklore of many peoples. Other examples of connotations are signs of "stubbornness" and "stupidity" in the word donkey, "monotonity" in the word saw, "quickness" and "inconstancy" in the word wind. In addition, in the same language, words with similar meanings can also have very different connotations - this is demonstrated by the example of the difference in connotations of the word donkey (“stubbornness”, “stupidity”) belonging to the Russian specialist in lexical semantics Y.D. Apresyan from the connotations of the word donkey (“willingness to work hard and meekly”). The following example illustrates the connotations that arose on the basis of cultural and historical development: “We fought Lexington to free ourselves / We fought Gettysburg to free others.” So, speaking of important historical events, they only indirectly name the place where they occurred: Lexington - a city in the United States, where in 1778 the first battle took place during the War of Independence of the North American colonies. Gettysburg - the place where from June 1 to June 3, 1863, the northerners won a decisive victory over the slave owners of the South.

Many connotations that reflect the specificity of the culture of a particular linguocultural community are quite peculiar. Along with this, connotations can situationally arise both on the basis of presuppositions and also on the basis of various kinds of implications. For example, Brevity is not always a sister, and sometimes a mother-in-law.

A qualitatively different type of implicit meanings, in comparison with those described above, linguists call implicit sense-knowledge relating to the field of socio-cultural and historical heritage of different time periods, including modernity. Such implicit sense-knowledge lies behind the proper names of prominent personalities or characters of various works, behind remarkable geographical designations and names of various historical events, cultural monuments, etc. Implicit meanings-knowledge, therefore, stand behind the linguistic expressions, names and designations of everything that has left some kind of mark on the life of society and is stored, precisely due to linguistic fixation, in the social memory of generations. Such implicit meanings-knowledge can have both universal and idio-ethnic significance. According to W. Humboldt, the implicit meanings-knowledge, which we are talking about in this case, most of all correspond to the concept of "background knowledge". processes.

And, finally, any kind of implied content, all kinds of implicit meanings, everything that is not explicitly expressed, standing behind an explicit text, can be defined, according to E. Sapir, by the concept "subtext". The subtext is revealed with the help of material language indicators contained in the text; They are the ones that give access to hidden information. Indicators can refer to different language levels:

• a) words and phrases, when by these indicators the receptor guesses about the hidden content, about the meaning of the subtext;
• b) sentences or parts of the text, when the expressed message causes the reader or listener to perceive implicit information;
• c) the work as a whole, when the entire text is associated with a secondary implicit meaning or text.

Types and types of subtext are very diverse. Subtextual content can be correlated with the sphere of language, literature, folklore, mythology (this is all philological subtext), with reality itself, the social environment (historical and modern), with event, everyday facts, etc.

Thus, the distinction between background knowledge and presupposition, based on the study of specific linguistic material in text communication, we consider it possible to present in the following comparative characteristics:

1. Language and speech relatedness these types of implicit meanings. Background knowledge is characterized by a transposition from the system of language into the sphere of communication. In the field of communication, background knowledge is, as it were, reproduced, that is, reproduced. And the interaction of background knowledge with the context of the situation is such that these implicit meanings-knowledge transferred from the language system to the sphere of communication have a certain autonomy in relation to the context of the situation in which they are used. Interacting with the context of the situation, background knowledge does not entirely depend on it, in other words, it is not created by it. For example, the Augean stables; Tower of Babel; Ivan Susanin; Plushkin; Don Juan of the 20th century; Raskolnikov's heir; Cyrillic, Robin Hood and so on.

In contrast, presuppositions are predominantly produced, that is, they are generated, created by the context of the situation and are entirely conditioned by it. Thus, it seems possible to distinguish between background knowledge and presupposition to a certain extent, taking into account the dichotomy of language and speech.

2. The next important, in our opinion, basis for distinguishing between background knowledge and presupposition is time factor. Background knowledge as such, as a type of implicit meanings, is distinguished by a wide time range, which is a temporary space from the cultural and historical heritage of antiquity to the present, inclusive.

In contrast, presupposition is a rather synchronous phenomenon. Although certain temporal characteristics mediated by background knowledge may be characteristic of presupposition as a factor accompanying background knowledge of different times.

3. The difference between background knowledge and presupposition is also manifested in the sphere of their functional interaction. In the language system, there are constant presuppositions accompanying background knowledge, and in communication with background knowledge, variable contextual presuppositions interact. Thus, background knowledge is inevitably connected and interacts with presupposition.

In contrast, presuppositions can act independently, without connection with background knowledge. It is precisely such cases of presuppositions not burdened with background knowledge that are found in various everyday situations of communication. This is just the most typical manifestation of presupposition as a phenomenon in its "pure" form, which can be observed in numerous examples from the media. Thus, in an advertising message from the telecommunications company Vodafone: "Find out why more business people prefer Vodafone", the subordinate clause "why more business people prefer Vodafone" carries the explicit presupposition "most business people use Vodafone".

Doctor of Philology, Professor E.V.Vladimirova developed a temporary typology of background knowledge based on the temporal criterion. According to her, “the proposed delimitation is conceived as one of the possible options. The difference between the possible variants of the temporal typology of background knowledge is seen only in the details of delimiting one of the identified types from the other. The general principle remains the same.

The temporal typology of background knowledge in the proposed version has the following characteristics:

1. Diachronic background knowledge - F.zn.D1(where Ph.zn. = background knowledge, and D = a certain stage of historical space). In this case, we mean the time period from antiquity to modern times (in accordance with the definition of modern times in historical science) without special detailed distinctions in this period. Examples:

At confucius birthday. He is 2550 years old.

earth and sky Hellas.

"...during King Phillip"s War" (N.Hawthorne) - "... during the war with King Philip».

From their peasant resistance roots, the Ninja at some stage became organized into families.

Although Leonardo produced a relatively small number of paintings, many of which remained unfinished, he was nevertheless an extraordinarily innovative and influential artist.

2. Diachronic background knowledge - F.zn.D2. Time period New time, mainly 18th and 19th centuries.

There are 109 characters on the grandiose composition - from Rurik before Peter the Great(F.zn.D1 and F.zn.D2).

The French sold the last shirt under the hammer Napoleon... Cards and other "trinkets" with an autograph used a lot of excitement Bonaparte.

3. Diachronic background knowledge - F.zn.D3. The time period is mainly the 20th century in its first and early second half.

beatlemania began in Britain.

Poetry Silver Age; Hunt for archives Lubyanka; The Hudson River school- Hudson School.

4. Synchronous background knowledge - F.zn.S1(where C = different time relatedness in synchrony). The time period is mainly the second half of the 20th century, which in this typology is the beginning of the synchronous period. According to the author of the classification, “between diachronic background knowledge of the D3 type and synchronous background knowledge of the C1 type, in some cases it is difficult to draw any definite boundaries, since both one and the other of the selected types essentially belong to the recent past. Therefore, this distinction can be accepted with a large degree of convention.

Allan S. Konigsberg changed his name to Woody Allen. He was sixteen and starting to write jokes which he sent to several of the major New York newspapers hoping them to be used by some of the gossip columnists.

Security Council; UN; NATO; Generation sixties; Base jumping, etc.

Be our Zheglov private detective.

5. Synchronous background knowledge - F.zn.S2. The time period is the near present, current events. In a generalized view, this is the end of the 20th - the beginning of the 21st century.

As Gabriel Garcia Marquez once wrote of her, Shakira's music has a personal stamp that doesn't look like anyone else's and no one can sing or dance like her, at whatever age, with such an innocent sensuality, one that seems to be of her own invention".

Miss Universe; New Russians; "Euro"; Green Party; Perestroika; Epoch privatization; International Tribunal in The Hague, September 11, Silicon Valley, Harry Potter etc.

Therefore, the types of background knowledge identified depending on the time factor can be symbolically represented as follows: F.zn.D1, F.zn.D2, F.zn.D3, F.zn.С1, F.zn.С2.

Thus, background knowledge is placed in temporal space in diachrony and synchrony. In communication, multitemporal background knowledge interacts not only with other types of implicit meanings, but also with each other. The presented temporal typology of background knowledge is thus based on the most general temporal characteristics. Concerning this issue, E.V. Vladimirova considers it necessary to take into account not only a certain blurring of the boundaries between the distinguished temporal types of background knowledge, but also the mobility of such boundaries. This is due to the fact that one type of background knowledge can eventually act as another. Thus, the redistribution of boundaries is carried out over time constantly in the direction from synchrony to diachrony - from F.zn.S2 to F.zn.C1 and F.zn.D3 and beyond.

A special type of actualization of diachronic background knowledge in synchrony is the functioning of such background knowledge, which, once having arisen, did not interrupt its synchronous significance. It's kind of achronic, background knowledge that has not lost its synchronous significance. Such background knowledge is behind expressions: the Green Museum, the Aivazovsky Gallery, as well as the Dresden Gallery, the Tretyakov Gallery, Christmas, Shrovetide, Easter, the Bible, the Koran, the Constitution, Red-brick University, Thanksgiving Day, Halloween, etc.

As evidenced by numerous examples, the actualization of diachronic background knowledge is a fairly common phenomenon in the synchronous (modern) functioning of the language. E.V.Vladimirova adds that actualization is often accompanied by a synchronous transformation of the corresponding language expressions, behind which one or another diachronic background knowledge is hidden. Along with the transformation of linguistic expressions, at the same time, diachronic background knowledge is also transformed in terms of adaptation to synchrony. And thus, the diachronic and synchronous factors seem to be combined.

The following cases can serve as examples of updated diachronic background knowledge with various modifications:

There is only one problem in Russia: fools on the road

Generals in politics are as popular as they are at a wedding

Serve? Always! Serve? Same

Did you pray at night, Desdemona?

Romeo and Juliet scammed

Raskolnikov's heir

Oleg Tabakov - the best Molière of the 20th century

Long years domestic Holmes entrance to literature was categorically ordered

In the vast expanses of our country, a million ... Akaki Akakieviches work

Casanova of the 20th century

A distinctive feature of such updated background knowledge is their characterizing function in various communicative situations. If other types of background knowledge - actually diachronic from different historical periods, revived and achronic background knowledge, acting as relevant along with newly emerged ones - relate to the purpose of the message, then these updated background knowledge function as a basis for comparing and characterizing other objects, phenomena, events, personalities related to the modern life of society. Such updated background knowledge, unlike other types of background knowledge, which mainly performs nominative (denotative) function, perform evaluative (significative) function. Compare:

Secret testament Mao Zedong and Russian Mao Zedong

Hunt for archives Lubyanka and the truck was seized local Lubyanka.

Since we consider background knowledge as a specific semantic category, the question arises of whether this category is related to linguistic semantics, that is, to the content side of linguistic expressions, to their meanings. The question of the status of implicit meanings and, in particular, background knowledge in terms of their linguistic relevance is solved in various linguistic concepts, mainly in such a way that implicit meanings, including background knowledge, are brought out of the language into an extralinguistic area of ​​mental content. It turns out that, on the one hand, background knowledge is, as it were, outside the language, on the other hand, they do not have their own status as such, their independent existence as background knowledge without language. According to S. D. Katsnelson, background knowledge appears as a kind of two sides of the same coin, since in one respect they belong to the sphere of thinking, in another respect they also belong to the language. And in connection with the latter, he expresses the opinion that background knowledge is not correlated as something external with linguistic expressions, as non-linguistic with linguistic, namely, it belongs to the language, as if from the inside, permeate linguistic expressions, thus justifying the understanding and definition of them. as an implicit phenomenon based on its explicit design.

We believe that such an approach to the category of background knowledge leads to the recognition of their linguistic status. But then it becomes unclear how to correlate the language status of background knowledge with the language status of the semantics of language units. After all, the semantics of linguistic expressions, according to the majority of linguists, is axiomatically recognized as linguistic belonging and is defined in the formulations: explicit content, explicit meaning.

Along with explicit meanings, linguistic expressions also contain something internal (implicit), that is, certain meanings. We are talking about constant meanings-knowledge, assigned to linguistic units in the language system, accompanying explicit meanings. Thus, the semantics of language units that have background knowledge splits, as it were, and, therefore, appears as a unity of explicit (meaning) and implicit (background knowledge). And then background knowledge gets the status of implicit semantics of language expressions.

From the foregoing, we can bring the following concept of background knowledge, the main provisions of which are as follows:

• - Background knowledge can be defined as a specific implicit category, which is not a current, self-evident implied content, as is typical for presupposition, but implicit sense-knowledge, assigned to linguistic expressions in the language system and reproduced in the field of communication.
• - Background knowledge, being realized in the sphere of communication, is in constant interaction with other types of implicit meanings, represented by presuppositions, implications and connotations. The concept of subtext is generic in relation to all types of implicit meanings, including in relation to background knowledge. At the same time, background knowledge, like presuppositions, are basic, while implications and connotations are inferential meanings.

Background knowledge can be distinguished from presupposition on the following grounds:

• - Background knowledge is characterized by fixedness in the language system, the property of reproduction in communication and such interaction with the context of the situation in which background knowledge has its own specific weight.
• - Presuppositions are created by the context of the situation and are entirely conditioned by it. Linguistic expressions act only as stimulators of presupposition.
• - As a basis for distinguishing background knowledge from presupposition, one can also consider the presence of implicit sense-knowledge of a time range, on the basis of which there is a temporal typology of background knowledge. In accordance with this, background knowledge is considered in the temporary historical space and is determined as it moves away from antiquity and approaches the present as types of diachronic background knowledge - D1, D2 and D3. There are also types of synchronous background knowledge - C1 and C2.
• - Unlike presupposition, when updating background knowledge in communicative processes, they can act as a basis for comparison and as a means of evaluating characteristics of synchronously significant designated objects.
• - Background knowledge is in constant interaction with presuppositions, implications and connotations. In contrast, presuppositions can also appear without any connection with background knowledge, which is observed in their mass presence in various situations of communication with elliptical sentences characteristic of such situations.
• - The definition of background knowledge as a specific implicit category does not imply the removal of this category outside the language. The property of implicitness in application to background knowledge is understood as something constantly standing as implied behind linguistic expressions. And this constant fixation of the implied (implicit) meanings-knowledge determines their specific linguistic status.

Recognition of the language status behind the background knowledge allows a broader interpretation of the content of words, phrases and various expressions, behind which there are certain background knowledge. In the semantics of such expressions, explicit meanings and implicit semantic knowledge, that is, background knowledge, interact. And thus, background knowledge can be defined as an implicit aspect of the semantics of linguistic expressions.

Based on the analysis of various linguo-cultural literature, and summing up all of the above, we can conclude the following: the specifics of a linguo-cultural community is a set of background knowledge - that is, all information known to all members of the national community. There are many different approaches to the definition of the concept of "background knowledge" and to their classification. In the semantic structure of the word, background knowledge is present both explicitly and implicitly. Verbalization of background knowledge is a separate cognitive task and does not occur in everyday communication. A huge role in the formation of background knowledge is played by modern mass media. In this regard, modern linguoculturologists note that the abundance of incoming information forms a surface layer of knowledge, only fleeting impressions and fragments of knowledge and ideas remain in memory, which leads to the formation of the so-called "mosaic culture". The practical meaning of the concept of "background knowledge" lies in the fact that the study of a foreign language should be based on the assimilation of regional knowledge.

In the next chapter, we will consider in more detail the functions, structure and content of background knowledge as the basis of a linguocultural community.

Lecture 3 Conceptual and conceptual apparatus of linguoculturology. The specificity of the linguocultural community

Lecture plan:

1Cultural space and linguistic and cultural community as an object of linguistic and cultural studies;

2 Basic concepts and linguistic essences of linguoculturology (linguocultureme, cultural text, subculture, linguocultural paradigm, cultural semes, cultural concepts, cultural traditions, cultural space).

3 Specifics of the linguocultural community

Cultural space and linguistic and cultural community as an object of linguistic and cultural studies

As an object of linguocultural studies (V.P. Furmanova's term), as a science of the relationship between language and culture, the specificity of a linguocultural community is considered. A community is defined as "any human community that is characterized by regular and frequent interaction through a single set of speech signs and differs from other communities by significant differences in the use of language" (Gumperi, 1975). The linguocultural community is characterized not only by the language, but also by a certain social organization and culture. Consequently, a linguocultural community can be distinguished on the basis of linguistic, cultural and sociological characteristics. The specificity of the linguocultural community is established by comparing linguistic phenomena, cultural and social correlates.

To denote differences, the term "divergence" is introduced. As a result of the comparison of linguocultural communities, it is possible to identify linguo-, socio- and ethno-cultural divergences, which are found on the basis of a contrastive description. Linguocultural divergences are the means of national-cultural nomination. Realia words, toponyms, anthroponyms, ethnonyms, etc. act as units that carry differences. As for socio- and ethno-cultural divergences, they include means of national-cultural orientation: social and ethnic indicators, norms and rules of behavior, cultural traditions. Linguo-, socio- and ethno-cultural divergences indicate that the specificity of the linguo-cultural community is reflected in the background knowledge.

Basic concepts and linguistic essences of linguoculturology (linguocultureme, cultural text, subculture, linguocultural paradigm, cultural semes, cultural concepts, cultural traditions, cultural space)

The categorical apparatus of linguoculturology is a set of fundamental concepts that together characterize the model of linguocultural reality. This apparatus analyzes the problem of the relationship between language and culture in their dynamics.

Linguistic culture- a term introduced by V.V. Vorobyov. When studying the relationship and interaction of language and culture as a complex problem, it turns out to be appropriate to single out a special unit that synthesizes both correlating phenomena in itself. A linguocultureme includes segments of not only language (linguistic meaning), but also culture (non-linguistic cultural meaning), represented by the corresponding sign.

Linguocultureme as a complex interlevel unit is a dialectical unity of linguistic and extralinguistic (conceptual and subject) content. This unit is more “deep” in its essence than the word. A linguocultureme incorporates a linguistic representation and the "extra-linguistic, cultural environment" (situation, reality) inextricably linked with it - a stable network of associations, the boundaries of which are unsteady and mobile.

The depth of the representation associated with the word, that is, the content of the linguocultureme, is directly related to the linguocultural competence of native speakers - the knowledge of the ideal speaker-listener of the entire system of cultural values ​​expressed in the language. Ignorance of the "cultural halo" of the word leaves the recipient at the linguistic level, does not allow to penetrate into the deep network of cultural associations, that is, into the meaning of the statement, the text as a reflection of a cultural phenomenon.

The degree of understanding of the content of the realities and concepts of culture (for example, in the communication of a native speaker of a given language and a representative of other languages ​​and cultures) largely depends on the degree of coincidence of their linguocultural competencies. For a foreigner who does not know Russian culture well, the idea of ​​a round dance may be limited to its own linguistic content (“a round dance as a folk game, the movement of people in a circle with singing and dancing”). Compare with V.I. Dahl: “a circle, a street, a gathering of rural girls and youth of both sexes, in the free air, for dancing with songs. Spring round dances lead from the first warm days, from Easter and the Trinity; in summer, suffering, not to round dances, but autumn ones from Spozhinok, Assumption, until Christmas, until the Intercession ... ". Thus, the immersion of the word-sign in the cultural environment leads to the gradual formation of a linguocultureme with various kinds of associations that go beyond the usual language definition.

Subculture - secondary, subordinate cultural system (youth subculture, etc.).

Linguocultural paradigm- this is a set of linguistic forms that reflect ethnically, socially, historically, scientifically, etc. deterministic categories of worldview. The linguocultural paradigm combines concepts, categorical words, precedent names of culture, etc. Language forms are the basis of the paradigm, which is, as it were, “stitched” with meaningful representations.

Cultural Semes - smaller and more universal than the word, semantic units, semantic features. For example, the following cultural semes can be distinguished from the words “samovar”, “bast shoes”, “shchi”: bast shoes - peasant shoes woven from bast; samovar - a vessel with a firebox inside, for Russian tea drinking; shchi - a dish of chopped cabbage, Russian food.

Cultural concepts - the names of abstract concepts, therefore, cultural information is attached to the significat, i.e. the conceptual core. The concept of "concept", introduced into linguistics by D.S. Likhachev, means "a clot of culture in the mind of a person", a "bundle" of ideas, knowledge, associations, experiences that accompany the word. Concepts, understood as the supporting cells of culture in the mental world of a person, can be used as supporting elements for comparing mentalities, as well as cultural and value dominants. The key concepts of Russian culture are the concepts of "soul", "fate", "longing". The key concepts of American culture are “challenge”, “privacy”, efficiency”, etc.

cultural traditions- a set of the most valuable elements of social and cultural heritage.

cultural space- the form of existence of culture in the minds of its representatives. The cultural space is correlated with the cognitive space (individual and collective), since it is formed by the totality of all individual and collective spaces of all representatives of a given cultural-national community. For example, Russian cultural space, English cultural space, etc.

The specificity of the linguocultural community

a. Background knowledge and their forms (verbal and non-verbal).

b. The structure of background knowledge: verbal, verbal-etiquette, ritual-etiquette components.

Basic concepts of linguoculturology

Cultural linguistics as a special field of science has given rise to many productive concepts in modern linguistics. The most important concepts for this lecture course are those with which cultural information can be presented in linguistic units: linguocultureme, language of culture, cultural text, context of culture, subculture, linguocultural paradigm, precedent names of culture, key names of culture, cultural universal, cultural competence, cultural inheritance, cultural traditions, cultural process, cultural attitudes and others. The conceptual apparatus of science also includes such terms as mentality, mentality, ritual, custom, sphere of culture, type of culture, civilization, paganism and some others.

The most important concepts for this collective work are those with which cultural information can be represented in linguistic units: cultural semes, cultural background, cultural concepts and cultural connotations.

Culture constants(that is, stable and permanent (although not immutable) concepts that contain the special values ​​of culture; the constants of Russian culture, by all accounts, are most fully represented in the dictionary of Yu. S. Stepanov ( soul, will, melancholy, Russian dance, etc.)

Cultural Semes- smaller and more universal than the word, semantic units, semantic features. For example, the words “samovar”, “bast shoes”, “schi” we can distinguish the following cultural semes: bast shoes - peasant shoes woven from bast; samovar - a vessel with a firebox inside, for Russian tea drinking; cabbage soup - a dish of chopped cabbage, Russian food.

cultural background- characteristics of nominative units (words and phraseological units) denoting the phenomena of social life and historical events - disappeared as a Swede near Poltava, red-brown(about the national patriots of Russia).

The two types of cultural information described above are localized in the denotation, they are relatively well studied by linguistic and regional studies.

cultural concepts- the names of abstract concepts, therefore, cultural information is attached to the significat, i.e., the conceptual core (the most common and practically universally recognized is the definition of a cultural concept proposed by Yu. S. Stepanov: “A concept is like a clot of culture in a person’s mind; , in the form of which culture enters the mental world of a person.And, on the other hand, the concept is something through which a person - an ordinary, ordinary person, not a "creator of cultural values" - enters culture himself, and in some cases influences her"

cultural heritage- transfer of cultural values, information significant for culture.

cultural traditions- the totality of the most valuable elements of social and cultural heritage.

cultural process- interaction of elements belonging to the system of cultural phenomena.

cultural space- the form of existence of culture in the minds of its representatives. The cultural space is correlated with the cognitive space (individual and collective), because it is formed by the totality of all individual and collective spaces of all representatives of a given cultural-national community. For example, Russian cultural space, English cultural space, etc.

Linguocultural paradigm- this is a set of linguistic forms that reflect ethnically, socially, historically, scientifically, etc. deterministic categories of worldview. The linguocultural paradigm combines concepts, categorical words, precedent names of culture, etc. Language forms are the basis of the paradigm, which is, as it were, “stitched” with meaningful representations.

Linguoculturology distinguishes between the spheres of material and spiritual cultures. The area of ​​material culture is the environment in which national personalities exist. One of the aspects of the study of Russian material culture is the cultural-historical commentary. Thus, the general paradigm of the names of the Russian monetary system can be represented as follows: penny, money, kopeck, penny, altyn, hryvnia, hryvnia, ruble, chervonets.

The aradigmatic linguoculturological value of units of the class "designation of monetary units" is manifested in proverbs and sayings that characterize the assessment of situations, behavior, certain character traits of a Russian person: Across the sea, a heifer is a half, but I’m transporting a ruble; The rich and the stingy ruble cries, and the thrifty and the wretched half jumps, The caftan is golden, and the darling is a half; A penny saves a ruble; A labor penny lives forever; His penny will burn through the beggar's hand; Not a penny, but fame is good; Altyn thief is hanged, honored with a half; There will be no mind - there will be no ruble. Through the paradigm of monetary relations, certain features of the Russian national personality, its spiritual world, its ethical, aesthetic and other aspects are revealed.

mentality(Russified version mentality - intellectual world of a person SIS);- this is a worldview in the categories and forms of the native language, which combine the intellectual, spiritual and volitional qualities of the national character in its typical manifestations. The concept of a given culture is recognized as a unit of mentality (see Dictionary of Concepts of Russian Culture by Yu. S. Stepanov).

According to A.Ya. Gurevich, mentality is a way of seeing the world, it is by no means identical to ideology, which deals with thoughtful systems of thought, and in many ways, perhaps the main thing, remains unreflected and logically unidentified. Mentality is not philosophical, scientific or aesthetic systems, but that level of social consciousness at which thought is not separated from emotions, from latent habits and methods of consciousness. So, mentality is that invisible minimum of the spiritual unity of people, without which the organization of any society is impossible. The mentality of the people is actualized in the most important cultural concepts of the language.

The thought of mentality arises only when we meet something that is not like ourselves, and therefore the mentality can only be "tested" from the outside. Obviously, the question "What is your mentality?" - is meaningless, since the mentality cannot be reflected and formulated by its carrier. This mentality differs from "opinions", "teachings", "ideologies".

German mentality. (mindset, way of thinking, SIS) - a category that reflects the internal organization and differentiation of mentality, mentality, mentality of the people; mentalities are psycho-linguistic intellects of multi-scale linguo-cultural communities. As the analysis of scientific literature shows, mentality is understood as a certain deep structure of consciousness, depending on sociocultural, linguistic, geographical and other factors. Features of national mentalities are manifested only at the level of a linguistic, naive, but not a conceptual picture of the world (Yu.D. Apresyan, E.S. Yakovleva, O.A. Kornilov). Each of them is a unique subjective representation of reality, which includes objects of both direct and indirect reality, which includes such components of culture as myths, traditions, legends, religious beliefs, etc.

The so-called ethnic jokes about Russians, Germans, Ukrainians, Chukchi, etc. are based on taking into account the mental attitudes and stereotypes of peoples. In the notes of Acad. M.A.Gasparova has a curious observation of how representatives of different ethnic groups react to the language mistakes of a foreign interlocutor: joyfully begins to adopt your mistakes "

What is mentality or mentality? An unexpected answer was found in one of the newspaper notes - a letter from a reader to the editor. Our compatriot, while in Germany, once went into a cafe. After some time, an elderly German entered the same place. And although there were enough empty seats in the hall, the visitor, having cast an attentive look at the visitors, confidently approached the table where our citizen was sitting, and asked in Russian for permission to take a seat at his table. A conversation ensued. When it was time to say goodbye, the future author of the newspaper article asked the German why he had come exactly here and why did he speak Russian to the stranger? The German said that during the Second World War he served in the Abwehr, German military intelligence, and carefully studied the book for official use "Signs of Russians." One of these signs was that Russians, when cleaning shoes, usually pay all attention to the front of the boot or boot, forgetting about the back of the shoe. Since then, - the author of the note concludes, when I clean my shoes, I break my Russian mentality and with special zeal I lean with a brush on the heel of my boot. That unconscious force that makes the hand of a Russian person zealous over the toe of the boot and leaves its back in neglect, in science is called mentality, or mentality.

Let us recall the textbook episode from the novel "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy. Natasha Rostova, on her uncle's estate in Otradnoye, takes part in folk dance entertainment and joins the circle of dancers. The author, admiring his heroine, reflects: “Where, how, when she sucked into herself from that Russian air that she breathed - this countess, brought up by a French emigrant - this spirit, where did she get these techniques that pas de chale long ago should have been ousted? But these spirit and methods were the same, inimitable, not studied, Russian, which uncle expected from her ... "

cultural tradition- an integral phenomenon that expresses the socially stereotyped group experience that is accumulated and reproduced in society.

Cultural Foundation- this is a complex of knowledge, a certain outlook in the field of national and world culture, which a typical representative of a particular culture possesses. But this is not an affiliation of an individual, but a set of those basic units that are included in a given national culture.

Culture type- one of the first typologies of culture was proposed by Pitirim Sorokin, a Russian scientist who was expelled from Russia in 1922, settled in the USA and became an outstanding sociologist. He identified several types of cultures: idea culture, which is fundamentally religious; sensitive culture - the antipode of the ideational one (starting from the Renaissance, this is the dominant culture in Western Europe); idealistic culture, which is a culture of a mixed type, a transitional form from one type to another (this is the Golden Age of ancient culture, European culture of the XII-XIV centuries). The type of culture largely (although not always) determines the type of personality of each of its representatives.

language of culture- sign essence, more precisely, a system of signs and their relations, through which the coordination of value-semantic forms is established and existing or newly emerging representations, images, concepts and other semantic structures are organized. In relation to other ethnic cultures, its language is understood as a set of all sign methods of verbal and non-verbal communication that objectify the specifics of the culture of an ethnic group and reflect its interaction with the cultures of other ethnic groups.

Culture settings- these are a kind of ideals, according to which a person qualifies as “worthy / unworthy”. They are developed throughout the historical path traveled by the people, which is deposited in social memory and forms attitudes. Among other things, we are distinguished from animals by rules and regulations that we have agreed with each other. It is they that separate us from the abyss of chaos, streamline our lives, so they must be observed.

Attempts to identify the most important traditional attitudes of Russians were made by many domestic scientists. The concept of N. O. Lossky, a philosopher of the 20th century, became widely known. In his book The Character of the Russian People, published in 1957, he singles out the positive and negative attitudes of the Russian people ( collectivism, disinterestedness, spirituality, fetishization of state power, patriotism, maximalism, compassion, but at the same time cruelty, etc.).

Cultural attitudes, from the point of view of VN Teliya, cannot be as obligatory (mandatory) as, for example, language norms. National culture includes everything that is interpreted in terms of values, “prescriptions (expressions) of folk wisdom” (according to V.N. Teliya).

Cultural values perform a variety of functions in the mechanisms of human life: coordinating between a person and the natural world, stimulating, regulating, etc. In axiology, there are many classifications of values, among which absolute, or eternal, social, “personal, biological survival values, etc. . A person not only cognizes the world, but also evaluates it in terms of their significance for satisfying their needs. Linguistic information about the system of values ​​testifies to the peculiarities of the worldview of the people.

Subculture- secondary, subordinate cultural system (for example, youth subculture, etc.).

Key concepts of culture we call the nuclear (basic) units of the picture of the world determined by it, which have existential significance both for an individual linguistic personality and for the linguocultural community as a whole. The key concepts of culture include such abstract names as conscience, fate, will, share, sin, law, freedom, intelligentsia, homeland etc. Concepts, according to D.S. Likhachev, arise in the mind of a person not only as hints of possible meanings, but also as responses to the previous language experience of a person as a whole - poetic, prosaic, scientific, social, historical, etc. .P.

The concepts of culture can be divided, according to A.Ya. Gurevich, into two groups: "cosmic", philosophical categories, which he calls universal categories of culture(time, space, cause, change, movement), and social categories, the so-called cultural categories(freedom, law, justice, labor, wealth, property). It seems appropriate to single out another group - categories of national culture(for Russian culture this is - will, share, intelligence, catholicity and so on.). Upon closer analysis of concepts, it turns out that there are much more culturally specific concepts in any language than it seems at first glance. For example, a culture-specific concept can be considered potato. For Russians, this is the standard of poor nutrition, hence the idiom sit on one potato for Belarusians, this is the usual national food, which is the second bread, which is even more important than the first. The key concepts of culture occupy an important position in the collective linguistic consciousness, and therefore their study becomes an extremely urgent problem. The proof of this is the emergence of dictionaries of the most important concepts of culture, one of the first works in this direction is the dictionary by Yu. S. Stepanov "Constants: Dictionary of Russian Culture" (M., 1997).

Cultural connotation is the interpretation of the denotative or figuratively motivated aspects of meaning in terms of culture. This term was introduced by V. N. Teliya in 1993.

Linguistic culture - a term introduced by V.V. Vorobyov. In the understanding of V. V. Vorobyov, A linguocultureme is a combination of the form of a linguistic sign, its content and the cultural meaning that accompanies this sign. He attaches great importance to the understanding of a linguocultureme to the deep meaning that is potentially present in the meaning as an element of its content.

Linguistic cultures include words, phrases (mainly of a phraseological nature) and texts that have ethnocultural value. As D. B. Gudkov emphasizes, “different levels of the language and the units belonging to them have different degrees of cultural “saturation” and cultural conditioning.”

Phraseological units are the most studied from this point of view, which is quite natural, since they have a bright originality and originality in all languages. In the national linguoculturology, V.N. Telia is a recognized authority in this area. Her fundamental work on Russian phraseology has become a precedent text for modern researchers, and not only within the linguoculturological paradigm. V. N. Telia notes that “it is precisely those figurative expressions that are associated with cultural and national standards, stereotypes, mythologemes, etc. that are fixed and phraseologized in the language. and which, when used in speech, reproduce the mentality characteristic of a particular linguocultural community.

Much attention, especially in recent times and especially within the framework of linguoculturology, is given to the word as a unit of cultural information storage. At the same time, not only “key words of culture” are studied. So, to illustrate the manifestation of the subject code in Russian culture using the word “thread” as an example, V.V. Krasnykh shows that the object denoted by this word for Russians can also act as a kind of standard of “ultimacy” (that is, “the maximum allowable measure of articulation / divisibility » material and clothes ("wet to the skin" ) or tangible property in general ("to drink to the thread" ), and as a "link".

The classification of linguistic cultures can also be carried out in terms of the area of ​​their functioning. I. G. Olshansky identifies nine types of linguoculturological units and phenomena according to this principle. This and mythologized cultural and linguistic units (legends, beliefs, customs enshrined in phraseology), and a paremiological fund that stores stereotypes of folk consciousness, and features of speech behavior in stereotypical situations of communication, and the area of ​​speech etiquette, and the interaction of religion and language, etc.

The most important source of cultural marking is the involvement of language units in a certain type of discourse (text). In this regard, those concepts that are directly related to the linguocultural analysis of the text are of interest. First of all, these are cultural universals. These are elements common to all cultures (the presence of a language, the manufacture of tools, sexual prohibitions, myths, dances, etc.), which we understand as fragments of reality, important for culture and tradition, presented in a literary text. As a rule, they form the basis of the ideological stamps of the era. (For example, in E. Zamyatin's story "The Catcher of Men", the cultural universal is the state of a typical hero. It is given by the following maxim: "The most beautiful thing in life is delirium, and the most beautiful delirium is falling in love.")

A special place in the composition of linguoculturological units is occupied by precedent phenomena(PF).

Precedent phenomena is a cultural phenomenon. They are included in the fund of historical memory of the society (ethnos). National-cultural memory is “a storehouse of information, emotions, facts, from where we draw data in our everyday life and everyday life to answer sacramental questions: who we are, where we are from and where we are going; what we are proud of in our past and present, and what we are ashamed of; why is it so and not otherwise; and even why all this. This is not history in its purest form, but how the past is represented in our thought today and how it fits into our knowledge of the modern world.. Knowledge of national precedent phenomena is an indicator of belonging to a given era and its culture, while their ignorance, on the contrary, is a prerequisite for rejection from the corresponding culture and incomplete inclusion in the culture.

(more on that in later lectures)

It should be said that the problem of the relationship between language and behavior is interesting not only in terms of their mutual influence, but also from the point of view of the national specifics of the speech and non-speech behavior of speakers of different cultures. One of the possible ways to study the national-specific features of the relationship between thinking, culture, behavior and language are intercultural (interlingual) comparisons of various aspects of culture, verbal and non-verbal behavior of native speakers.

Considering speech situations, E. M. Vereshchagin and V. G. Kostomarov subdivide them into standard and variable [Vereshchagin, Kostomarov 1976, 139]. Both types of speech situations are closely related to non-verbal behavior. Description of speech situations of all kinds, including those in which non-verbal languages ​​are used, provides rich material for comparing cultures, taking into account their national specifics, which is necessary for the proper organization of communication between speakers of different cultures and ensuring their understanding of each other.

So, for example, the gesture of farewell accepted in Russian culture does not coincide with the English and Italian gestures of this meaning. In our country and abroad, they stop a taxi or a passing car in different ways, receive guests in different ways, celebrate holidays, smile in different ways and in different situations, etc. Gestures of one culture that have no equivalent in another culture are interpreted by the carriers of the latter , is generally false and is often the opposite of their meaning. A foreigner who speaks a foreign language well can be recognized by the “accent” in his sign language, if he does not know both gestures-symbols that carry a certain semantic load, and non-communicative gestures that also have specifics in different cultures [Vereshchagin, Kostomarov 1976, 148, 150]. Interest in the national specifics of sign language and the so-called everyday (routine) behavior, correlated with the culture of a linguistic and cultural community, with its customs, habits, ethical, moral norms, found expression in various descriptions and intercultural comparisons of the non-verbal aspect of culture [Bgazhnokov 1978; National and cultural specificity of speech behavior 1977; Ovchinnikov 1971; Papp 1964; Jacobson 1970].

Of course, the forms and norms of behavior not only do not coincide in different cultures, but also change within one local culture in the process of its development. It is not difficult to imagine a situation when the bearer of a certain linguocultural community is unable to understand not only words, realities, but also behavioral norms related to the previous stage of the historical development of his people.

Literature and art provide rich material for studying the national and cultural specifics of verbal and non-verbal behavior of a certain linguocultural community.

Forms of behavior, its rhythm, tone and general character find a peculiar but obligatory reflection in the stage behavior typical of the given epoch. Theater critics note that the Hamlets of our time are alien to the pathetic elation of speech and affectation of gesture, inherent in the theater of the past. According to V. G. Belinsky, the famous Russian actor P. Mochalov played one of the scenes of Shakespeare's play in this way: laughter…”. Hamlet Mochalova laughed wildly, moaned wildly and ran around the stage, “like a lion escaping from a cage” [Belinsky 1948, 47]. The drawing of the roles of modern actors playing Hamlet is marked by restraint and psychological nuances, close to us, but not familiar either to the era of W. Shakespeare, or the first half of the 19th century, when Mochalov played [Khalizev 1979, 55]. In this case, apparently, a process similar to literary translation takes place, where the achievement of an aesthetic impact equal to or close to the impact of the original text (text in FL) can be considered as the criterion of adequacy. The theater, striving to create the effect that the author of the play was counting on, "translates" the language of behavior in accordance with the modern style of behavior and behavioral norms. There is an opinion that the farther in historical time and cultural “space” a performance is from a play, the more artistic and moral grounds the director has for various restructurings [Khalizev 1979, 55-56].

The presence of a cultural "space" between the translated play and the performance often becomes a prerequisite for very significant changes in the original in the process of stage editing and staging. The purpose of such changes may be the desire to reduce the distance between cultural fields, as well as the desire to achieve the same moral and aesthetic (emotional and aesthetic) impression that is inherent in the text in a foreign language. The culturological distance in this case is due to two reasons: firstly, the national-cultural background in which the characters act, who have a certain originality compared to the culturological skills of the audience; secondly, the national specifics of the construction of the play and the theatrical tradition in which it was written. It is known, for example, that the Kazakh spectator traditionally refers to the theater as a performance-action, while perceiving psychological dramas built on “zones of silence”, on subtext, such a spectator experiences certain difficulties. It is difficult for the majority of the Kazakh audience to adequately perceive, for example, the plays of A.P. Chekhov [Bokeev, 1979]. Lithuanian dramaturgy is characterized by a penchant for intellectuality, philosophical debate, and frankly conventional theatrical manner [Grushas 1979]. In such a situation, it is more difficult to perceive plays of another culture, saturated with national realities, depicting life in detail, exploring the problems of everyday life. There are cases when a playwright, working with translators of his play into other languages, creates different versions of the same play, taking into account the national and cultural specifics corresponding to the linguistic and cultural community. The Kyrgyz play "Duel" by M. Baydzhiyev has two versions: one for the Kyrgyz audience, the other for the viewer, whose perception is shaped by the broad context of the Russian language and culture. Depending on the orientation towards one or another recipient, the play provides for equivalent substitutions and cultural options, ranging from everyday details to two different endings of the play [Ganiev 1979].

The question arises of the need to form a categorical apparatus of linguoculturology, i.e., to determine a set of fundamental concepts that characterize the model of linguocultural reality in the aggregate. It is necessary to create such a conceptual apparatus that would allow us to analyze the problem of the relationship between language and culture in their dynamics.

Cultural linguistics as a special field of science has given rise to many productive concepts in modern linguistics: linguistic culture, language of culture, cultural text, cultural context, subculture, linguistic and cultural paradigm, precedent names of culture, key names of culture, cultural universal, cultural competence, cultural inheritance, cultural traditions, cultural process, cultural attitudes and others. The conceptual apparatus of science also includes such terms as mentality, mentality, ritual, custom, sphere of culture, type of culture, civilization, paganism and some others.

The most important concepts for this collective work are those with which cultural information can be represented in linguistic units: cultural semes, cultural background, cultural concepts and cultural connotations.

Cultural semes are smaller and more universal than a word, semantic units, semantic features. For example, the words "samovar", "bast shoes", "shchi" can be distinguished by such cultural semes: bast shoes - peasant shoes woven from bast; samovar - a vessel with a firebox inside, for Russian tea drinking; cabbage soup - a dish of chopped cabbage, Russian food.

The cultural background - a characteristic of nominative units (words and phraseological units) denoting phenomena of social life and historical events - disappeared like a Swede near Poltava, red-brown (about the national patriots of Russia).

The two types of cultural information described above are localized in the denotation, they are relatively well studied by linguistic and regional studies.

Cultural concepts are the names of abstract concepts, therefore, cultural information is attached to the signification here, i.e. conceptual core.

Cultural inheritance - the transfer of cultural values, information that is significant for culture.

Cultural traditions are the totality of the most valuable elements of the social and cultural heritage.

Cultural process - the interaction of elements belonging to the system of cultural phenomena.

Cultural space is a form of existence of culture in the minds of its representatives. The cultural space is correlated with the cognitive space (individual and collective), because it is formed by the totality of all individual and collective spaces of all representatives of a given cultural-national community. For example, Russian cultural space, English cultural space, etc.

A linguocultural paradigm is a set of linguistic forms that reflect ethnically, socially, historically, scientifically, etc. deterministic categories of worldview. The linguocultural paradigm combines concepts, categorical words, precedent names of culture, etc. Language forms are the basis of the paradigm, which is, as it were, “stitched” with meaningful representations.

Mentality is a worldview in the categories and forms of the native language, which combine the intellectual, spiritual and volitional qualities of the national character in its typical manifestations. The concept of a given culture is recognized as a unit of mentality (see Dictionary of Concepts of Russian Culture by Yu. S. Stepanov).

According to A. Ya. Gurevich, mentality is a way of seeing the world, it is by no means identical to ideology, which deals with well-thought-out systems of thought, and in many ways, perhaps the main thing, remains unreflected and logically unidentified. Mentality is not philosophical, scientific or aesthetic systems, but that level of social consciousness at which thought is not separated from emotions, from latent habits and methods of consciousness. So, mentality is that invisible minimum of the spiritual unity of people, without which the organization of any society is impossible. The mentality of the people is actualized in the most important cultural concepts of the language.

Mentality - a category that reflects the internal organization and differentiation of mentality, mindset, mentality of the people; mentalities are psycholinguistic intellects of multiscale linguocultural communities. As the analysis of scientific literature shows, mentality is understood as a certain deep structure of consciousness, depending on sociocultural, linguistic, geographical and other factors.

Features of national mentalities are manifested only at the level of a linguistic, naive, but not a conceptual picture of the world (Yu. D. Apresyan, E. S. Yakovleva, O. A. Kornilov). Each of them is a unique subjective representation of reality, which includes objects of both direct and indirect reality, which includes such components of culture as myths, traditions, legends, religious beliefs, etc.

Cultural tradition is an integral phenomenon that expresses socially stereotyped group experience that is accumulated and reproduced in society.

A cultural fund is a complex of knowledge, a certain outlook in the field of national and world culture, which a typical representative of a particular culture possesses. But this is not an affiliation of an individual, but a set of those basic units that are included in a given national culture.

Type of culture - one of the first typologies of culture was proposed by Pitirim Sorokin, a Russian scientist who was exiled from Russia in 1922, settled in the United States and became an outstanding sociologist. He singled out several types of cultures: ideational culture, which is basically religious; sensitive culture - the antipode of ideational (starting from the Renaissance, this is the dominant culture in Western Europe); idealistic culture, which is a culture of a mixed type, a transitional form from one type to another (this is the Golden Age of ancient culture, European culture of the XII-XIV centuries). The type of culture largely (although not always) determines the type of personality of each of its representatives.

Maslova V.A. Linguoculturology - M., 2001