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Stereotype as a manifestation of national and cultural characteristics. cultural stereotype

Stereotype as a manifestation of national and cultural characteristics. cultural stereotype

20.02.2019

What is a stereotype as a phenomenon of a social system? Representatives of various sciences study the stereotype as part of their tasks. Philosophers, sociologists, culturologists, ethnographers are interested in the ethnic aspects of stereotypes. Psychologists consider the influence of gender stereotypes. A single concept of "stereotype" covers all spheres of human life.

Stereotype - what is it?

At the end of the 17th century, the French publisher F. Didot invented a device that saves time, labor and price in printing business. Before the invention, the text for the book each time was typed anew, which led to a huge expenditure of resources. Dido's new creative solution was to make casts from the typed text, then metal stamp plates were cast, allowing books to be printed in large numbers. F.Dido called his invention - a stereotype: "στερεός" - solid "τύπος" - image.

What does a stereotype mean as a concept in modern world? In Walter Lippmann, an American publicist in 1922 introduced the term "stereotype" into the social environment and described its meanings as: the impossibility of an individual to know the whole picture real world without simplification. A person carries out his activities, relying not on obvious direct knowledge, but on ready-made cliché templates introduced by others: relatives, acquaintances, the system, the state.

Types of stereotypes

A child is born and with mother's milk absorbs lullabies, fairy tales, traditions and legends belonging to his ethnic group. Growing up, the baby learns the norms and regulations that are characteristic of his family and clan as a whole. Educational institutions are doing their part. This is how stereotypical thinking is gradually formed. A person is literally “overgrown” with stereotypes. Common types of stereotypes identified by different experts:

stereotypes of thinking
stereotypes of behavior;
ethnocultural stereotypes;
response stereotypes;
communication stereotypes, etc.

The functions of stereotypes can be conditionally divided into "positive" and "negative". Main positive aspect stereotype is the economy of human mental activity. Man, for his short life cannot know everything about everything, but based on the experience of others, can have an idea of many things, even if they are not related to his reality. The negative aspect boils down to the fact that personal experience (even a single one) confirming the correctness of one or another stereotype is fixed in the subconscious and makes it difficult to perceive people, phenomena in a different way.

Gender stereotypes

A person performs various social roles, including gender ones. The gender role determines the norms of recommended behavior, based on belonging to the male or female gender and the characteristics of the country's culture. What's happened ? The role of a man or woman in society is determined by many traditions and way of life that have been established over the centuries. So far, stereotypes have not become obsolete, the echo of which can be traced in proverbs and sayings different peoples:

woman - the keeper of the hearth;
a man is a provider;
women are fools;
a woman without children is like a tree without branches;
a lonely woman is a wingless bird;
a man without a wife is like a barn without a roof;
a man promises, a man fulfills;
the little man is not a flirt, but loves to fight.

ethnic stereotypes

Effective interethnic communication today plays an important role in achieving peace and cooperation between peoples. National stereotypes are the cultural representations of a people as a nation about themselves (autostereotypes) and about other peoples (heterostereotypes) developed over the centuries. The study of stereotypes of ethnic groups - helps to find out the features, habits, culture for useful interaction between different countries.

Social stereotypes

What is a social stereotype? Stable and simplified matrices of images of social objects (person, group, profession, gender, ethnic group). At the same time, stereotypes of thinking can turn out to be false and form erroneous knowledge. As a rule, the stereotype is based on observations based on real facts and personal experience, but sometimes the stereotype plays a destructive role when it is applied in a situation that falls out of the general pattern and “sticking” labels on a person occurs. Examples of social stereotypes:

without "blat" it is impossible to build a successful career;
the child must be obedient;
to be successful, you need to graduate from a prestigious university;
all men need only one thing from women...;
all accountants are bores, and lawyers are crooks;
money is evil;
Japanese cars are the highest quality;
Jews are the most cunning;
a man is a womanizer, a drunkard.

Cultural stereotypes

Cultural stereotypes of the society affect the emotions of a person, which are associated with physicality and are supported by gestures. Emotions and gestures are a universal language among peoples similar in cultural customs, but in selected countries can take on the opposite meaning. Before you travel to other countries, it is useful to study the customs of these states. It combines Culture: stereotypes of goal-setting, communication, perception, worldview. Stereotypical behavior - milestone in the formation of rituals (religious) of different cultures.

Popular stereotypes

What is a stereotype - this question is mostly answered “correctly”, “stereotypically”. Society is accustomed to thinking in popular terms, the reason for this lies in the lack or shortage of information and the inability to confirm this information. The stereotype of thinking (mental setting) - “I am like everyone else” means belonging to one's family, group, people, state, has a downside: it drives into the framework of restrictions, impoverishes a person's personal experience. Popular stereotypes accepted in society:

audacity second happiness;
figure standard - 90/60/90;
it is good there - where we are not;
beats - it means loves;
eat breakfast yourself, share lunch with a friend, give dinner to an enemy;
a woman on a ship - to be in trouble;
get married before 30;
girls should wear pink, boys blue;
women are the weaker sex;
expensive means high quality;

Stereotypes about Russians

Stereotypes about Russia can be traced in various tales and anecdotes, invented both by the Russians themselves and by other peoples. Stereotypically, Russians appear in jokes as “boys-shirts, extremely hardy, loving to drink and make a fuss.” Interest in Russia is great. This power remains a mysterious and majestic, and for some, a hostile country. What do representatives of other states think about the country, Russian women and men:

Russians are the most drinkers;
bears walk the streets;
Russian girls are the most beautiful;
men, walk with a stone face, do not smile;
Russia is a country of balalaikas, nesting dolls and blouses;
the most hospitable;
uneducated and illiterate;
girls dream;

Stereotypes about the French

The whole world follows the French catwalks with trepidation, buys French perfume, and is touched by the most romantic films on the planet. "See Paris and die!" - a phrase said by the Soviet writer-photographer I. Ehrenburg - has long become winged and is said with an aspiration and a dreamy look. Stereotypes of France strongly associated with this beautiful country:

French women are the most sophisticated, elegant;
Paris - dictates fashion to everyone else;
French people - best lovers in the world;
croissants, wine, foie gras, frogs, baguettes and oysters are the daily national food;
beret, vest, red scarf - standard clothing
the most smoking nation in the world;
strikes and demonstrations "for" and "without cause";
the most inveterate pessimists;
freedom of morals and frivolous behavior;
get annoyed if foreigners mispronounce words in French;
patriots of their homeland affectionately call the country "La dos France" ("France dear").

Stereotypes about Americans

America is a country of contrasts and unlimited possibilities, where the most cherished dreams- Americans think so about their state. The USA is a country largely incomprehensible to the Russian mentality, causing some rejection, and in the light of the existing tense relations between Russia and America, distrust of the most smiling American nation. Myths and stereotypes about Americans:

a nation of fast food and fat people;
like to organize surprises;
want to take over the whole world;
lack of style and taste in clothes;
the most patriotic nation;
every American has a gun;
not shy about expressing emotions.

Stereotypes about the British

What associations do people have who have never been to England, but have heard about this country? Those who studied English at school remember the famous clockwork Big Ben (Big Ben) and that England is a country of rain, fog and oatmeal for breakfast. There are legends about the stiffness of the English. English detective stories about Sherlock Holmes are loved to be read all over the world. Stereotypes about the British:

constantly talking about the weather;
they drink tea according to the schedule;
the English are the most polite;
arrogant snobs;
conservatives;
strange English humor;
everyone goes to the pub;
the most law-abiding citizens.

stereotypes like cultural phenomenon

Human consciousness is endowed with the ability to reflect surrounding a person objective reality, and this reflection is a subjective image of the objective world, that is, a certain model, a picture of the world. When reality is objectified by consciousness, the mechanisms of stereotyping are activated. The reflection of a fragment of the picture of the world in the mind of an individual results in a stereotype, a fixed mental “picture” [Krasnykh 2002:177-178]. Thus, from a meaningful point of view, a stereotype is a certain stable fragment of the picture of the world stored in the mind.

The phenomenon of “stereotype” itself is considered not only in the works of linguists, but also in the works of sociologists, ethnographers, cognitive scientists, psychologists, ethnopsycholinguists (W.Lippman, I.S. Kon, Yu.D. Apresyan, V.A. Ryzhkov, Yu.E. Prokhorov, V. V. Krasnykh, V. A. Maslova).

Social stereotypes manifest themselves as stereotypes of thinking and behavior of the individual. Ethnocultural stereotypes are a generalized idea of typical features characterizing a people. German accuracy, Russian "maybe", Chinese ceremonies, African temperament, Italian temperament, Finns' stubbornness, Estonians' slowness, Polish gallantry - stereotypical ideas about a whole nation that apply to each of its representatives.

In cognitive linguistics and ethnolinguistics, the term stereotype refers to the content side of language and culture, i.e. is understood as a mental (thinking) stereotype that correlates with the “naive picture of the world”. Such an understanding of the stereotype is found in the works of E. Bartminsky and his school; the linguistic picture of the world and the linguistic stereotype are correlated as part and whole, while the linguistic stereotype is understood as a judgment or several judgments relating to a certain object of the extralinguistic world, a subjectively determined representation of an object in which descriptive and evaluative features coexist and which is the result of an interpretation of reality within the framework of socially developed cognitive models. We consider as a linguistic stereotype not only a judgment or several judgments, but also any set expression, consisting of several words, for example, a stable comparison, a cliché, etc.: a person of Caucasian nationality, gray as a harrier, a new Russian. The use of such stereotypes facilitates and simplifies communication, saving the strength of communicants.

A stereotype is interpreted in modern social sciences as "a set of stable, simplified generalizations about a group of individuals, which makes it possible to distribute members of the group into categories and perceive them in a stereotyped way, according to these expectations." However, the stereotype extends not only to groups of subjects. It also expresses the habitual attitude of a person to any phenomenon or event. Stereotypes are formed in the process of socialization of the individual [Ryzhkov 1988:11] and are formed under the influence social conditions and previous experience.

In linguoculturology, the following types of stereotypes are distinguished: simple and figurative. Both have autostereotypes and heterostereotypes. (think of examples).

Stereotypes are always national, and if there are analogues in other cultures, then these are quasi-stereotypes, because, while coinciding in general, they differ in nuances, details that are of fundamental importance. For example, phenomena and the queue situation in different cultures are different, and therefore stereotyped behavior will also be different: in Russia they ask “Who is the last one?” or just stand in line, in a row European countries they tear off a ticket in a special apparatus and then follow the numbers that light up above the window, for example, at the post office.

According to Harutyunyan, “a peculiar national flavor of feelings and emotions, ways of thinking and actions, stable and national traits habits and traditions that are formed under the influence of the conditions of material life, features historical development of this nation and manifested in the specifics of its national culture". In other words - a set of character traits inherent in a particular nation.

Ethnic cultural stereotypes cannot be considered separately from the culture of communication, since interethnic communication is not an isolated area of social life, but a mechanism that ensures the coordination and functioning of all elements of human culture.

The culture of interethnic communication is a system of specific this ethnic group stereotyped forms, principles, methods of communicative activity. The system of ethnocultural stereotypes is specially adapted to fulfill the social significant functions in the life of an ethnic group.

Ethnic stereotypes in situations of intercultural communication act as "guides" of behavior. Based on the formed ideas, we predict in advance the behavior of representatives of another ethnic group, and unwittingly, we set a distance in the process of intercultural communication.

The perception of another ethnic group is a direct reaction to contact with a foreign ethnic environment. Usually, perception goes through the prism of one's ethnic "I", that is, a certain traditional stereotype of thinking and behavior, determined by ethnicity. Now, when ethnic differences dominate the behavior of people more and more, determining the nature of the perception of other ethnic groups, intercultural communication gives rise to many problems.

The basis for the formation of ethnic stereotypes are cultural differences, which are easily perceived when intercultural interaction. Being formed in the zone of ethno-cultural contacts on the basis of systems of ethnic ideas about the imaginary and real features of one's own and other ethnic groups, stereotypes are fixed at a subconscious level as an unquestionable imperative in relation to representatives of other ethnic cultures.

Description of cultural stereotypes, their persistence and selection is related to the needs modern life, with the awareness of the fact that, formed by various circumstances, including accidents, limited knowledge, the image of the “other”, “another culture” as a whole, often very far from reality, has the same historical and cultural significance as reality itself. It is these images that guide many of us in our practical activities. Artificially created images-representations begin to play an active role in shaping the mentality of contemporaries and possibly subsequent generations.

Despite the stability of stereotypes and, at first glance, sufficient knowledge, their study in each new historical era is important scientific problem, if only because there is a constant voltage pulsation between the traditional installation and its erosion, between enrichment with new historical facts and rethinking already known. Despite sufficient attention on the part of researchers to this phenomenon, the explanation of the nature, emergence and functioning of stereotypes, as well as understanding the term "stereotype" itself, is still a problem.

At present, there is no consensus in scientific thought regarding its content. The term "stereotype" can be found in various contexts, where it is interpreted ambiguously: the standard of behavior, the image of a group or person, prejudice, cliché, "sensitivity" to cultural differences, etc. Initially, the term stereotype was used to refer to a metal plate used in printing to make subsequent copies. Today under the stereotype in in general terms is understood as a relatively stable and simplified image of a social object, group, person, event, phenomenon, etc., emerging in conditions of information deficiency as a result of generalization personal experience individual and often preconceived notions accepted in society. A cultural stereotype is a representation that reflects the ordinary level of conceptualization cultural specificity and exerting a strong influence on the mutual expectations of partners during the initial contact. The content of a stereotype is a collective notion, it is taken for granted and is not really challenged by anyone.

However, the main reason for its stability as a structure of individual consciousness is that it corresponds to survival strategies learned from childhood, adopted in a particular culture. It is they who save any local civilization from collapse. For example, Russia has its own historical logic, which corresponds to its strategy of survival, not known to American or Western European culture. Being related to the deep layers of consciousness, the stereotype in images and behavioral patterns forms a certain subculture precisely as a special way of survival, i.e. energy, material and information exchange with the environment.

So, for example, in the article “Features of the primitive primitivism of the thieves' speech”, D.S. Likhachev, noting the similarity of the thieves' languages of all countries (the same type of word formation, when the same concepts replace each other), argued that the thieves' environment of different peoples is distinguished by one and the same type of thinking, stereotypical attitude to the world around. This thinking is dominated by " general ideas”, which L. Levy-Bruhl considered a characteristic feature of pralogical thinking. mass consciousness modern man in so far as collective representations are concerned, the features of deindividualizing, primitive thinking are largely characteristic.

First, it is extremely emotional. The stereotype, being introduced into consciousness, has a powerful effect on emotions, and not on the intellect, and is easily fixed by collective experiences. Individual, personal attitude to the subject is never expressed in this expressive form. This emotion conveys an exclusively group, collective attitude.

This is the affective function of stereotypes, which is generated by the socialization of human emotions in large groups. Concepts that express, for example, ethnic negative assessments (“Jew”, “Moskal”, etc.) evoke certain strong emotions. But this expression is qualitatively poor, not deep, extremely monotonous. The concept of “blonde” (a stupid and sexy creature), common in American jokes, acting as a stereotype and reinforced by cultural patterns, evokes an undifferentiated but vivid emotion. Emotion is closely related to bodily motor skills and is reinforced by gestures. The motor type of thinking ... creates a situation in which the word acts not only on the cerebral cortex, but also on the human muscular system. The connection of stereotypical images and behavioral responses not only with the mental, but also with the physiological nature of a person is well researched and used in the practice of psychotherapy, in which they try to find and change stable emotional connections one phenomenon with another. A person is taught to treat hardened relationships as addictions or bad habits that can be broken with the help of awareness and special trainings. For example, Louise Hay wrote that a person has many different addictions. “Including the predilection for creating certain stereotypes of thinking and behavior. We use them to isolate ourselves from life. If we do not want to think about our future or face the truth about the present, then we turn to stereotypes that keep us from touching reality for help. Some people in difficult situations they eat a lot. Others are taking medication. It is possible that in the progression of alcoholism significant role plays genetic inheritance. However, the choice still remains with the individual. Often "bad heredity" is only a child's acceptance of parental methods of managing fear.

Of course, basic emotions are a universal cultural phenomenon. However, according to psycholinguistics and cultural linguistics, there are national differences in emotions, faced with which in a situation of intercultural contact, an individual can experience what is called " culture shock due to mismatched expectations. Within a culture, habits are usually not reflected. In a different culture, there is a possibility of encountering emotional characteristics that are different from our own.

The emotional structure of the personality is formed in early age, and further, when stereotypes are set by culture, this primary situation of increased suggestibility is reproduced. First of all, the process of stereotyping captures easily suggestible people. Suggestibility creates favorable conditions for the introduction of traditional customs and beliefs. Closed traditional cultures, living by the dogma of custom, require from a person not individualization, but assimilation. With collective representations peculiar to each local culture, we connect the differentiating and integrating functions of stereotypes, i.e. the primary division of everything in the world into "own" and "foreign".

Description of the world characteristic of children's and primitive consciousness through a system of binary oppositions ("bad - good", "warm - cold", "day - night", "light - darkness", "up - down", etc.) without observing gradations and shades, participates in the formation of the initial moral attitudes, but not so much in the form of the opposition "good - evil", but in the form of a basic opposition of "we / ours" and "they / others". As a rule, “friends” are perceived with positive emotions, they are given preference over “strangers”. At the same time, as psychologists note, the following cognitive consequences are observed: 1) it is believed that all “strangers” are similar to each other and are different from “ours”; 2) there is more diversity among “our own” than among “outsiders”; 3) assessments of "strangers" tend to extremes: as a rule, they are either very positive or very negative.

The integrating function of the stereotype appears here in a twofold aspect. Firstly, under the concept of "one's own" objects and phenomena of various kinds are combined. People with a certain type and pace of speech, rituals and forms of meetings, habits and addictions of all kinds. As P. Weil and A. Genis wrote in their gastronomic and cultural book: “You can’t take your homeland on the soles of your boots, but you can take with you Far Eastern crabs, spicy Tallinn sprats, waffle cakes, pralines, sweets like“ Bear in the North ” , healing water "Essentuki" (preferably number seventeen). With such a price list (yes, strong Russian mustard) living in a foreign land (still hot sunflower oil) becomes both better (subacid tomatoes) and more fun (Ararat cognac, 6 stars!). Of course, at a table laid in this way, there will still be room for nostalgic memories. Either jelly (more correctly, studen) will come up in a pink haze for 36 kopecks, then pies with “jam”, then “b / m borscht” (b / m is without meat, nothing indecent). Also - hot cutlet fat, bloody roast beef, Strasbourg pie. However, sorry. This is no longer nostalgia, but a classic. We note here not only an explicit quotation from A. S. Pushkin, but also a hidden one - from I. V. Stalin, as well as an allusion to Gogol's texts.

The second aspect of integration based on stereotypes of thinking and behavior consists precisely in uniting people into groups ranked according to some obvious sign. When R. Reagan called Soviet Union"evil empire" he found a good metaphor, integrating a whole range of stereotypical emotions, and serving the messianic aspirations of American democracy. The exaggerated image of the enemy exclusively contributes to the consolidation within the socio-cultural group. It is stereotypes that carry out the function of a unified language regulation for prejudiced people; the task of stereotypes is to strengthen the opinions of their carriers. Thus, the suggestive power of language models the picture of the world for a particular cultural group. The picture of the world determines the actions of the carriers of this mentality not only at the interpersonal, but also at the public (up to the government) levels.

Under the differentiating function of a stereotype, we propose to understand, first of all, sensitivity to cultural differences. The traditional community of understanding excludes carriers of a different culture from its zone of action. The American anthropologist F.K.Bock introduced the category of cultural forms into scientific circulation. Under the cultural form, F. Bock understood a set of interrelated and partially arbitrary expectations, understandings, beliefs and agreements shared by members of a social group. Culture includes all the beliefs and all the expectations that people express and demonstrate. “When you are in your group, among the people with whom you share common culture, you do not have to think over and design your words and actions, because all of you - both you and them - see the world in principle in the same way, you know what to expect from each other. But being in a foreign society, you will experience difficulties, a feeling of helplessness and disorientation, which can be called culture shock. In cultural studies, culture shock is commonly understood as a conflict between two cultures (primarily national and ethno-centered) at the level of individual consciousness. It is associated with the very ability to capture value differences. different societies, i.e. with the differentiating function of consciousness. The more complex the personality is organized, the more subtle distinctions it is able to make. However, the differentiating function of stereotyped thinking always remains within the limits of the simplest oppositions, fixing only the division into “male / female”, “own / alien”, “good / bad”.

It is interesting to note that the integrating function of stereotypes is more pronounced than the differentiating one, since it often has a positive emotional connotation. The use of universal logical quantifiers in relation to particular cases, which finds its expression in the use of language formulas beginning with the words "all", "always", "never", gives rise to both a differentiating and an integrating judgment. However, the integrating function is more noticeably expressed in the mechanisms of stereotyping. One of them is bringing together the heterogeneous characteristics of people as necessarily accompanying each other. For example, in American culture, the definition of poor is very common in combination with uneducated and stupid, and the definition of blond means dumb as a matter of course.

Of course, this is due to the obvious simplification of the real variety of life phenomena. Perhaps the main function of stereotypes is precisely the function of simplifying the diversity of the world. We call it reducing, i.e. reducing the actual diversity of life to a simple scheme of interrelated definitions. This is the way of grouping information inherent in the stereotype as a cognitive phenomenon. The task of a stereotype is not simply to explain and justify existing social relations, but to reduce these explanations to a public combination of images and actions. “The French consider the English petty, ill-mannered, rather ridiculous and completely undressable people who spend most of their time digging in the garden beds, playing cricket or sitting in a pub with a mug of thick, sweet, warm beer ... The English in France are also considered “treacherous” (Yapp N., Sirette M. These strange Frenchmen. M., 1999. P. 7). Such is the British observation of their stereotypical perception in modern France. And according to 1935, for a Frenchman, an Englishman is an inelegant, stupid, arrogant and incapable of expressing himself clearly with a red face. noted poor quality English cuisine, the habit of the English to eat undercooked meat. The French consider the British to be rude barbarians, agreeing with the Germans only that the British are hypocritical.

Culturally marked features that form the content of the stereotype (clothes, occupations, traditions) may change over time, while evaluative characteristics are more stable, although they are also characterized by a certain dynamics. For example, in the ethnic stereotype of the Chinese, the sign “attachment to the family” stands out: for Americans, a large degree of attachment to the family causes bewilderment associated with ridicule, as well as the sign “passionate” in relation to the stereotype of the Italian, “nationalism” in relation to the stereotype of the German, “ ambition" in relation to the stereotype of a Jew. The reduction that is carried out by the cultural-collective consciousness forming a stereotype can in itself be assessed in two ways. Of course, the Russian philosopher and culturologist G. Fedotov is right: “There is nothing more difficult than national characteristics. They are easily given to a stranger and always respond with vulgarity to “one’s own”, who has at least a vague experience of the depth and complexity of national life.

The reducing function of a stereotype contributes to the formation of prejudices, a generally negative phenomenon that hinders communication. Existing in the form of worldly ideas, often existing on an unconscious level, a stereotype cannot have a complex logical branching. In this case, the operation of attribution (selection of features) in order to explain the nature of the object is designed to adapt the subject in the world of diverse and countless connections by deliberately minimizing them. Therefore, their adaptive function is closely connected with the reducing function of stereotypes. So the task of the autostereotype is to create and maintain a positive "I"-image, as well as to protect group values. This function is performed due to the selectivity of perception of information. “Sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously, we allow ourselves to be influenced only by those facts that correspond to our philosophy. We don't see what our eyes don't want to see." TO defense mechanisms the emotional content of stereotypes also applies. The firmer the assessment, the more emotional, as a rule, any attempt to question the stereotype causes. The adaptive function is closely related to the principle of economy of thought.

Stereotypes can exist not only at the level of ordinary ideas, but also in the form scientific knowledge. In these cases, the explanatory model “sins” with overly broad generalizations. For example: "Men assert themselves in their deeds, and women in the way they look and what they say about them." The most interesting question of the functioning of stereotypes lies in the study of how mass representations manifest themselves at the level of individual consciousness. How do stereotypes affect the subjective meanings and values of a person? After all, the axiological nature of stereotypes is obvious. It means the development within the framework of one culture of its own value-hierarchical system, its own type moral consciousness and behavior and their evaluation structures. In culture, only those values are stereotyped that are able to act general guidelines for all its bearers, to influence the formation of their cultural image and individual lifestyle. “Values do not represent reality, either physical or mental. Their essence lies in their significance, and not in their factuality ”(G. Rickert. Nauki o priroda i nauki o kul'turu [Cultural Science. XX century. Anthology. M., 1995. P. 82).

The methods and criteria on the basis of which the very procedures for evaluating the phenomena of life are made are fixed in culture as “subjective values”. These are the attitudes, imperatives and prohibitions, goals and normative ideas that serve as guidelines for human activity. Stereotypes are directly related to subjective values. We associate their very ability to play the role of a criterion in evaluating the phenomena of reality with the selective function of the stereotype.

The stereotypes that are used in evaluating a particular socio-cultural group make it possible to evaluate the behavior of others in accordance with the value scale of one's own group. The stereotyping mechanism in this case acts as a necessary and useful assessment tool. Simplification and schematization, which are the basis of any stereotype, are the inevitable costs of such absolutely necessary processes for regulating human activity as a whole, such as limiting and categorizing incoming information. The selector in this case is a guiding rule on the basis of which the selection is made.

The stereotype is also intended to eliminate the contradiction in the overall picture of knowledge about the world. A more understandable picture of the world makes it possible to successfully solve specific practical problems. Stereotypical consciousness moves from the fixation of opposites to their emotional evaluation with subsequent resistance to them. According to the linguoculturologist V.V. Krasnykh, all stereotypes-images can be conditionally divided into two groups. The first includes images-representations of the "correct world", which play the role of a stabilizer, support the belief that given world(group, nation, state) is favorable for life, subject to certain rules.

The images-representations of the second group paint the world as unfair, unsuitable for life, and the rules of behavior in it are false (“good” does not conquer “evil”). Such representations, despite the predominance of the negative component, emphasize the importance of the individual and the relativity of traditional group values. Both groups of stereotypes coexist peacefully at the level of everyday consciousness, reproducing the original ambivalence and maintaining the completeness of the system of meanings. The images of the “correct” and “wrong” world are formed into a single picture according to the principle of complementarity. Reconciliation of contradictions of various kinds plays an important role in the adaptation of man and society. It ensures the maintenance of stability and provides an opportunity for further development.

Thus, the main principle of the stereotype is the transformation of the conditional into the unconditional. What might require proof becomes “natural” with the help of a stereotype and acts directly through the associations it evokes.

Like other cognitive cultural formations, the stereotype has a field structure. It can be distinguished the core - a certain leading principle or concept - and the periphery - invariably accompanying the nuclear concept-image of attribution and judgment (uniquely expressed " folk wisdom"). The stereotype is accompanied by an associative context that provides a connection with other stereotypes of the same kind. Here's an example of stereotypes broadcast with the help of the film industry. American film in the genre of an action movie with elements of comedy, it presents in the episode three mafias operating in the United States: Russian, Chinese and Italian. In the first case, the agent negotiates in a bathhouse (with vodka and black caviar), in the second - in an abandoned factory (with attributes of martial arts: "oriental" flavor - kicks in the face), and in the case of the Italian negotiations are conducted in a restaurant (with wine and spaghetti), where a charmingly sexy female agent is sent. This cultural-associative series is parodic stereotypical, it is primitive, easily recognizable, and, most importantly, reinforces the already established stereotypes in the minds of the recipients, associatively referring to other films that use film stamps based on the same stereotypes.

The core of a stereotype should be considered, first of all, the meaning of the key concept with which it is described in the language of culture. For example, all the numerous connotations and expectations (as well as habitual patterns of behavior) that are associated in Russian culture with the word "friend" are markedly different from similar concepts in American or English cultures. Moreover, as studies by linguoculturologists show, the set of meanings of this concept within each of the cultures can change significantly over time. Words denoting the deepest cultural values of some peoples can only be translated very roughly into the language of others.

Key concepts are cultural artifacts of the society that created them. “When this is not recognized, there is a tendency either to absolutize the meanings of words ... and treat them as keys to the nature of man as a whole, or to ignore them and regard them as something less important than the personal judgments of individual informants about relationships between people.” The author of these words, Anna Vezhbitskaya, created the theory of universal elementary meanings, which is closest to our understanding of the structure of the conceptual and figurative content of a stereotype.

The stereotype as a category of language and thinking is, of course, an artifact of the culture that created it. Therefore, for us, not ideal philosophical ideas about friendship are the core of the “friend” stereotype, but also not random overtones that depend on time and place. The core of the stereotype will be general meaning(for all cultures without exception) of the keyword expressing it. The core part allows you to recognize and classify stereotypes regardless of cultural differences. Thus, we emphasize similarities in the modeling and conceptualization of connections between phenomena in different cultures and societies. Core in in a certain sense refers to the "truth", "healthiness" of the stereotype. As E.A. Baratynsky wrote: “Prejudice is a fragment of the old truth: the Temple fell, and the descendant of its language did not guess the ruins.”

The periphery as a structural part of the stereotype is everything that is created by a particular culture, but even a research scientist is perceived as a common property. human nature. Relying on one's native language as a source of universal "sound" ideas about human nature and about human relations will inevitably lead to the fallacies of ethnocentrism. So A. Vezhbitskaya objects to Vladimir Shlapentokh: “Being Russian, Shlapentokh believes that the obligation to help a friend, although it turns out to be especially clearly articulated in Russian culture, is universal for all people.” She quotes from his work "Public and private life Soviet people”, in which he argues that in all societies people tend to expect that in emergency- when your life, freedom or survival is in danger - a friend will fully provide you with help and comfort. “But it is highly doubtful,” says Wierzbicka, “that in all societies it is expected that “friends” will “fully provide you with help and comfort.” Of course, no expectation of this kind is included as component into the direct meaning of the closest analogues of the Russian word "friend" in other languages, including the meaning English word friend. However, such an expectation, apparently, really forms part of the direct meaning of the Russian word "friend" (Vezhbitskaya A. Understanding cultures through key words. M., 2001. P. 111─112).

Thus, the periphery is the space itself cultural development the content that comes from the center. In addition to these expectations, the semantic periphery of the named concept in Russian culture will include the following: deep emotional relationships, intensive contacts, financial support, etc. Therefore, in particular, the distinction between the words "friend", "friend" and "acquaintance" is carefully carried out not only in Russian literature, but also in everyday usage.

Needless to say, the transfer of stereotypical behavior and stereotypical expectations to another culture threatens culture shock. Conflicts within a linguistic culture can also be generated by a mismatch of the periphery in the meaning of concepts expressing existential values. Russians still tend to argue over the question of what is "true love", "true friendship", "man's duties", "filial duty", etc.

Finally, the third structural element - the associative context - is even more individualized. These are precedent images or common symbols created by culture, the selection of which, however, is random and is determined by the biographical circumstances of the stereotype carrier. So, for example, a nurse can evoke both positive emotions (memories of care) and negative ones (associated with fear), and the associations may not be directly related to the experience of personal communication, but be inspired by images of literature, cinema, stories of acquaintances, anecdotes and etc. In the case of stereotypes, however, one cannot overestimate the personal nature of this associative context. After all, it is precisely the tendency to accept someone else's attitude, the lack of independence and inability of the subject to a spontaneous mental act, infantile forms of behavior that create the basis for the formation of a complex network of collective ideas.

Appeal to the familiar associative series often used for the purpose of deliberate manipulation. Language here appears in its instrumental function. The word as a tool is a signal, an indication of a stereotyped position and, at the same time, an order to commit famous action. In stereotypical thinking and behavior, the language returns to its archaic forms when it was a way of behavior, an element of the connection of human efforts.

Literature:

Vasilkova V. V. Archetypes in individual and social consciousness // Socio-political journal. 1996. No. 6.

Gudkov V.P. Stereotype of Russia and Russians in Serbian literature// Bulletin of Moscow State University. Ser. 9. Philology. 2001. No. 2.

Zdravomyslov A. G. Russia and Russians in Modern German Identity // ONS: Social Sciences and modernity. 2001. No. 4.

Zdravomyslov A. Images of Russians in German Self-Consciousness // Svobodnaya Mysl - XXI. 2001. No. 1.

Stereotypes are always national, and if there are analogues in other cultures, then these are quasi-stereotypes, because, while coinciding in general, they differ in nuances, details that are of fundamental importance. For example, the phenomena and the situation of the queue in different cultures are different, and therefore, stereotyped behavior will also be different: in Russia, they ask “Who is the last one?” or they simply stand in line, in a number of European countries they tear off a ticket in a special apparatus and then follow the numbers that light up above the window, for example, in the post office.

So a stereotype is some fragment conceptual painting of the world, a mental “picture”, a stable cultural and national idea (according to Yu. E. Prokhorov, “super stable” and “super fixed”) about an object or situation. It is a certain culturally determined idea of an object, phenomenon, situation. But this is not only a mental image, but also its verbal shell.

Belonging to a particular culture is determined precisely by the presence of a basic stereotypical core of knowledge that is repeated in the process of socialization of an individual in a given society, therefore stereotypes are considered to be precedent (important, representative) names in culture. A stereotype is such a phenomenon of language and speech, such a stabilizing factor that allows, on the one hand, to store and transform some of the dominant components of a given culture, and on the other hand, to express oneself among "one's own" and at the same time recognize "one's own".

At the heart of the formation of ethnic consciousness and culture as regulators of human behavior are both congenital and acquired in the process of socialization factors - cultural stereotypes that are assimilated from the moment a person begins to identify himself with a certain ethnic group, a certain culture and realize himself as their element. .

The mechanism for the formation of stereotypes are many cognitive processes, because stereotypes perform a number of cognitive functions - the function of schematization and simplification, the function of forming and storing group ideology, etc.

We live in a world of stereotypes imposed on us by culture. The set of mental stereotypes of an ethnic group is known to each of its representatives. Stereotypes are, for example, expressions in which a representative of a rural, peasant culture will speak of a bright moonlit night: it is light so that you can sew, while a city dweller in this typical situation will say: it is light so that you can read. Similar stereotypes are used by native speakers in standard communication situations. Moreover, practically any, and not just the logically main feature, can become dominant in the stereotype.

The cultural sphere of a certain ethnic group contains a number of elements of a stereotypical nature, which, as a rule, are not perceived by the bearers of another culture; these elements are called lacunae by Yu. A. Sorokin and I. Yu. created text, namely gaps.

The stability of culture, its viability are determined by how developed the structures that determine its unity, integrity. The integrity of culture involves the development of cultural stereotypes - stereotypes of goal-setting, behavior, perception, understanding, communication, etc., i.e. stereotypes overall picture peace. Important role The formation of stereotypes is played by the frequency of occurrence of certain objects, phenomena in people's lives, often expressed in longer human contacts with these objects in comparison with others, which leads to the stereotyping of such objects.

A stereotype of behavior is the most important among stereotypes; it can turn into a ritual. In general, stereotypes have much in common with traditions, customs, myths, rituals, but they differ from the latter in that traditions and customs are characterized by their objectified significance, openness to others, while stereotypes remain at the level of hidden mindsets that exist among “their own”.

So, the stereotype is characteristic of the consciousness and language of a representative of culture, it is a kind of core of culture, its bright representative and therefore the support of personality in the dialogue of cultures.

To describe the language of a particular region in the light of linguoculturology, we use the scheme proposed by N. I. Tolstoy in ethnolinguistics: the literary language corresponds elite culture, dialects and dialects - folk culture etc.

This scheme can be used in the linguistic and cultural description of any other region.

the brightest linguistic feature, which reflects the culture of the people, are phraseological units and proverbs, metaphors and symbols. For example, mythologemes, archetypes, standards, stereotypes, customs, rituals, and beliefs are fixed in the language.

The national and cultural identity of phraseological units, metaphors, symbols is formed through cultural connotations. And yet we maintain that language is not the repository of culture.

The unit of language - the word - is only a signal, the function of which is to awaken the human consciousness, to touch certain concepts in it, ready to respond to this signal.

Language is only a mechanism that contributes to the coding and translation of culture. Texts are the true guardian of culture. Not the language, but the text displays spiritual world person. It is the text that is directly related to culture, because it is permeated with many cultural codes, it is the text that stores information about history, ethnography, national psychology, national behavior, i.e. about everything that constitutes the content of culture. In turn, the rules for constructing a text depend on the context of the culture in which it appears.

The text is created from language units lower levels, which, if appropriately selected, can enhance the cultural signal. Phraseological units are such units in the first place.

Maslova V.A. Linguoculturology - M., 2001

The phenomenon of “stereotype” itself is considered not only in the works of linguists, but also in the works of sociologists, ethnographers, cognitive scientists, psychologists, ethnopsycholinguists (W. Lippman, I. S. Kohn, J. Collen, Yu. D. Apresyan, Yu. A. Sorokin, V.A.Ryzhkov, Yu.E.Prokhorov, V.V. Krasnykh, P.N. Shikhirev, A.V. Mikheev, S.M. S. Batygin, S.V. Silinsky and others).

Representatives of each of these sciences highlight in the stereotype those properties that they notice from the standpoint of their field of study, and therefore social stereotypes, communication stereotypes, mental stereotypes, cultural stereotypes, ethno-cultural stereotypes, etc. are distinguished. For example, social stereotypes manifest themselves as stereotypes of thinking and behavior of an individual. Ethnocultural stereotypes are a generalized idea of the typical features that characterize a nation. German accuracy, Russian "maybe", Chinese ceremonies, African temperament, Italian temperament, Finns' stubbornness, Estonians' slowness, Polish gallantry - stereotyped ideas about a whole people that apply to each of its representatives. Most of the jokes about the national character are based on taking into account stereotypical ideas. Here is an example: “We sent a film to representatives of different nationalities with the following content: a hot desert and a scorching sun. A man and a woman walk with difficulty. And suddenly the man takes out a juicy orange and gives it to the woman. Viewers are asked the question: what nationality is he?

The French spectator replies: “Only a Frenchman could treat a lady so gallantly!” Russian: “No. This is Russian: you must be such a fool! I would eat it myself." Jew: "No, it's a Jew: who else could get an orange in the desert?" Here the stereotypes are the gallantry of the French, the recklessness of the Russians, the resourcefulness of the Jews.

There are autostereotypes that reflect what people think about themselves, and heterostereotypes that refer to another people, and they are just more critical. For example, what is considered a manifestation of prudence among one's own people, a manifestation of greed among another people. People perceive ethno-cultural stereotypes as patterns that must be met so that "people do not laugh." Therefore, stereotypes have a rather strong influence on people, stimulating in them the formation of such character traits that are reflected in the stereotype.

Ethnic psychologists who study ethnocultural stereotypes note that nations with a high level of economic development emphasize such qualities as intelligence, efficiency, and enterprise, while nations with a more backward economy emphasize kindness, cordiality, and hospitality. This can be confirmed by the study by S.G. Ter-Minasova, according to its results, in English society, professionalism, diligence, responsibility, etc. are more valued, and in Russian - hospitality, sociability, justice (Ter-Minasova, 2000, p. 255).

N. V. Ufimtseva differentiates ethnic stereotypes and cultural stereotypes: ethnic stereotypes are inaccessible to self-reflection of a “naive” member of an ethnic group and are facts of behavior and the collective unconscious, they cannot be specially trained, and cultural stereotypes are accessible to self-reflection and are facts of behavior, individual unconscious and consciousness, they can already be taught.

For the first time, the concept of a stereotype was used by W. Lippman back in 1922, who believed that these are ordered, schematic, culture-determined “pictures of the world” in a person’s head, which save his efforts when perceiving complex objects of the world. With this understanding of the stereotype, two of its important features stand out - being determined by culture and being a means of saving labor efforts, and, accordingly, language means. If the algorithms for solving mathematical problems save a person's thinking, then stereotypes "save" the personality itself.

In cognitive linguistics and ethnolinguistics, the term stereotype refers to the content side of language and culture, i.e. is understood as a mental (thinking) stereotype that correlates with the “naive picture of the world”. Such an understanding of the stereotype is found in the works of E. Bartminsky and his school; the linguistic picture of the world and the linguistic stereotype are related to him as a part and a whole, while the linguistic stereotype is understood as a judgment or several judgments relating to a specific object of the extralinguistic) world, a subjectively determined representation of an object in which descriptive and evaluative features coexist and which is the result of an interpretation reality within the framework of socially developed cognitive models. We consider as a linguistic stereotype not only a judgment or several judgments, but also any stable expression consisting of several words, for example, a stable comparison, cliché, etc.: a person of Caucasian nationality, gray as a harrier, a new Russian. The use of such stereotypes facilitates and simplifies communication, saving the strength of communicants.

Yu. A. Sorokin defines a stereotype as a certain process and result of communication (behavior) according to certain semiotic models, the list of which is closed due to certain semiotic-technological principles adopted in a certain society. At the same time, the semiotic model is realized at the social, socio-psychological levels (standard) or at the linguistic, psychological levels (norm). The standard and the norm exist in two forms: as a stamp (an overly explicated complex sign) or as a cliché (insufficiently explicated complex sign).

VV Krasnykh divides stereotypes into two types - stereotypes-images and stereotypes-situations. Examples of stereotypes-images: a bee is a hard worker, a ram is stubborn, and stereotypes-situations: a ticket is a composter, a stork is a cabbage.

Stereotypes are always national, and if there are analogues in other cultures, then these are quasi-stereotypes, because, while coinciding in general, they differ in nuances, details that are of fundamental importance. For example, the phenomena and the situation of the queue in different cultures are different, and therefore, stereotyped behavior will also be different: in Russia, they ask “Who is the last one?” or they simply stand in line, in a number of European countries they tear off a ticket in a special apparatus and then follow the numbers that light up above the window, for example, in the post office.

So, a stereotype is a certain fragment of the conceptual picture of the world, a mental “picture”, a stable cultural and national idea (according to Yu. E. Prokhorov, “super stable” and “super fixed”) about an object or situation. It is a certain culturally determined idea of an object, phenomenon, situation. But this is not only a mental image, but also its verbal shell. Belonging to a particular culture is determined precisely by the presence of a basic stereotypical core of knowledge that is repeated in the process of socialization of an individual in a given society, therefore stereotypes are considered to be precedent (important, representative) names in culture. A stereotype is such a phenomenon of language and speech, such a stabilizing factor that allows, on the one hand, to store and transform some of the dominant components of a given culture, and on the other hand, to express oneself among "one's own" and at the same time recognize "one's own".

At the heart of the formation of ethnic consciousness and culture as regulators of human behavior are both congenital and acquired factors in the process of socialization - cultural stereotypes that are assimilated from the moment a person begins to identify himself with a certain ethnic group, a certain culture and realize himself as their own. element.

The mechanism for the formation of stereotypes is many cognitive processes, because stereotypes perform a number of cognitive functions - the function of schematization and simplification, the function of forming and storing group ideology, etc.

We live in a world of stereotypes imposed on us by culture. The set of mental stereotypes of an ethnic group is known to each of its representatives. Stereotypes are, for example, expressions in which a representative of a rural, peasant culture will say about a bright moonlit night: light so that you can sew, while a city dweller in this typical situation will say: light so that you can read. Similar stereotypes are used by native speakers in standard communication situations. Moreover, practically any, and not just the logically main feature, can become dominant in the stereotype.

The stability of culture, its viability are determined by how developed the structures that determine its unity, integrity. The integrity of culture involves the development of cultural stereotypes - stereotypes of goal-setting, behavior, perception, understanding, communication, etc., i.e. stereotypes of the general picture of the world. An important role in the formation of stereotypes is played by the frequency of occurrence of certain objects, phenomena in people's lives, often expressed in longer human contacts with these objects in comparison with others, which leads to the stereotyping of such objects.

So, the stereotype is characteristic of the consciousness and language of a representative of culture, it is a kind of core of culture, its bright representative, and therefore the support of the individual in the dialogue of cultures.

To describe the language of a particular region in the light of linguoculturology, we use the scheme proposed by N. I. Tolstoy in ethnolinguistics: the literary language corresponds to the elite culture, dialects and dialects to folk culture, etc.

This scheme can be used in the linguistic and cultural description of any other region.

The most striking linguistic feature, which reflects the culture of the people, are phraseological units and proverbs, metaphors and symbols. For example, mythologemes, archetypes, standards, stereotypes, customs, rituals, and beliefs are fixed in the language.

The national and cultural identity of phraseological units, metaphors, symbols is formed through cultural connotations. And yet we maintain that language is not the repository of culture.

The unit of language - the word - is only a signal, the function of which is to awaken the human consciousness, to touch certain concepts in it, ready to respond to this signal.

Language is only a mechanism that contributes to the coding and translation of culture. Texts are the true guardian of culture. Not the language, but the text reflects the spiritual world of man. It is the text that is directly related to culture, because it is permeated with many cultural codes, it is the text that stores information about history, ethnography, national psychology, national behavior, i.e. about everything that constitutes the content of culture. In turn, the rules for constructing a text depend on the context of the culture in which it appears.

The text is built from the lower levels of linguistic units, which, if appropriately selected, can enhance the cultural signal. Phraseological units are such units in the first place.