Cognitive Linguistics

Definitions:

1. 
   Concept is a metaphor which integrates lots of commonly used meaningful and individual associative units in itself (G. Lakoff and M. Johnson);
   
2. 
   Concept is an abstract scientific notion which is worked out on the ground of a concrete life experience (Solomonic);
   
3. 
   It is the essence of a notion which is realized in its substantial forms – in image (psychological category), notion (a category of Logics) and symbol (a category of Linguistic) (Kolesov);
   
4. 
   Concept objectively exists in the human consciousness perceptive-cognitive-affective formation characterized with its dynamic function, which makes it different from notions and meanings as the products of scientific description (A.Zalevskaya);
   
5. 
   It is an operative unit of thinking, a unit of collective knowledge which has a language expression and is marked with ethnic-cultural specifics; it directs to the highest spiritual essence (S.Vorkachev);
   
6. 
   Concept is a certain idea about a fragment of the world (or about a part of the fragment) that has a complex structure. The structure is expressed with different groups of signs which are realized by different language means (M.Pimenova);
   
7. 
   It is a certain ‘clot’ (сгусток) of a culture in a human consciousness; it is something in the form of which a culture enters the mental world of a man. On the other hand, Concept is something with what an average man enters a definite culture by himself and can influence it (U.Stepanov).
   
8. 
   Concept – individual personal (or group, e.g. cultural, professional, age, gender) subjective cognitive-affective (or cognitive emotional) knowledge of a fragment of reality (external or internal). Integrating concepts forms a system (cluster) of concepts – Picture of the World – which reflects, being realized in communication, peculiarities of individual perception and understanding the world (your D.U.).