Сборник научных трудов по материалам Четвертой Международной научно-практической конференции

Ключевые слова:
концепт, культурный, художественный текст, ин-
терпретация, национально-культурная специфика, вербализация
At present the notion of concept is in the centre of attention 
of many modern linguistic trends such as cognitive linguistics, 
linguoculturology, linguoconceptology, etc. There are two approaches 
to this problem: cognitive and cultural. From the positions of 
Cognitive Linguistics “concept” is considered a complex mental unit, 
means of representation of knowledge structures, multifold cognitive 
structure, an operational unit of memory [2, 6, 7, 10]. From the 
perspectives of Linguoculturology “concept” is defi ned as a mental, 
cultural and nationally specifi c unit characterized by an array of 
emotional, expressive and evaluative components, as a basic unit of 
© Галиева М.Р., 2019

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culture, a constituent part of the national conceptosphere [3, 5, 8, 9]. 
Despite some differences in approaches, as V.I. Karasik points out, the 
“lingiocultural and cognitive approaches to the notion of concept are 
not mutually exclusive: concept as a mental unit in the mind of the 
individual provides access to the conceptosphere of the society, while 
the cultural concept is a unit of the collective cultural experience, 
which becomes the cultural property of the individual” [4, p. 135].
A distinctive feature of the concept is its interlevel character, 
i.e. concepts are verbalized with the help of various language units 
referring to different language levels: lexical, word-formation, 
phraseological, syntactical, paroimiological. But a complete 
reconstruction, actualization and decoding of the semantic and 
cultural structure of the concept can be arrived at only on the textual 
level. The concept in the text is foregrounded by various linguistic 
units, the analysis of which in the light of the concept theory allows to 
penetrate into the deep-lying content of the text [1, 7, 11, 12].
In this respect, the story “Outstation” by S. Maugham [15] is an 
interesting illustration of the concept “
SNOB
”, one of the socially and 
culturally signifi cant concepts in the English culture.
According to dictionaries, 
snob
is defi ned as 1) one who tends to 
patronize, rebuff, or ignore people regarded as social inferiors and 
imitate, admire, or seek associations with people regarded as social 
superiors; 2) as a person having similar pretentions in matters of 
knowledge and taste [13, 14, 16, 17]. The analysis of the associative 
fi eld of the lexeme “snob” reveals a set of conceptual features 
constituting the cognitive structure of this word: 
pretentious, affected, 
fashionable, modish, stylish, well-dressed, tasteful, gentlemanlike, well-
mannered, civilized, dandifi ed, well-groomed, artifi cial, unnatural, 
vain, theatrical, stilted, hypocritical, arrogant, contemptuous, scornful, 
disapproving, despising
, etc. So, the word under analysis stands out 
as an embodiment of both positive (
gentlemanlike, well-mannered,
well-groomed, etc.
) and negative characteristics of a person (
artifi cial, 
unnatural, vain, hypocritical, arrogant, contemptuous, etc.). 
The main personage of the story is Mr. Warburton who had 
inherited a considerable fortune, threw himself into the gay life, then 
lost all his wealth in gambling and went to a distant colony in Borneo. 

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The story contains a detailed description of Mr. Warburton’s previous 
life. His way and style of life characterize him as a “dreadful snob”; 
and this idea is explicitly presented in the story:
For Mr. Warburton was a snob. He was not a timid snob, a little 
ashamed of being impressed by his betters, nor a snob who sought the 
intimacy of persons who had acquired celebrity in politics or notoriety 
in the arts, nor the snob who was dazzled by riches; he was the naked, 
unadulterated common snob who dearly loved a lord. 
Poor Warburton was a dreadful snob, of course, but after all he was 
a good fellow. He was always ready to back a bill for an impecunious 
nobleman, and if you were in a tight corner you could safely count 
on him for a hundred pounds. He gave good dinners. He played whist 
badly, hut never minded how much he lost if the company was select. 
He happened to be a gambler, an unlucky one, hut he was a good loser, 
and it was impossible not to admire the coolness with which he lost fi ve 
hundred pounds at a sitting.
In spite of many a positive characteristic (
amusing, generous, 
coolness, handsome, a certain simplicity of character, an ingenuous 
prey, no complaint, pressed nobody, paid his debts
, 
gave good dinners;
etc.) Mr. Warburton displayed snobbism in everything: