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Solemn, yet sweet, the church-bell's chime
Floats thro' their woods at morn;
All other sounds, in that still time,
Of breeze and leaf are born.
The Cottage Homes of England!
By thousands on her plains,
They are smiling o'er the silvery brooks,
And round the hamlet-fanes.
Thro' glowing orchards forth they peep,
Each from its nook of leaves,
And fearless there the lowly sleep,
As the bird beneath the eaves.
The free, fair Homes of England!
Long, long, in hut and hall,
May hearts of native proof be rear'd
To guard each hallow'd wall!
And green for ever be the groves,
And bright the flowery sod,
Where first the child's glad spirit loves
Its country and its God! –
Felicia Hemans offers a highly sentimental, idealized view of English home life. “Home” is one of the basic concepts of English culture. It is not only a dwelling place, it is an environment arousing the feelings of love, pleasure, happiness, worship; it is a valued hearth offering security and refuge; it is a place of beauty and quietness. The poet admires glowing orchards, tall ancestral trees, silvery brooks, the flowery sod, the woods and plains of the blessed, free and fair Homes of England. The whole poem is penetrated with cultural codes and emotional evaluations: it glorifies the motherland, countryside and cottage Homes of England.
Linguoculturemes can also be classified from the semantic perspective, i.e. from the perspective of their cultural meaning. It should be mentioned that cultural information can be presented either in the denotative or connotative meanings of the word. Lexemes containing cultural specific denotative meaning are subdivided into three groups:
a) linguistic units, denoting idioethnic realia: shawl, silver-studded boots, penny-in-the-slot machines, toast, a domestic post, the kidnapper, a first class actor, high up people, a page boy in a hotel, golf, bridge, the rubber.
b) linguistic units, denoting phenomena of social life and historical events: free-lancer, Rectory life, a twopenny-halfpenny clerk, the third return, the Ministry of Requirements; Sammy, The men in the Wooden Horse; the Fifth Column.
c) linguistic units, denoting universal cultural values: friendship, independence, love, hope, dream, hatred, etc.
As for connotations, their cultural specifics can be expressed in two ways: a) through stylistic connotations; b) by means of sociocultural background.
Proceeding from the assumption that there are frequent correlations between stylistic and culture specific properties of linguistic units (Ashurova, Galieva, 2016), stylistic meanings in most cases can be regarded as indicators of cultural information. It is not accidental that many phraseological units, derivatives, compound words differentiated according to register and genre reference such as neologisms, archaisms, slang, jargonisms and terms are charged with cultural information.
Let us consider the following example. According to the dictionary definitions the words girl, maiden, lass, lassie, chick, baby, young lady can indicate one and the same person. Nevertheless the words are characterized by quite different stylistic connotations. The first word “girl” is neutral and is the dominant in this synonymous row. All other words of the group have various connotative meanings. “Maiden” is an archaic word with the poetic meaning. “Lass” and especially “lassie” have emotional connotations: they are diminutive words used in dialects. “Chick” and “baby” refer to slang. “Young lady” is often used ironically. Thus, the connotative meaning is composed of emotional, expressive, evaluative and functional-stylistic components, at the same time indicating different sociocultural situations these words can be used in.
Sociocultural background is another means of creating culture relevant linguistic units. The word “house” and “home” is a vivid example of it. Cultural connotations of the word “house” are conditioned by the fact that Englishmen prefer to live in their own houses with separate entrances, gardens full of trees and flowers, evergreen lawns. It was reported that 82 percent of British families live in a house and only 15 percent live in a flat. This contrasts to continental Europe where flats are more popular.
Another word whose cultural potential is much stronger is “home” since its cultural information is presented in both denotative and connotative meanings. Let us turn to the definitions of the word taken from explanatory and encyclopedic dictionaries:
Home
a house, flat, etc. where one lives. One’s home is considered to be a safe and comfortable place which others enter only by invitation (LDELC);
an establishment providing residence and care for people with special needs (MWСD);
the social unit formed by a family living together; a place of origin (MWСD);
someone's or something's place of origin, or the place where a person feels they belong; the type of family you come from (CIDE).
As is seen from the definitions, “home” is not only a dwelling place; it includes information about the family, origin and ancestors. The polysemantic structure of the word contains very positive evaluation (safe, comfortable, happy, valued) of this cultural concept. The cultural significance of this concept is sustained by a great number of phraseological units, proverbs and sayings including the component “home”: to feel at home, make yourself at home; home and dry (to feel safe); a home bird (someone who likes staying at home); a broken home; hit a home run (achieve success); a wise man is always at home; at home grounds (safe); bring home the bacon (earn money for the family); keep the home fires burning (maintain in good order one’s family home); East or West home is best; dry bread at home is better than roast meat abroad; home is where the heart is; an Englishman’s home is his castle; there is no place like home.
So, the meaning of the word “home” includes the following cultural components: family, safety, happiness, comfort, value, success, love, wisdom.
Besides structural and semantic approaches to the classification of linguoculturemes they can be differentiated according to the type of linguistic units they are expressed by. Maslova V.A. points out the following types of linguoculturemes: 1) non-equivalent lexicon; 2) mythologemes, i.e. myths, legends, rituals expressed by words, phraseological units, proverbs and images; 3) proverbs and sayings; 4) symbols, stereotypes, etalons; 5) images; 6) stylistic means; 7) speech behavior; 8) formulas of speech etiquette; 9) religiously marked linguistic units (Маслова, 2007). Some other scholars regard cultural concepts as linguoculturemes (Карасик, 2004, Попова, Стернин, 2007) and that is certainly beyond doubt since cultural concepts are the major means to convey cultural information and represent the conceptual world picture. Further, in the subsequent sections we shall elaborate on some most significant types of linguoculturemes.
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