|
Recommended Literature
Алефиренко Н.Ф. Лингвокультурология. Ценностно-смысловое пространство языка. –М.: Флинта, Наука, 2010
Воробьев В.В. Лингвокультурология. –М.: РУДН, 2008.
Маслова В.А. Лингвокультурология. – М.: Изд.центр академия, 2007.
Телия В. Н. Русская фразеология. Семантический, прагматический и лингвокультурологический аспекты. М., 1996.
Chapter V. Cultural significance of Stylistic devices
5.1. Stylistic devices as cultural models
The development of new trends in linguistics requires that many traditional notions and assumptions should be revised and reconsidered in a new light. In this respect special attention is attached to the problem of stylistic devices. Traditionally stylistic devices have been studied from the point of view of their structural and semantic organization. However, a satisfactory account of these phenomena can only be arrived at by means of their comprehensive analysis, including cognitive and cultural aspects.
The linguocultural approach to the problem of stylistic devices requires a new apprehension of these phenomena regarded as cultural models manifesting elements of universal and national culture (Ashurova, 2013). This understanding of a stylistic device puts forward the task of defining the notion of “a cultural model”.
Cultural models are the means of cultural knowledge organization; knowledge structures and models of behavior which distinguish one culture from another. Cultural models are common for the majority of the people of one nation and are connected with the system of values of this nation.
The theory of cultural models goes back to Humboldts’s ideas about the close relationships of cognition, culture and language. Currently they are studied by D. Holland, N. Quinn (1987), A. Wierzbicka (1992), Т.В. Булыгина, А.Д. Шмелев, (1997), Т.В. Ларина (2003), S.Levinson (2003), O.K. Iriskhanova (2005).
According to N. Quinn, cultural models are “presupposed, taken-for-granted models of the world that are popularly shared by the members of a society and that play an enormous role in their understanding of that world and their behavior in it” (Holland, Quinn, 1987, p.4).
D. Holland and N. Quinn, the authors of the research “Cultural models in language and thought”, argue that cultural knowledge is organized in ‘cultural models’ – “storylike chains of prototypical events that unfold in simplified worlds”. They demonstrate that cultural knowledge may take either proposition-schematic or image-schematic form, each enabling the performance of different kinds of cognitive tasks. Metaphor and metonymy are shown to have special roles in the construction of cultural models.
Cultural models emerge and develop in social groups, but they cannot be easily changed by one member of the society. Some cultural models change in the due course, others newly appear, and both types can coexist, but the currently dominant ones are the most influential in the society.
Cultural models represent artifacts of culture, traditions, everyday behavior and are reflected in the semantics of language units and expressions. B. Shore distinguishes different types of cultural models: explicit and implicit (rituals, games vs. specificity of national world perception); general and special (the model of polite behavior and the model of request); linguistic and non-linguistic (the children’s rhymes and gestures); cultural models for some practical purposes (recipes, order, alms), etc. (Shore, 1998).
A special attention is paid to the structure of cultural models. Some scientists claim that they are formed on the basis of propositions, i.e. a predicative semantic structure. The analysis of the linguistic literature shows that there are two schools of thought. Some scholars claim that cultural models exist without prior metaphorical understanding. In other words, we are equipped with a primary literal understanding of cultural models (e.g. Quinn 1991). Others, however, hold that cultural models, especially those for abstract concepts are inherently metaphorical; that is, they are constituted by metaphor (e.g. Lakoff, Johnson 1980; Lakoff, Kövecses, 1987).
In the research by N. Quinn the cultural model “Marriage” (1987) is represented by a row of propositions: Marriage is Enduring; Marriage is Mutually Beneficial; Marriage is Unknown at the Outset; Marriage is Difficult; etc. The author suggests considering the cultural models in terms of proposition-schemas and image-schemas. Each of them or even both may constitute a cultural model. But, they fulfill different cognitive tasks. Proposition- schemas identify concepts and the relations between them. Image -schemas serve the other function: they may contain some visual or kinesthetic images.
Another group of linguists (Iriskhanova K.M., Ashurova D.U., Buligina T.V., Larina T.V., etc.) claim that “culture is transferred by cultural models reflected in stylistic devices” (Ирисханова, 2004, p.16-22). In other words, the role of stylistic devices projecting proposition and image-schemas from one domain into another, is of great significance for the construction of cultural models. Stylistic devices are regarded as cultural models (D.U. Ashurova, O.K. Iriskhanova) and they are organized around a certain concept. Let us consider the poem “Freedom” by Joyce Maxtone Graham:
Now heaven be thanked.
I am out of love again!
I have been long a slave, and now am free:
I have been tortured, and am eased of pain:
I have been blind, and now my eyes can see:
I have been lost, and now my way lies plain:
I have been caged, and now I hold the key:
I have been mad, and now at last am sane:
I am wholly I that was but half of me.
So a free man, my dull proud path I plod,
Who tortured, blind, mad, caged, was once a God (Graham, Freedom).
The whole poem, every line of it, is based on metaphors, which describe the cultural concept “Love” in terms of slavery and freedom, torture and ease, blindness and ability to see, lost ways and plain ways, etc. The stylistic effect and conceptual value of the metaphors are reinforced by the use of antithesis presenting image-schemas in contrast. Contrast setting one object or idea against another, presents both of them in a more salient and conspicuous way. The cultural model represented by the above stylistic devices reveals a complex, comprehensive, diverse and contradictory nature of the cultural concept LOVE. It can be illustrated by the following diagram:
One of the essential cultural categories is the category of politeness. Politeness is a quality of people who have good manners and speak and behave in a way that is socially correct and considerate of other people’s behavior. In speech the principle of politeness was introduced by American scholar G.Leech who elaborated this principle in terms of ethic norms of speech and behavior. The principle of politeness is verbalized by means of lexical and syntactical units. At the lexical level politeness is verbalized by:
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
