Uzbekistan state world languages university d. U. Ashurova m. R. Galieva

Chapter VI. Cultural Value of Concept
6.1. The notion of cultural concept
The notion of “cultural concept” is considered to be one of the main notions of Linguoculturology and its branch Linguoconceptology. It is a subject of frequent debate, and there are different approaches and views. Not going into details, we shall give a general definition of this notion worked out on the basis of the linguistic literature. Concept – is a complex mental entity, a component of the basic world picture conceptually relevant either for individual linguistic personality or the whole linguocultural community. As V.A. Maslova claims, the formation of a concept is conditioned by the individual’s emotional, physical, historical, personal and social experience acquired in the process of the world perception (2004, 2007). The following traits of a concept relevant for Linguoculturology can be outlined:

● concept presents knowledge structures about the surrounding world;

● concept is a cultural and nationally specific unit;

● concept is a multifold mental structure consisting of notional, image-bearing and evaluative constituents;

● concept is characterized by a string of emotional, expressive components and associative links.

In linguoculturology “concept” is defined as a basic unit of culture, its core; a mental, cultural and nationally specific unit characterized by an array of emotional, expressive and evaluative components; a constituent part of the national conceptosphere; a unit of the collective cultural experience that becomes the cultural property of the individual (Stepanov Yu.S., Arutyunova N.D., Karasik V.I., Slishkin G.G., Vorkachyov S.G., Pimenova M.V.).

The properties of the notion “cultural concept” formulated in the work by Yu. Stepanov «Константы. Словарь Русской Культуры» are worth mentioning. Yu.S. Stepanov claims that concepts are characterized by emotiveness. He states that “concept is a basic cell of culture in a man’s consciousness” and “includes in contrast to the notion, not only the descriptive and classificatory characteristics, but strong sensual and empirical features” (Степанов, 2004, p.43). V.I . Karasik also emphasizes the fact that concept is “a quantum of emotional information” (Карасик, 2004, c.128, 361).

Concept is externalized with the help of various linguistic means referring to different linguistic levels. It can be expressed by words, derivatives, phraseological units, proverbs, aphorisms and even texts. For example, the concept Beauty is represented by:

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