Concept «circle» in the Slavic language picture of the world (based on the material of Russian and Polish)

Abstract

The article is devoted to analyzing the concept circle in the Russian and the Polish language picture of the world. The main goal of the article is to identify the common and national-specific things in this part of the Slavic language picture of the world and to find the unity base. Using the logical-cognitive method, the means of verbalization of the concept circle, the semantic field of the concept and its structure, manifestations of regularity in the formation of secondary meanings, including in metaphors, ways of conceptualizing realities were identified and compared in two languages. The analysis shows that the concept circle in the Slavic language picture of the world has an invariant semantic structure consisting of a number of particular image-schemes connected by the principle of family similarity: configuration (form), isolation, center periphery, movement track. Each of the particular image-schemes accumulates a complex of meanings, which is the same in different Slavic languages. In spite of some differences in the means of embodying conceptual meanings, a deep unity of the means of verbalization has been found, caused by the unity of the way of understanding both the circle itself and many realities that are associated with the circle in various ways in both languages. The data of regular ambiguity (a similar formation of figurative values) confirm this thesis. Thus, the study shows the unity of this fragment in the linguistic picture of the world of the Russian and the Polish languages, based on common ideas about the circle and its properties in the culture of the two peoples.

Keywords

• linguistic picture of the world
• concept
• image-scheme
• meaning
• semantic structure
• verbalization
• regular ambiguity