Categorization (conceptualisation) in language

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Categorization (conceptualisation) in language

Valentyna Stebivka

Vozniak Ihor Zenoviyovych

2021

Introduction

Categorization in its most general sense can be seen as a process of systematization of acquired knowledge. Each time we come across something new in our worlds--concrete entities, as well as abstract concepts--we try to accommodate it by assigning it to some category or other. This phenomenon is especially common in early childhood when children progressively acquaint themselves with the world around them.

The object of my research is Conceptualization and categorization in language. ethnic language information conceptualization

The subject of the study are certain properties, characteristics of the language of different ethnic groups.

The purpose of the study: To understand how the category of time leads to an understanding of human existence as a whole, and how it illuminates a relationship between the subjects and objects of knowledge. Also learn how it reflects the ways of perception of the modern worldview by certain ethnic groups. Study the main approaches to research of language phenomena

The main task of my research is to conduct research within the cognitive paradigm of scientific knowledge based on the linguistic idea of time and the peculiarities of its perception in the mentality in English, Polish and Ukrainian. Study of the process of time as a lexical category.

Presentation of the main material

Categorization is the process of grouping or classifying people, events, objects, and experiences. They are usually grouped into classes based on the common characteristics shared by the members of the class and the distinctive features that distinguish these members from other classes. Categorization assumes that objects are grouped into categories, usually for specific purposes. Ideally, the category highlights the relationship between subjects and objects of knowledge. Categorization is important in language, conclusions, forecasting, decision-making and in all types of environmental interactions. Biological classification of organisms is based on classifications by genera and species.

Categorization is one of the most important topic in linguistics, cognitive psychology, and philosophy, and it is so important to learning. Classification of concepts gives opportunity to classify (also it helps to recognize the classification) of objects or concepts belonging to the group. This characteristic accelerates the process of thinking, promotes immediate selective and facilitates generalization and learning.

The concept categorization is:

· is a useful way of looking at things in a comprehensive and general way, and although it can still recognize the differences between them;

· is an information strategy (people are mostly information processors);

· plays an important role in the functioning of human memory, in oder to simplified the information;

· includes processing of stimuli, activation of a design;

· it is also a response to overload and extra information.

· has the effect of cognitive economy, referring to the general attributes of different objects;

According to this classical model, category membership is defined according to a set of necessary and sufficient conditions. It leads that category membership is an “all-or-nothing”.

The key tokens that describe the analyzed category in the considered languages are English basic English - time; Polish - czas; Ukrainian - czas. At the same time, the main part of the means of lexical nomination of temporal characteristics are nouns that have a temporal component in their meaning and represent a certain period of time. The category of time can be represented by the following conceptual and thematic areas which I indicate in Table 1.

Table 1. Conceptual and thematic areas of the category TIME

The peculiarity of the analyzed category is that TIME, as a straight line directed forward, it is linear and irreversible, it does not depend on man and events in the world. N. D. Arutyunova noted "man does not have an organ that specializes in the perception of time, but man has a sense of time. It is generated by the perception of changes in the world. Its main source is space time -changes in time of day and season". As we have understood, the sense of time is something that is acquired through a person's insightful abilities in the process of socialization and integration into culture. The results of perception include information about the ontology of the world, selected systems for using the ideas of cognitive mechanisms of consciousness.

Language plays an important role in this process. The first idea (quantitative) makes it possible to number time, ie to allow it to be measured. The second (topological) makes it possible to talk about time as a certain entity and move on to its understanding.

Thus, we can distinguish between metric and non-metric time. The idea of understanding time in the metric approach allows you to identify universal units of time intervals are presented in Table 2.

Table 2. Quantitative characteristics

Analyzing the data in Table 2, we conclude that the metric type of time includes such conceptual and thematic areas as: daily cycle and calendar time. Given that time intervals are measured by generally accepted standards, it is the most accurate for all reference scale systems. It should be noted that the ability of lexical units with short-term semantics typically acquire the meaning of indefinite or long periods. Thus, a whole fragment of life can correspond to the moment: Life is a moment between the past and the future. Unlike metric units of time, lexical units are indefinite Time is more inclined to such a stylistic means as metaphorization. The temporal meanings formed as a result of the mechanism of conceptual metaphor give grounds to speak about the metaphorical model of lexical conceptualization of time.

There are three levels of generalization. The first, highest level of generalization is superordinate. the superordinate level reflects generalized representations, words of broad abstract semantics: time and temporality

The second is basic, it allows for both possible generalization at the dependent level and concretization at the third level, which is called subordinates. Basic and subordinate levels operate with a specific vocabulary of semantics.

For example, sports timeout terminology, medical time-out, set-break provides not only a break in a certain sport (time break in football, set-break in tennis), but also a certain duration and rules of conduct for players. The presence of lexical universals at the superdynate and basic levels indicates the general conceptual basis of the studied languages. At the subordinate level, their national characteristics are revealed. It is very important that the described levels of categorization that exist in the human mentality do not have clearly defined boundaries and actively interact with each other. At each level, it is possible to identify different sublevels that can be represented in the form of a taxonomic system related to a specific conceptual and thematic area. It is the semantic meaning of words that determines their relation to a certain level of categorization.

Very important feature of the category is that it combines concepts and is a group of units characterized by a common property - to be a representative of something beyond the sign (Kubryakova, 2004).

In this way , the concepts themselves form the basis of the categories. In the conceptual system of people, they can be represented as two different types of knowledge: “thematic and operational concepts that reflect its two main aspects: static and dynamic.

Static - are units of knowledge as the main elements of the conceptual system in its static aspect.

Dynamic - is imaginary ideas about objects, events and their specific characteristics as units of knowledge (values), which a person operates in the process of speech activity in order to transfer knowledge or orientation (Boldyrev, 2016).

TIME refers to the thematic type of concepts that represent the units of knowledge as the main elements of the conceptual system in its static aspect, are thought constructs, units of theoretical knowledge, representing the entire collective experience of knowledge of the world. (Boldyrev, 2016).

Research includes analysis of the relevant conceptual and thematic area, its structure and content. Thematic concepts are epistemological constructions, the result of understanding knowledge about the world, their accumulation. The study of the thematic concept of TIME involves the study of the structure and content of this category and the whole conceptual-thematic area: its elements, their characteristics and relationships, methods and levels of conceptualization and categorization of time in scientific and everyday worldview, perhaps its philosophical, physical and linguistic understanding, ie all types of knowledge accumulated by mankind about this phenomenon.

Conceptualization

Conceptualization is an abstract and simplified perspective of the knowledge we have about the "world" and which, for some reason, we want to represent. This representation is our knowledge of the "world", in which each concept is expressed in verbal relations with other concepts and on our own examples of the "real world". Thus, conceptualization can be understood as "the development or construction of abstract ideas from experience: our conscious understanding of (not necessarily real) the world."

An elementary conceptualization of the concept "dog":

*«can be a»wild animal{category}

*«has more developed»smell{attribute}

*«has for instance»Balto {example} (a specific dog)

*«has characteristic»a faithful animal {attribute}

*«has characteristic»hunter{attribute}

*«hunts»ducks {cause-effect}

*«is part of»universal fauna{part-whole}

*«lives in»houses{space-time contextuality}

*«lives in» lives in nature{space-time contextuality}

*«can have»saber{attribute}

*Categorizing «is not equal to» conceptualizing

*Categorizing «is not enough to» conceptualizing

*Conceptualizing «contains» categorizing

This type of knowledge is classified as “declarative knowledge”, because it is expressed in propositional terms: concept «verbal relation» concept.

The concept is a multidimensional mental formation, which includes figurative-perceptual, conceptual and value aspects, "a bunch of culture in the human mind; the form in which culture enters the mental world of man. Concepts have a certain internal organization, structure. Under the structure of the concept understand "a set of generalized features necessary and sufficient to identify an object or phenomenon as a fragment of the picture of the world."

In the process of cognition in the mind of the individual is some information about the world. Human experience is transformed into concepts that connect logically and create a conceptual system. In modern linguistics, three main approaches to the study of the content and structure of the concept are identified:

- culturological, which is based on the understanding of the concept as the main links of culture in the mental world of man;

- semantic, which is based on the semantics of the language sign as means of forming the content of the concept;

- linguo-cultural, in which the concept is interpreted as a result of the collision of meanings of the word with personal and folk messages of mankind.

Thus, the linguistic-cultural concept is a multidimensional mental formation that is stored in the consciousness of the linguistic personality and materializes in speech, reflects the pronounced cultural values ??of a particular ethnic group - the spiritual and material component of culture.

Conclusion

Thus, we can conclude that the concept of English - time / Polish - czas / Ukrainian - chas - is a concept that organizes the structure of the mental category of TIME. It has a multi-layered organization. Its social nature determines the general cultural, intercultural and social significance, as well as national and cultural specificity, inextricably linked to the linguistic side of the concept, and manifested in speech refraction. The analyzed concept is intercultural and interlinguistic, it has universal characteristics both in content and in linguistic objectification. Linguistic and linguistic-cultural systems of different ethnic groups differ significantly from each other, but the common fact is the existence of semantic and lexical universals that indicate the general conceptual basis on which language, thinking and culture are built. Summarizing everything, we can conclude that the prototype approach radically changes the previously existing ideas about the ability of man to classify terms. The study of the processes of categorization of terms can be considered as a kind of conceptual analysis, as this approach allows to identify different characteristics of concepts that are the basis of meaning, but not always obvious from the meaning of the word. The study of the principles and mechanisms of categorization of language units makes it possible to identify their prototype semantics in terms of their common properties with the prototype category. This feature is especially important for research in cognitive linguistics, because it is the prototype semantics of language units largely determines their use in a sentence to convey a certain meaning. Analysis of prototype semantics also provides a deeper understanding of the structure and content of the concepts underlying the formation of language categories, the principles of organization of these categories and mechanisms of interaction between cognitive and language structures in the process of forming the meaning of the statement.

References

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