The concept of "Europe" on the threshold of two millennia

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The concept of "Europe" on the threshold of two millennia

Natalia H. Lysetska

Лисецька Наталія Григорівна,

кандидат філологічних наук, доцент Східноєвропейський національний університет імені Лесі Українки

КОНЦЕПТ „EUROPA“ НА ЗРІЗІ ДВОХ ТИСЯЧОЛІТЬ

Стаття присвячена аналізу концепту „Europa“ та його тлумаченню носіями німецької лінгвокультури на зламі двох тисячоліть. Досліджено смислове наповнення концепту „Europa“ на основі Інтернет-джерел для виявлення домінантних та системних відношень усередині однойменного концепту; показано еволюційний процес формування концепту „Europa“ як фрагменту концептуальної картину світу; розглянуто поняття „Europa“ ХХ століття на основі книги скс-канцлераНімеччини Г. Шмід- та „Die Deutschen und ihre Nachbarn. Menschen und Mдchte II“; проаналізовано функціонування концепту „Europa“ в сучасному мас-медійному німецькомовному просторі. Аналіз фактологічного матеріалу показав, що концепт „Europa“ у німецькомовній лінгвокультурі є багатозначним. Трьохвимірна структура концепту - понятійна, образна і оцінна - змінюється й набуває нових змістових відтінків упродовж різних історичних проміжків часу. Еволюційна динаміка обраного концепту у межах окресленого часового простору виглядає так: EUROPA - духовна та багатонаціональна єдність (де християнство та європейські мови є визначальними), єдина Європа, спільна Європа / ein einheitliches Europa, Gesamteuropa, нова об'єднана Європа / das vereinte neue Europa, розколота Європа /gespaltetes Europa (поняттєвий складник); Європа - це калейдоскоп /Europa ist ein Kaleidoskop, Європа - це фортеця /Festung Europa, Європа у небезпеці /Europa in Gefahr (образний складник); єдність із демократичною державною формою та високим рівнем життя з верховенством права (Західна Європа) / ein Ganzes mit demokratischer Staatsform und hohem Lebensstandard, in dem Menschenrechte verwirklicht werden (Westeuropa), багатонаціональна Європа / multikulturelles Europa, дезорієнтована Європа / desorientiertes Europa (оцінний складник). Доведено, що смисл концепту „Europa“ можна повністю розкрити лише при врахуванні та поєднанні цілої низки чинників (історичних, географічних, економічних, культурних, релігійних, політичних, соціальних тощо) з урахуванням їх еволюційної динаміки у минулому та на сучасному етапі розвитку.

Ключові слова: динаміка, еволюція, концепт „Europa“, концептуальні ознаки, топос, лінгвокультура, дискурс, німецькомов- ний дискурс.

Nataliia H. Lysetska,

PhD (Doctor of Philosophy (in Philology)), Associate Professor Lesya Ukrainka Eastern European National University

THE CONCEPT „EUROPA“ ON THE THRESHOLD OF THE SECOND AND THIRD MILLENNIUM

The article deals with the analysis of the concept „Europa“ and its interpretation by the speakers of German linguistic culture at the turn of the two millennia. The semantic content of the concept „Europa“ was explored on the basis of Internet sources for identifying dominant and systemic relationships within this concept; the evolutionary process of forming the concept „Europa“ is shown as a fragment of the conceptual picture of the world; the concept „Europa“ of the XX century is discussed on the basis of the book by the ex-Chancellor of

Germany G.Schmidt „Die Deutschen und ihre Nachbarn. Menschen und Mдchte II“; the functioning of the concept „Europa“ in the modern German-language mass media is analyzed. The analysis of the factual material has revealed that the concept „Europa“ in German-speaking linguistic culture has multiple meanings. The three-dimensional structure of the concept - notional, figurative and evaluative - changes and acquires new meaningful shades over different historical intervals. The evolutionary dynamics of the chosen concept within the defined temporal space are as follows: EUROPA - a spiritual and multinational unity (where Christianity and European languages are decisive), united Europe, common Europe / ein einheitliches Europa, Gesamteuropa, new united Europe / das vereinte neue Europa, split Europe / gespaltetes Europa (notional component); Europe is a kaleidoscope / Europa ist ein Kaleidoskop, Europe is a fortress / Festung Europa, Europe in danger / Europa in Gefahr (figurative component); unity with a democratic state form and a high standard of living with the rule of law (Western Europe) / ein Ganzes mit demokratischer Staatsform und hohem Lebensstandard, in dem Menschenrechte verwirklicht warden (Westeuropa), multinational Europe /multikulturelles Europa, disoriented Europe / desorientiertes Europa (evaluative component). It is proved that the meaning of the concept „Europa“ can be fully revealed only by taking into account and combining a number of factors (historical, geographical, economic, cultural, religious, political, social, etc)., taking into account their evolutionary dynamics in the past and at the present stage of development.

Key words: dynamics, evolution, concept „Europa“, conceptual features, topos, linguistic culture, discourse, German-language discourse.

One of the most important concepts for people who identify with Europeans is the concept of "Europe". This concept is not only important for the Germans, who live in one of the strongest countries in the EU, but also for the people who are striving for Europe, who want to become EU members and who still have a lot to do for it. We see interest in the studied issue in the articles of several scientists and politicians. The concept of "Europe" as part of the public discourse is a means and proof of the national interpretation of the world and an object of mental geography [3]. In the academic literature, the concept of “Europe” has been examined from different angles, such as: B. the united Europe (M. Hnatyuk, Ja. Tschornohor, R. Barkowski), Europe as a political idea (G. Mьnkler), the cognitive-linguistic aspects of the concept of "Europe" in Ukrainian journalism (Ja. Prychoda) and others. The beginning of the III. Millennium was restless in many areas of human existence. First came the financial crisis, today we see the humanitarian catastrophe in many countries around the world. Hundreds of thousands of people from the countries of Africa and the Far East are leaving their homes to find a better life. The war in Syria, Iraq and other countries has caused a mass exodus of people to Europe. The topic of "refugees" is constantly in the European media, which also aroused the interest of scholars in linguistic studies. In recent years there have been media frames in the news and in the press about stereotypes regarding foreigners (S. Schiffer 2005), characteristics of ethnic minorities (H. Bonfadelli 2007), the portrayal of foreigners as a social phenomenon in the news of the Swiss television (M. Luginbьhl 2007) and that of young people with a migration past (T. Hermann, Ch. Hanetseder 2007, H. Moser 2007 and others). investigated, typical argumentative examples (topoi) of the migration text corpus based on discourse analysis (S. Jдger/ Jь.Link 1993; M. Wengeler 2006) and characteristics of the linguistic-cultural type "dropout" (O. Bondarchuk) [4] have been researched . In this scholarly article, we also briefly present the results of the study of migration to EU countries in 2015-2017, as they broaden the content of the concept of “Europe”.

The topicality of the article consists in exploring the concept of "Europe" and its values in German linguistic culture at the end of the 20th, beginning of the 21st century, as well as analyzing the peculiarities of the functioning of linguistic units within the cognitive structure under study.

The aim of the article is to explore the content of the concept "Europe" by rendering the corresponding conceptual space based on the linguistic units to activate the concept to be analyzed in the German-language discourse.

In order to achieve the set goal, it is necessary to solve the following tasks: 1) research the formation and meaning of the term "Europe"; 2) in the book written by H. Schmidt “The Germans and their neighbors. People and Powers II.” Understanding and exploring the basic values ??of the concept of “Europe”; 3) analyze the functioning of the concept of "Europe" in the modern German-speaking media space; 4) on the basis of the analysis of the German media texts (including the partially used topoi analysis of the argumentation patterns) to develop and summarize newly acquired shades of meaning of the concept "Europe".

In analyzing the concepts, we join the Volgograd scientific school of V. I. Karasik and explore the three-dimensional structure of the concept: conceptual, figurative and evaluative/acsiological components. We regard the term Europe as a concept [1] because it contains (exhibits) these three components.

Thoughts on the concept of Europe and one's own view of Europe in the 20th century. Century are set out in the book of the well-known ex-Chancellor of Germany Helmut Schmidt "The Germans and their neighbors. Men and Powers II.” [5, pp. 444-447]. In the opinion of H. Schmidt, the concept of Europe was often understood narrowly and unclearly. If the country belonged to the WEU (Western European Union), the ECSC (European Coal and Steel Community), the Council of Europe or the EEC (European Economic Community), then the citizens of that country were identified as European. Those who opposed it were called anti-Europeans. Of course, the content of the Europe concept is not easy to grasp. Geographically, Europe was understood as the territory between Iceland and the Bosphorus, Gibraltar and the Urals. On this map, Turkey belongs to Asia, and the city of honor Visantij, today's Stambul, - to Europe. The question remains controversial because of Russians living in the eastern part of the Urals, who have roots in far-off Siberia, make up the majority of the population and were promised belonging to Europe. As we can see, geography does not give a clear and unambiguous answer to a European identity [5, p.444].

Europe is a cultural-political idea that is reconsidered in the course of historical development and acquires new content. According to H. Schmidt, Christianity united Europe and made it a spiritual unit: “Christianity made Europe a spiritual unit. One could call it the European religion.” [5, p. 445]. This is a European religion that later spread outside the geographic scope of Europe and became a world religion.

The concept of Europe is closely linked to culture. The cultural heritage of Europe also includes European languages, which are spoken all over the world and spread European values on many "non-European continents". A quote in this regard: “With the recognition of multiculturalism, Europe is abandoning a special historical path that has brought endless suffering to the continent; turns his back on an idea that has always been a lie. Namely, the idea that the different nations should consist of ethnically and culturally homogeneous "national peoples"". (Die Welt, 02/27/15). The "Europe" concept is based on diversity and diversity.

When analyzing the concept of "Europe" one must take into account the socio-cultural factor, but they cannot mutually reflect the meaning of the concept. H. Schmidt also tries to give a political definition of the concept of Europe. He draws our attention to the fact that tsarist Russia was considered a European state until its demise. Later, after the Bolshevik revolution, there was an attempt to define the western border of the Soviet Union as the eastern border of Europe for political reasons. Attempts to draw the line between democracy and communism were also in vain because the division ran through the heart of Germany - Berlin - for 40 years, artificially separating a nation [5].

The question of where Europe begins and ends is secondary, although one cannot lose sight of this question either. If, from a political point of view, the borders of the European Community were to extend to Asia Minor, the Middle East and North America, problems would arise that could not be solved, namely for religious, social and cultural reasons. On the other hand, the spreading of the European community only according to the ethnic principle would be wrong [5]. The criterion of vitality is extremely important for the European identity.Europa, nach der Meinung des Politikers, - das ist nicht etwas viel GrцЯeres und Breiteres, als das Territorium von Nato oder Eurounion, das ist eine Einheit, die aus dem Rahmen der geschichtlich bedingten politischen Vereinigungen fдllt: „Europa ist nicht nur viel grцЯer und weit mehr als der Bereich der NATO oder der EU, es ist als Ganzes auch wichtiger als irgendwelche historisch bedingten politischen Zusammenschlьsse. Die Attraktivitдt des Westens, in dem die Menschenrechte und die demokratische Staatsform weitgehend verwirklicht sind, dessen Volkswirtschaften viel besser funktionieren und dessen durchschnittlicher Lebensstandard weit hцher liegt, als im Osten, diese Attraktivitдt wird - das war fьr mich eine Gewissheit - eines Tages dazu fьhren, dass beide Teile Europas sich wiederfьreinander цffnen." [5, S. 446]. Schlьsselwцrter des Konzepts „Europa“ sind Menschenrechte, demokratische Staatsform und hoher Lebensstandard.

According to H. Schmidt, Europe resembles the kaleidoscope. We form a conceptual metaphor from this, which belongs to the pictorial component of the concept of Europe: Europe is a kaleidoscope. The coexistence and development of many different nations is the defining feature of Europe and its history. This aspect forms the aksiological (evaluative) component of the analyzed concept: with positive and negative phenomena and events, where humanity takes the lead and helps to eliminate the negative.

Accordingly, in the late 1990s, according to H. Schmidt [5], EUROPE is a spiritual entity with Christianity as a European religion and a multicultural entity with European languages that spread European values on many “non-European continents” (conceptual component). This is a whole with a democratic form of government and a high standard of living, in which human rights are realized (Western Europe) (evaluative component). Europe is a kaleidoscope with many nations living peacefully together (visual component).

Now we are trying to uncover the picture of 21st century Europe based on the articles of German political discourse. When analyzing the corpus of DWDS [6] and the newspapers "Die Zeit" and others (2000-2014), (Westfalen-Blatt, 2015) and others, we found that the lexeme of all of Europe is presented with the lexicon with the following conceptual characteristics: a unified Europe (all of Europe as such (one entity), the business cycle for all of Europe), the economic growth of all of Europe (the growth in all of Europe, the growth for all of Europe, there was also an increase in all of Europe, the industrial core of all of Europe, the economic development of all of Europe), the stability of the whole of Europe (the stability of the whole of Europe), the euro zone and the whole of Europe (in the euro zone as well as in the whole of Europe), Germany - a strong economic country in the EU (in Western Europe outside Germany, however, sales fell slightly, the whole of Europe may be close to the edge of a recession, but not Germany, business in Europe as a whole did not grow quite as strongly). What is striking is the comparison between Europe and Europe as a whole, meaning that the EU countries are Europe and all other countries together with the EU are Europe as a whole: "The German package of measures is not only impressive in Europe, but also helps the whole of Europe, to overcome the crisis." (Die Zeit, January 13, 2009).

beginning of the III. Millennium gives Europe many hopes. In the text passage below, the conceptual feature of the whole of Europe as a new Europe is activated: “At the beginning of the 21st century, Europe is again about to take a big step towards a united whole of Europe including Turkey and many states of the former Eastern bloc. Even this new Europe cannot be decided from above, by diplomats and statesmen, bankers and bureaucrats and other "elites"." (Die Zeit, January 13, 2000).

Conceptual features of diversity, attractiveness, unsurpassed and non-ordinary are common to twenty-first century Europe. Typical of the twentieth century: "But has there ever been a democratic state in history that had 500 million inhabitants and several dozen languages? In truth, we do not know what the ideal form of government is, because there is no precedent for the democratic whole of Europe, neither the Roman Empire nor the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, nor Napoleon's Empire, nor the USA. Maybe what we have right now (plus the Lisbon Treaty) is right and appropriate for Europe at the moment." (Die Zeit, June 4th, 2009).

One of the newest and most topical meanings of the term "Europe" in the 21st century is Europe Fortress, which gives asylum to millions of refugees from the Arab world (Syria, Iraq, Egypt) and other continents who are forced, shelter from war, cold , terror, hunger, injustice and ruin. The lexeme Europa-Fortress (FestungEuropa) is also used in the negative sense of the evaluative component of the concept, meaning stricter separation and boundaries. The Austrian politician (Austrian Minister of the Interior from 2011 to 2016) J. Mikl-Leitner called for a Fortress Europe to be built: “The current situation in Slovenia, Austria and also in Germany proves that we must build a Fortress Europe as quickly as possible. " (BZ 30.10.15). "Since mid-September there have been border controls between Bavaria and Austria, where thousands of refugees come to the republic. Austria speaks of a "Fortress Europe." (Westfalen-Blatt, 10/30/15).

1. As a result of the analysis of newspaper articles for the years 2000-2014, 2015, the following additional content nuances of the concept of “Europe” were identified: united Europe, pan-European, eurozone, united new Europe (conceptual component); Fortress Europe (both positive (safety for those fleeing the danger of war) and negative (demarcation by the wall) (pictorial component); diversity, attractiveness, unsurpassed and non-ordinary (evaluative component).

2. Today's term "Europe" evokes above all such current contents: refugees and the war on terror, which pass into the category of independent concepts because they have become a global problem and a horrible reality all over the world and thus also make Europe strong touch and form new shades of meaning of the concept of Europe.

3. In this context, we would like to mention briefly the concept of “refugees”, which was analyzed in detail in our 2018 study “Топос-аналіз концепту “Refugees” в сучасному німецькомовному дискурсі” [2]. Only the most important results of the analysis of the "topoi" or the argumentation patterns are listed in this paper. The argumentation patterns implicitly derived from the text corpus show migration as a social problem and they significantly expand the concept of “Europe” by revealing the prejudices of the European community towards the refugees and thus expressing European values ??and the situation throughout Europe :

4. 1. Europe in danger (The Europe nightmare topos). The large number of refugees in August - September 2015 has become a major challenge for Europe. The Finance Minister at the time, W. Schдuble, compared the flow of refugees to Europe with an avalanche that caused ruptures in Europe and an existential crisis within the European Union, which could threaten its existence: "Whether we are already at the stage where the avalanche has reached the valley below, or whether we are in the upper third of the slope at that stage, I don't know.... When we are in the upper third of the slope, the picture of the avalanche is quite a challenge." (BZ, 13.11.2015).

5. 2. Disoriented Europe (Europe in chaos and confusion - the chaos topos): "... dead refugees in the Mediterranean, chaos on the Balkan route, squabbles between the Eastern European countries, ... there are fires in this country where refugees should be accommodated .... It's a real shame! ... The new migration of peoples cannot be stopped." (WB, 09/17/15).

6. 3. A strong and peaceful Europe (The European Community of Values topos): Joachim Gauck, ex-president of Germany, speaks of a European society of values with peaceful cooperation and its strengths: “Europe must prove that it is a community of values... It's about "a Europe of peaceful cooperation between religions and cultures."... We stand up for a Europe that, especially in the face of crises and challenges, can assure itself of its great strengths and must act in the interests of its great achievements." (WB 9/22/15).

7. 4. Divided Europe (The protest topos. Europe is splitting): Right-wing extremist and extremist moods are often observed within the European Union and throughout Europe: "The crisis... is playing right-wing populists and right-wing extremists all over Europe in the cards." (FA, 10/24/15) ".. Right-wing rioters besieged the driveway on Friday evening, chanted xenophobic slogans and threw a bottle at a bus with asylum seekers ... Two 18 and 34-year-old men gave the Hitler salute." (The Courier, 09/19/15). In addition, there is no consensus within the EU - some EU member states refuse to accept refugees in their countries: ".you can't just pick the raisins in the cake if you are a member of the EU, which many countries from just in Central and Eastern Europe joined because it is a community of values... with democracy, human rights and the rule of law. You have to tell them: If you want that and if you want the internal market and the free movement of people, then you have to show your solidarity at this point and take in refugees... Two-speed Europe... the countries that are in want to continue integration and others are left behind... Europe is and will remain a community of values, even if there are arguments about the refugee issue..." (Deutschlandfunk, 01/30/16).

Future-oriented Europe (the topos of a new economic miracle): Politicians are trying to get the population to have a positive attitude towards the refugees. It is advantageous for Europe because many refugees can strengthen Europe economically and intellectually: "Some are hoping for a new economic miracle..." (Die Welt, 09/19/15); "... from the migrants . can be motivated, intelligent, educated and become ready-to-work workers to replace the aging German workers..." (Die Welt, 09/20/15); "Refugees can strengthen Germany..." (WB, 09/24/15).

As the topos analysis shows, after 2015 new shades of content will appear in the concept of “Europe”, namely - divided Europe (conceptual component), Europe in danger (visual component) and disoriented Europe (evaluative component).

As the analysis of the factological material shows, the concept "Europe" / "All Europe" is ambiguous in German linguoculture. The three-dimensional structure of the concept - conceptual, pictorial and evaluative/acsiological components - changes over the course of different historical periods and acquires new substantive shades, which is evidenced by the results of the research carried out. In the period selected for investigation, one observes the evolutionary dynamics of the concept of "Europe" in the following way: a spiritual unity with Christianity as a European religion and a multicultural wholeness with European languages - a unified Europe, all-Europe, Eurozone, the united new Europe - divided Europe, multicultural Europe (conceptual component); Europe is a kaleidoscope (with many nations living peacefully together) - Fortress Europe (both in a positive sense (security for those fleeing the danger of war) and in a negative sense (demarcation by the wall) - Europe in danger (pictorial component ); a whole with a democratic form of government and a high standard of living, in which human rights are realized (Western Europe) - diversity, attractiveness, unsurpassed and non-ordinary - disoriented Europe (evaluative component).

Just the interaction of various factors (historical, geographical, economic, cultural, religious, political, social, etc.). taking into account their evolutionary dynamics in the past and at the modern stage of development allows to understand the content of the concept of "Europe".

Література

concept europa semantic content

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