Semantic content of concept "help" categorized as property in contemporary English

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Semantic content of concept «help» categorized as property in contemporary English

I.I. Savchuk

The article deals with the analysis of the semantic structure of nominative units contributing to the establishment of deep patterns of interaction between the structures of human consciousness and linguistic forms. A person's interpretation of the surrounding reality is the result of cognitive activity and is represented in mental structures that are mediators between the real or imagined environment and the language that objectifies them. Nominative possibilities of the linguistic picture of the world are realized by lexical units, which undergo the conceptual analysis to achieve the goal of linguistic-cognitive research for the reconstruction of the content of the HELP concept in particular. The object of the study is the language means for marking help as a property and its components in the modern English language. Notional aspect with its cognitive features of the concept and categorical dimension of property are interrelated in the organization of knowledge about characteristics of help. Language has proved to be effective for accessing the structures of data about the surrounding world which is the area of human physical and mental activity, as well as for exchanging knowledge and experience. As a part of cognitive process, the nominative act presupposes indulgence into the semantic content of language units which involves the analysis of meaningful connections between the lexemes. Conceptual analysis of verbalized segments of knowledge about characteristics of help promotes restoring the notional conceptual content related to understanding of the helping process in terms of its properties. The semantic content of the concept HELP is constructed due to the meaning of attributes to denote properties of help which make up the lexical-semantic group with the integral seme "helpful". The lexeme `helpful' comprises two notional segments with differentiating semes "useful" and "beneficial". Lexical units to designate the property of help constitute semantic subgroups in relation to the kind of help differentiated from the definitions of the lexemes.

Keywords categorization, cognitive features, cognitive linguistics, conceptual analysis, nomination, lexico-semantic group, semantic content, semantic structure of the concept, semantic subgroup.

Семантичний зміст концепту «допомога» у вимірі категорії властивості в сучасній англійській мові

Савчук І.І.

Стаття присвячена аналізу семантичної структури номінативних одиниць для встановлення глибинних закономірностей взаємодії між структурами людської свідомості та мовними формами. Інтерпретація людиною навколишньої дійсності - результат пізнавальної активності, представлена в когнітивних структурах, які є посередниками між реальним або уявним наколишнім середовищем та мовою, що їх об'єктивує. Номінативні можливості мовної картини світу реалізуються в значенні лексичних одиниць, які підлягають концептуальному аналізу для досягнення мети лінгвокогнітивного дослідження, зокрема реконструкції семантичного змісту концепту ДОПОМОГА. Об'єктом дослідження є мовні засоби на позначення допомоги як властивості та її складників у сучасній англійській мові. Понятійний аспект із його когнітивними поняттєвими ознаками та категоріальне знання про властивості взаємопов'язані в організації інформації про характеристики допомоги. Мова слугує ефективним інструментом для доступу до структур даних про навколишній світ, який є сферою фізичної та розумової діяльності людини, а також для обміну знаннями та досвідом. Як частина когнітивного процесу номінативний акт передбачає дослідження семантичного змісту мовних одиниць, що включає аналіз значеннєвих зв'язків між лексемами. Концептуальний аналіз вербалізованих сегментів знань про характеристики допомоги сприяє відновленню концептуального змісту, пов'язаного з розумінням процесу допомоги з позиції його властивостей. Семантичне наповнення концепту ДОПОМОГА представлено в семантиці атрибутів на позначення властивостей допомоги та її носія, які становлять лексико-семантичну групу з інтегральною семою "helpful". Лексема helpful складається з двох змістовних сегментів із диференційними семами "useful" і "beneficial"'. Лексичні одиниці на позначення властивості допомоги утворюють семантичні підгрупи залежно від виду допомоги, що виділяються з визначень лексем.

Ключові слова: категоризація, когнітивні ознаки, когнітивна лінгвістика, концептуальний аналіз, номінація, лексико-семантична група, семантичний зміст, семантична структура концепту, семантична підгрупа.

concept help property

Introduction

The problem of the relationship of the ontology of the world and human consciousness with the language acquires special importance in modern linguistic research within the framework of the cognitive-discursive paradigm. The lexical-semantic dimension of the HELP concept in modern English-speaking consciousness is studied in the aspect of cognitive linguistics. Semantic features of the conceptual representation of the HELP concept were studied with the involvement of semantic and conceptual analysis methods in the study of the meaning of the main lexeme 'help' and its synonyms to denote charcteristics of this phenomenon under the study.

Cognitive linguistics considers functioning of language as a type of cognitive activity and investigates cognitive mechanisms and structures of human consciousness through language phenomenon. The main idea of cognitive linguistics as a scientific direction is that a person's language ability is part of his cognitive ability. The result of the emergence of this approach was the introduction of such notions as concept, conceptual analysis, categorization, conceptualization, conceptual picture of the world, etc [12: 247; 13].

The semantic and conceptual content of the lexemes to designate help point out to the role of nomination, which leads to a deeper understanding of the role of the human factor in language, reveals the functional interaction of all parts of the system and structure of language. The task and scope of application of such a theory is the study and conclusion of the regularities of how reality, reflected in the categories of thinking, is embodied in the meanings of language forms, how thinking and practical human activity of people influence the formation and usage of language signs, their semantic structuring and rules of functioning [14].

The first stage of the nomination process is the formation of the concept of the object as a representative of the whole class as a result of the nominative move, which leads to nominative tactics (verbalization of information) and strategy (use of the selected lexical unit in the statement). The concept as a complex mental category goes beyond a simple generalized image and reveals the most essential features of the subject in all the complexity of their interrelationships and interdependencies. In the concept, they are quantified by the degree of importance - at the upper level, a relatively small group of characteristics necessary for the recognition of each element of a class of objects is recorded, at lower levels, additional, less significant features are placed, which make it possible to form a complete image of the signified [1: 41; 10].

Analysis of recent research and publications. The study is devoted to the identification of semantic and cognitive features of the designation of help as a property by the means of the modern English language. Consideration of these aspects is carried out within the cognitive-discursive paradigm [1; 12; 18]. Its main issue is the verbal representation of interconnected mental and communicative-pragmatic processes in language and speech [16]. The theoretical space of the linguistic- cognitive study of the names of help is outlined by the problems of conceptology [3; 6], cognitive semantics [16], nomination theory [3; 20] and modeling of fragments of the linguistic picture of the world, which verbalize anthropocentrically determined knowledge about a person, their social behavior, help in particular [17; 18]. Therefore, the specified areas of language learning involved in this research contribute to its relevance.

The concept of help was considered mainly within the framework of psychology [9; 11], ethics [4], cultural studies [2], and philosophy [7].

Understanding help is one of the most complex and acute issues in modern society, because it covers the social space of human consciousness and is also closely related to everyday life, which indicates the significant role of the HELP concept in the national picture of the world. Linguistic means of modern English to indicate properties of help have not yet been the focus of individual linguistic developments, which also determines the relevance of the study.

The aim of the article is to investigate the semantic content of concept HELP viewed as property in modern English.

The following tasks are set in the research to achieve the goal:

- to outline the theoretical foundations of cognitive linguistics, conceptual semantics and the theory of nomination on which the conceptual analysis of linguistic means to denote help is based;

- to reconstruct the semantic structure of the HELP concept, implemented in the meaning of attributive units of the modern English language;

The object of the research is the language means for indicating the properties of help and the characteristics of the subject of help in modern English.

The subject of the analysis is the semantic-cognitive aspects of language units that implement the HELP concept in the scope of the property category in the modern English language.

Presentation of the main material of the study with justification of the obtained scientific results

The semantic-cognitive aspect of the use of the names of help in modern English is revealed on the basis of definitions of lexical units of modern English-language lexicographic sources.

The semantic content of the studied concept is distinguished through its structure with its conceptual and peripheral dimensions. The conceptual content is basic and is presented in generic and specific elements of nominative units that name the participants, their characteristics and actions: characteristics of the aid subject, characteristics of actions, actions of the subject, beneficiary, actions of the beneficiary, areas of implementation of aid, means of action, reason for providing assistance, purpose of actions, result of actions etc. Properties of the process of help and characteristics of the subject of helping are among the cognitive features of the concept studied. Help as a social phenomenon can be conceptualized as a property reflecting the attributive category of measuring and evaluating real or virtual reality. Notional and categorical dimensions are interrelated in the organization of knowledge about properties of help.

The categorical structure is characteristic only of the notional component of the macrostructure, which is located in the basic zone of the field structure. The notional level is in the center, organizes the nuclear [3: 141] and the perinuclear section of the meaningful structure of the concept, as it reflects objective, collective knowledge about the signified. Notions are rationally understood concepts and basically coincide in the minds of members of society, regardless of the individual interests of each person and the peculiarities of their thinking. The system of concepts does not reflect all the knowledge possessed by an individual, but only one of the levels of its organization, which is presented in the most generalized and abstract form [1: 39].

Lexical units that objectify the concept of HELP belong to different parts of the speech. The latter are lexical- grammatical classes of words, or lexical- grammatical language categories. They demonstrate the interdependence of ontological and epistemological categories, that is, being and consciousness. This relationship provides a linguistic representation of knowledge about natural objects, categories and conceptual structures that reflect them, as well as about the categorization of natural objects - words. After all, the conceptual space of language is multidimensional: it serves as a means of preserving and transmitting information about the world, as well as knowledge of linguistic meanings and categories [5]. Lexico- grammatical classes are a means of projecting the surrounding world in the minds of speakers, creating a mental model. Parts of speech reflect the main thinking categories of human consciousness [17: 709], ways of conceptualizing the world are revealed. Structural and substantive cognitive characteristics form the basis of the formation of linguistic meanings and categories. Substances, actions and properties are the main concepts presented in the categorical semantics of nominative units [1: 40].

The structure of lexical-grammatical categories that correlate with parts of speech is invariant-variant in the study. It is a logical or epistemological classification that involves movement from a higher level to a lower one. The most general, essential characteristics serve as invariants [16: 125], which organize not only variant features, but also linguistic units denoting the concept.In the role of the most general characteristics of the concept, which are the basis of the formation of lexical- grammatical categories, that is, an invariant, there are categorical features verbalized by implicit categorical semes. As an option, there are classification features that reflect a certain aspect, parameter of categorization of the corresponding object or phenomenon and generalize homogeneous differential features in the structure of the concept. Classification characteristics are common to a number of concepts and are represented in the meaning of lexical units by generic semes. Differential features, actualized by specific semantic components, are perceived by a person and reflected in the structure of the corresponding concept as separate elements of its content. The identified differential characteristics are interpreted as the objectification of certain classification features. Extracting of features makes it possible to establish the peculiarities of the conceptualization of the denotation of the concept [1: 38; 6]

The purpose and tasks of the work lead to the use of the method of conceptual analysis based on the analysis of dictionary definitions - to establish the features of the means of the modern English language for indicating the properties of help; component analysis - to determine and describe the semantic structure of nominative units that verbalize the attributive part of the HELP concept in modern English; the method of cognitive interpretation - to distinguish the cognitive features of the HELP concept based on the analysis of nominative units of the modern English language to indicate the properties of help and its subject.

The conceptual content of the HELP concept is reflected in the meaning of names of the properties of help constituting the lexical-semantic group with the integral seme "helpful'. This lexical-semantic group characterizes the phenomenon of help by listing its main, essential features from the definitions of synonyms of the nuclear lexeme helpful, selected by conducting a continuous sample from lexicographic sources [8; 15; 19].

The lexeme "helpful"embraces two notional segments - "useful" and "beneficial". The first notional subgroup comprises the lexical units with the integrative seme "useful' that is "providing service or assistance": accommodating, advantageous, beneficial, conducive, critical, efficacious, essential, facilitative, obliging, productive.

The second notional subgroup comprises the lexical units with the integrative seme "beneficial' that is "promoting or contributing to personal or social well-being": advantageous advisable amelioratory auspicious benefic beneficial bettering constructive desirable favorable friendly good gratifying healthful healthy kindly lucrative profitable promising, propitious salutiferous.

Lexical units that are synonyms of the adjective "helpful" objectify the core cognitive feature of the studied concept that represents one of the category segments called "attributes". These words under the conceptual analysis are divided into two semantic groups which embrace either the units to denote characteristics of the help subject or characteristics of the phenomenon of help.

I. Characteristics of the help subject or a help giver are reflected in the definitions of the words synonymic to "helpful" with the integral seme "willing to help': big-hearted, caring, considerate, cooperative, good-hearted, kind, kind- hearted, nice, selfless, sweet, thoughtful, unselfish.

II. Characteristics of the phenomenon of help are embodied in the meaning of synonymis to the word `helpful' lexemes with the integral semes "useful" and "benefidaV. Within this semantic group, the lexical units are distributed into semantic subgroups (SS) regarding the type of help figured out from the semantic content of the lexemes. In other words, "a type of help" appears to be a differentiating seme in the semantic group to denote the helping actions as available, cooperative, friendly, important, invaluable, mutual, practical, productive, purposeful, suitable.