Олеся Барбанюк
(Кам’янець-Подільський національний університет імені Івана Огієнка)
DEFINING CULTURE CODES IN MODERN LINGUISTICS
The anthropological paradigm of modern linguistics has been widely developed in the researches by contemporary scientists, both domestic (N. Andreichuk [1], I. Holubovska, O. Moiseienko, O. Selivanova [3]) and foreign (O. Kubriakova, V. Maslova, V. Krasnykh, A. Wierzbicka, E. Heider), since man is in focus of attention in most culture traditions of different national linguistic communities.
Thus, it is important to clarify the definition of “code”, “culture code”, “national-cultural code”, as well as the typology of culture codes that stand out in modern linguistic studies, in linguoculturology in particular. Linguists study codes, researching them from different angles, dealing with: culture codes (O. Selivanova); language and culture codes (N. Andreichuk); spiritual codes of culture (V. Maslova); language codes (F. Batsevych [2]); language codes of culture, etc.
The study of culture codes is quite relevant within the paradigm of linguistics knowledge, since the connection between culture and language is obvious. Modern foreign and Ukrainian scholars offer several definitions of the culture code phenomenon. Culture codes are universal, but their manifestations in some cultures are quite specific. They correspond to the ancient archetypal representations of man; represent a set of facts, forming certain fragments of the picture of the world and are connected with cultural meanings of phenomena belonging to the same type and /or to one sphere of existence. The codes of culture reveal the ancient archetypal ideas of a certain linguistic society, i.e. codes of culture “encode” such ideas. Hence, the culture code is also understood as “a set of basic concepts, attitudes, values and norms containing information about the signs and symbols of culture.
- Maslova defines the culture codes as a network of universal and national specific phenomena that shape the national picture of the world, a repertoire of signals and at the same time a way of structuring cultural knowledge. Ukrainian scientist N. Andreichuk considers the codes of culture as a set of meanings and their combinations, which designate the objects of human life. The dominant units of this “language of culture” represent linguistic and cultural codes, which “are the result of different ways of holistic and systemic understanding […] formed in the process of modeling the world by human consciousness at different stages of cultural history, the result of which is the formation of human experience.
The main function of a code is to store and transmit certain information that is “encrypted“ in different ways: in folklore, dances, patterns, etc. Man is surrounded by information space, i.e objects and phenomena in which it reflects the encoded information. So, the culture code is understood as “a way of preserving and transmitting information, the type of cultural memory of a particular linguistic and cultural community” and as a system of signs existing and functioning in any object of culture.
The main features of culture codes are universality, openness to the perception and interpretation of culture, ability to turn meaning into meaning, ability to categorize, evaluate and structure the world around, ability to express and be manifested in culture. Hence, O. Selivanova [3] points to the universality of cultural codes, N. Andreichuk emphasizes the specific manifestations of universal culture codes in individual cultures.
Modern linguists distinguish a significant number of types of culture codes due to their fuzzy boundaries (diffuse penetration) as well as their transformation. Researching the culture codes scientists identify the following basic codes: somatic, spatial, temporal, objective, biomorphic and spiritual, indicating that there are no clear boundaries between them. O. Selivanova cites the following typology of cultural codes: somatic (physical), spiritual, religious, spatial, temporal, objective, biomorphic, anthropic, cosmological, actional, sensory, axiological, etc., while .N. Andreichuk [1] classifies cultural codes by spheres of life (spiritual, physical, social) and by the way of designation (verbal, phraseological, textual, discursive).
Culture codes are interrelated with national cultural codes, which are fixed in the linguistic consciousness of the representatives of a certain national-linguistic-cultural community, in its language and culture and are manifested in discourse. Thus, the linguistic system reflects the national and cultural vision of the world, as well as the formation of figurative understanding of this world. Thanks to the national and cultural code the linguistic society acquires, preserves and transmits its identity, ethnic identity and unique cultural features (traditions, beliefs, myths, etc.), characterized as for a particular ethnic group, and for its linguistic system in different linguistic and cultural areas.
The national-cultural code consists of unique specific features of national culture passed down from ancestors from generation to generation a certain national-linguistic-cultural community. Hence the national-cultural code continues to change along with cultural, linguistic, social, economic, political or other modifications in the linguistic and cultural community. National-cultural code is a set of purely national-specific features, forming the national picture of the world, is the “genetic memory of the people”, which functions in its culture and language.
Thus, the national-cultural code is the key to interpretation of national cultural unconscious, and those images, meanings and concepts that are most clearly manifested in the national consciousness of one or another linguistic and cultural community. Unlike culture codes, national-cultural codes, being deeply specific and original over time and changing conditions of existence of society, becomes both universal and unique.
REFERENCES
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- Бацевич Ф. Словник термінів міжкультурної комунікації. М-во освіти і науки України, Львів. нац. ун-т ім. І. Франка. Київ : Довіра, 2007. 205 с.
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