Anastasiya Ninadovska
Kamyanets-Podilsky Ivan Ohiienko National University
Scientific Supervisor: M.V. Matkovska, Senior Lecturer
THE PROCEDURE OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE CONCEPT HUMAN’S BEING (on T. Eliot’s poetry)
One of the most fundamental results in cognitive science is that most of our thought is unconscious in the Freudian sense of being repressed, but unconscious simply in that we are not aware of it. When we think, we use elaborate system of concepts, but we are not usually aware of just what those concepts are like and how they fit together into a system. A lot of linguistic models form this system.
Our aim is to identify the peculiarities of conceptual change and modeling of the psychological interpretation of the concept “human’s being” in reader’s understanding.
The linguistic model of the word forms a type of relation of Man to the world. Basic categories building the model (time, space, change, cause, number) precede the ideas and outlooks. Philosophy discloses objective reality of the world and existence of Man richness of human feelings and plays a great role in the conscious determination of relationships of Man with Nature [3, p. 131–133].
The concepts that govern our thought are not just matters of the intellect. They also govern our everyday functioning, down to the most mundane details. Our concepts structure what we perceive, how we get around in the world, and how we relate to other people. Our conceptual system thus plays a central role in defining our everyday realities. Our conceptual system is not something we are normally aware of. In most of the little things we do every day, we simply think and act more or less automatically along certain lines. Just what these lines are is by no means obvious. One way to find out is by looking at language. Since communication is based on the same conceptual system that we use in thinking and acting, language is an important source of evidence for what that system is like [2, p. 117].
The concept of cooperative communication involves an idealization which is not simply inherited from a methodological tradition in linguistics, but primary from our understanding of the concept of communication itself. In at least the Western cultural tradition, communication has a positive connotation in that it is believed to achieve a state that favorably affects human life. We often talk about ‘successful communication’, ‘communication between generations’ as values in themselves
[3, p. 195–197].
It will be assumed that it essentially concerns the way we understand linguistic communication, but it may also apply to non-linguistic communication with slight alterations (e.g. concerning participant roles) that do not affect its idealized nature. The intentional character of the model answers for the commonsensical property of ordinary conversations, which is that people normally engage in verbal exchanges willfully and do their best to convey their meanings. This in turn involves the addressee’s understanding of the speaker’s communicative intentions, which is in itself an essential cooperative move in a speech event presupposing attention and willful participation. The interlocutors’ mutual benefit is invoked in this model to justify attention and participation.
Eliot’s narrative simplicity is that powerful instrument with the help of which he shows the reality and non-reality. The author mastered this technique over the years. The language of his works is simple. He seldom uses complex allegories, metaphors, and idioms. All his work is simple; his style captures not only the imagination but also the hearts of his readers. His message is also very simple and millennial: human being is a constant searching ourselves. During this search of himself a person meets the Good and the Evil, which are always going hand in hand. If we ask anyone to determine these two eternal notions as the Good and the Evil, we will see that it is not easy to combine all the aspects of them under the one full concept. Many men many minds, with time the definition of these points will definitely change as human mind changes.
In the books of T. Eliot we get a clue that there are two reasons that would not let our dreams come true. In the most cases they seem unreal. And sometimes as the result of sudden change people understand that the dream is possible, at the time you are not waiting for its successful fulfilling. So the positive category of Dream always goes along with the negative category of Fear. Fear by the nature is something bad, or something that causes bad feelings, that influence the person’s life on the subconscious level. The category of Fear however is written in human’s life and exists in it. It depends on the person himself, on the strength of his character, how deep this feeling is. Speaking about the poem “The Burial of the Dead” we find the arguments that prove that the category is universal and without any exclusion is natural for a man.
According to the range of meaning of the category of Fear we meet with extension. According to the attitude of the speakers and hearers exists pejoration. According to causes of the change this is external, historical, social, cultural, and technological. It doesn’t depend on the kind of society or the nation. Such factors cause only the degree of Fear but Fear itself is overwhelming psychological category as the whole, which in the works of T. Eliot is depicted with exaggeration, emphasis and expressiveness.
Thus by reading T. Eliot’s poems we may conclude that Human’s Being represents different aspects of life. They don’t represent the universe the author idealizes, but one that he has lived. But, in spite of this, the author paid close attention to Humility, e.g. “The only wisdom we can hope to acquire Is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless” [1, p. 60].
Humility is the most important and absolutely necessary part of the creative process of Human’s Being.
REFERENCES
- Eliot, T. Selected Poetry. Poems, lyrics, dramatics poetry. St. Peterburg : Severo-Zapad, 1994. 446 p.
- Jackendoff, R. Language of the mind: Essays on mental representation. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1995. 216 p.
- Lakoff, G. Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 471 p.