УДК 336.7
Olha Ladyka
(Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University)
VERBALIZATION OF THE CONCEPT DUTY
IN AMERICAN PICTURE OF THE WORLD
The lingua cultural concept DUTY is a mental unit, mental structure expressing certain ideological, moral and materialistic basis of the American nation. The article deals with the investigation of the ways of the expression of the concept DUTY by various lexical means in the novel «Dear John» by an American writer Nicholas Sparks has been analyzed. Aiming to determine the main lexical means that stand for the investigated concept this research demonstrates the strong connection between language and culture and their influence on each other.
Keywords: concept, duty, discourse, narrative, verbalization,picture of the world.
Рroblem statement, purpose of research.With the development of linguacultural studies, the emergence of a great deal of scientific research became a sign of increased interest in cultural and linguistic concepts. On the one hand concepts are interlinked in one global system, but on the other – each of it represents correlation of elements and processes of all possible types: mental, sensory and emotive ones.
Relevance of the research is based on the fact that anthropocentric paradigm and its affiliation to the fundamental mental notions, within the framework of which language phenomena are taken in close relation to a human, their consciousness and worldview. The topicality of the paper is stipulated by the interest in modern linguistics to the rules of information coding by language means, as well as by the necessity of creating a model of a concept and the representation of a concept in a discourse (or a certain type of a discourse).
The object of the study is the complex of linguistic means of verbalization of the concept DUTY in American worldview (based on the novel «Dear John» by Nicholas Sparks). The aim of the article is to reveal the linguistic and cultural peculiarity by means of clarification the characteristic linguistic means which represent it.
Analysis of recent research and publications.Building concept structure is one of the prioritized fields in native linguistics. The concept DUTY is semantically differentiated, complex by its structure and has a varied list of its verbalizators. Questions dedicated to the concept analyses were raised in the works of such scholarsasV.N. Telija, N.D. Arutiunova, A. Wierzbicka, N.А. Кrasavskij, G.G. Slyshkin, V.І. Каrasik, V.V. Vоrоbiov, S.G. Vоrkachov, S.А. Zhabotinskaja, Y.S. Stеpanov, Z.D. Popova, I.A. Sternin, V.І. Ubyiko, А.М. Yavorska and other scholars [2; 3; 6].
An outline of the main material.
In modern cognitive linguistics language is researched as a product of human activity, a means of keeping their experience, knowledge, culture. Conceptual picture of the world is all knowledge about the world. Verbal picture of the world is the system of knowledge imprinted in language signs about the world, and also ways of receiving and interpretation of new knowledge.
In our research we understand the term narrative discourse as a storytelling, as a verbal message, which is characterized by text component as well as anthropological features as the means of an influence on readers’ thoughts and ideas.
A narrative discourse is characterized by implicitness [1, p. 71] (by implicitness we mean the information that the recipient must “think through” when perceiving what is heard or read). The other feature of a narrative discourse is aesthetic significance. In this perspective it is necessary to note the emotional coloring of the vocabulary. The use of emotionally colored vocabulary is explained by the fact that the function of a narrative discourse is to create an emotionally-sensual perception of reality through the means of image-aesthetic transformation of the language.
In the process of our investigation we have found out that the concept DUTY is deeply rooted in the history, culture and identity of the American people [5]. The analysis of linguistic material helps to reveal linguistic means and explain the peculiar features which verbalize the concept DUTY in the American linguistic picture of the world [4, p. 50]. Within the framework of this research and taking into consideration the notion of concept as the unit of cognition, which reflects person’s knowledge and experience [3, p.91], after G.G. Slyshkin [6], V.І. Karasik [2, p. 129], we determine a concept as a cultural multi-functional phenomenon which accumulates the knowledge about a certain fragment of reality in the collective consciousness of the linguistic cultural unity. It serves as a mirror for cultural values, is objectivized by means of language elements and is linguistically and culturally marked. Thus, an effective access to the description and definition of the essence of the concept provides language, a language sign.
Our analysis has shown that the concept DUTY, can be referred to as a concept which is regularly expressed in the modern American narrative discourse. The analyzed concept is verbalized by various means on the lexical, grammatical and syntactical levels.
This research is concentrated on the means of verbalization of the concept DUTY in a narrative discourse on the lexical level. With this purpose we have analyzed indices of the language objectification of the studied concept by the concept name ‘DUTY’ as well as other lexical modifiers.
The examples of the concept verbalization are the following:
DUTY: I sent him letters about how guard duty was without a doubt [10, p. 42]; There’s guard duty, and things are always breaking and need to be fixed [10, p. 58]; I thought back to nights on guard duty… [10, p. 81]; …she understood the sense of duty that weighed on me, even before I tried to explain it [10, p. 102]; I did my duty as best I knew how… [10, p. 208]; …in their minds-and mine-they’d done their duty…[10, p. 318].
RESPONSIBILITY: Now there’s the added responsibility of trying to find some way to help my husband [10, p. 28]; To expect her to shoulder that responsibility? [10, p. 243];
Responsibilities: I have responsibilities now[10, p. 86]; …you have to live up to your responsibilities[10, p. 276];
ASSIGNMENT(s): We sat in meetings where we learned our assignments, studied the topography, and went over battle plans[10, p. 184].
CHARGE: Someone’s got to be in charge while I recuperate[10, p. 132].
JOB: …guard duty was without a doubt the most boring job ever invented…[10, p. 99]; We both have jobs, and every day I realize that I didn’t learn as much in school as I thought I did [10, p. 231]; If interferon isn’t doing the job like it should, there might be another drug they can add… [10, p. 143]; …the kids … bumming around from one lousy job to the next… [10, p. 248]; I went through a succession of jobs [10, p. 273]; They liked their job as ditch digger or window washer… [10, p. 286]; …that sometimes meant a desk job and even more paperwork… [108, p. 299]; …anything except doing your job and trying not to die [10, p. 314].
COMMITMENT: We felt it was an important commitment, but with some kids… [10, p. 254]
ROLE(s): …every soldier in my squad was thrust into the roles of policeman and judge [10, p. 173].
The results of the performed investigation in contemporary narrative discourse we have found out that the verbalization of the concept DUTY is also done with the help of idioms. In N. Sparks’ novels “Dear John” the following idiomatic expressions stand as the means of verbalization of the concept DUTY:
– do one’s duty (do one’s tasks or what is expected of one [11, p.117]) – e.g. I did my duty …, when I was finally sent back [10, p. 247]. Four more of my guys were honorably discharged in late 2003 when their time was up; in their minds-and mine-they’d done their duty, and it was time for them to get on with the rest of their lives [10, p. 249].
– in the line of duty (Fig. as part of one’s expected duties [8, p.342]) – e.g. I was in the line of dutyas best I knew how, reupped again, and stayed in Iraq until February 2004 [10, p. 248].
The observations on ways of verbalization of the concept DUTY in American picture of world have allowed us to determine the most frequent lexemes are job (not the lexeme duty, which is the concept name), which equals 40.3% of all the examples of concept’s verbalization at the lexical level. The lexeme duty equals 33.2% respectively. The number of expressions with the lexeme responsibility (including responsibilities) is 20.5%. The lexeme assignment was used in 1.2% of the examples. The expressions with the lexemes charge, role аnd commitment are characterized by low frequency – 1.1%, 1.1% and 1.1% respectively. As to the verbalization of the concept DUTY using idioms, our research has found it in 1.5% of the analysed examples. This data is shown graphically in the chart.
Chart 1.The usage of lexical-semantic means of verbalization of the concept DUTY in American narrative discourse
Prospects for using the research findings.Perspective for modern linguistics is further consideration and investigation of ways the concept DUTY is represented in the American conceptosphere as it reveals the native speakers’ mentality. The next step of our concept analysis we see in the comparison of the analysis of the functioning of the investigated concept in literary narrative and political discourses.
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