PRINCIPLES OF NON-LINEAR ORGANIZATION OF THE MACROSTRUCTURE OF THE ENGLISH CONCEPT SPACE

Abstract

The paper researches the macrostructure of the concept SPACE employing together linguocognitive and linguosynergetic approaches. It has been proved that the macrostructure of the analysed concept consists of the three main constituents: informative content, image and interpretation field. Informative content reveals the basic set of cognitive traits of the researched concept, which are actualized by the nuclear verbalizers.

The image of the macrostructure is of two types: perceptive and cognitive. The former embraces the cognitive features which are formed and anchored in the consciousness by means of sensual perception in which the visual perception is the most relevant for the analyzed concept. The latter reveals the traits, which underlie the semantic transformations of the conceptual verbalizers on the basis of metaphorical reconsideration when something new is cognized by means of something already known. The interpretation field comprises five zones: informational, utilitarian, regulatory, assessing and encyclopedic. The non-linear character of the structure of the cognitive content consists in the fact that the relations between the verbalizers of the concept and the cognitive traits they actualize are not linear or symmetric.

On the contrary, the connection between them is complex, that is one cognitive feature may be actualized by a number of lexicosemantic variants of the lexemes, while one lexico-semantic variant can in its turn actualize more than one cognitive trait. Moreover, the non-linear character of the analyzed concept is revealed on the level of cognitive image. The metaphorical reconsideration of the cognitive features triggers semantic development of the verbalizers which, in its turn, leads to the appearance of the new cognitive traits and this process cannot be predicted because it goes not along the "predetermined line" but it is non-linear, that is spontaneous and highly self-organizing.