THE CONCEPTUAL COMPONENT OF THE CONCEPT HEALTH IN THE ARTICLES OF “THE GUARDIAN”

Abstract

It is well-known that a person has the cognitive ability to single out the information which is necessary for her needs’ satisfaction and for applying it to the world, predisposition to form concepts and form categories, that is for conceptualization and categorization of reality. As a result of cognitive activity he or she forms the idea of certain objects or phenomena about the world. In the process of living, the person receives knowledge presented in the form of concepts, that is units of mental and psychical resources of consciousness and the information structure that reflects its knowledge and experience. The article is devoted to the study of the conceptual component of the concept HEALTH in the articles of “The Guardian”. 65 articles devoting to health problems have been chosen for the research. The means of verbalization of the concept as well as semantic features of the concept have been studied. Two cognitive structures of the concept have been outlined: HEALTH as CONDITION (physical, psychological) and HEALTH as ACTION. The first structure is in its turn is characterized by such structures as youth; oldness; happiness; society; disease. The verbalization of the concept HEALTH is represented in the articles through the following lexemes: fitness, healthiness, sap, wellness, as well as through collocations, e.g., lack of fitness, wellness management. HEALTH in the meaning of physical condition is verbalized through the lexemes work, disease, help, whereas HEALTH denoting psychological condition is verbalized through the lexemes thoughts, hope, happiness, problem and their derivatives thoughtful, happy, problematic, hopeful. HEALTH as ACTION includes lexemes which demonstrate people’s involvement in different social events as well as show their relations to each other, e.g. participants, relationship(s). The antonymous notions youth and oldness are verbalized through such lexemes as sport, wish, to make and age, problem, to risk correspondingly. The notion disease is verbalized through names of illnesses, e.g. cancer, malaria. All notions, through which the concept HEALTH is realized, are interrelated, thus they should be considered not separately, but as part of a single entity, which covers their various shades of meaning of this concept. The future research might be devoted to the diachronic study of the concept HEALTH in media texts that could reveal different social concerns and problems connected with it.