CLASSIFICATION OF DEFINITIONS OF THE CONCEPT “LINGUISTIC CONSCIOUSNESS” USING THE METHOD OF CLUSTER ANALYSIS

Abstract

Linguistic consciousness is a psycholinguistic phenomenon, which, on the one hand, is quite common in modern science, and on the other hand, it still does not have a generally accepted definition. An analysis of studies devoted to language awareness shows that authors focus on different aspects of this phenomenon. In our opinion, the most adequate classification of definitions of the analyzed concept can be created using cluster analysis. To implement the idea, a variety of information sources were selected and analyzed using the continuous sampling method – scientific articles, monographs, dissertations, dissertation abstracts, dictionaries, encyclopedias, textbooks and manuals. As part of the analysis, 8 semantic components were identified, which in one way or another characterize the essence of the concept of “linguistic consciousness”: cognitive, linguistic, communicative, cultural, ethnic, historical, social, and psychological. The study revealed that the set of definitions of linguistic consciousness can be divided into two clusters. So, the first cluster covers 75 % of definitions. Their peculiarity is that the main components of the phenomenon of language consciousness are two components – cognitive and linguistic. The second cluster includes 25 % of definitions of the concept of “linguistic consciousness”. Their most important feature is that three components are recognized as the main ones – cognitive, linguistic and cultural. Thus, in a quarter of the existing interpretations, the analyzed phenomenon is based not only on the mental foundation, which is essentially primary, but also on the socio-cultural one, secondary to the cognitive sphere. On the basis of the conducted analysis, the author’s definition of the studied phenomenon is proposed: linguistic consciousness is a culturally mediated cognitive consciousness that provides mechanisms for language operation. It follows from the given definition that linguistic consciousness appears as a culturally determined phenomenon, which includes, in particular, nationally and socially determined characteristics. This fact is especially important in humanitarian studies of ethno-cultural specificity. The obtained results will further crystallize the definition of the concept of linguistic consciousness, taking into account the degree of expression of one or another component.