Gender Specific Characteristics of Realization of the Concept Tatar Language in Russian Mentalese
50th Annual Meeting of the PIAC, Kazan 2007
The specific feature of nowadays world language theory is the rise and rapid development of the cognitive linguistics (V. I. Karasik, J. S. Kubryakova).
The main problem of the cognitive linguistics deals with four categories — concept, conceptualization, categorization and mentalese.
We share the point of view of prof. T. A. Fesenko who considers that “the concept exists in the mental reality of a person as the totality of knowledge and information about an actual and probable situation of the real world in the context of emotions, feelings, associations, etc. …” [Fesenko 1999: 171]1.
Speaking about the structure of the concept we stick to the viewpoint of prof. Z. D. Popova and I. A. Stemin who consider the concept as the unit of field structure. The concept always consists of the nuclear or the base level and the periphery or the interpretational field [Popova, Stemin 2001: 60].
On the first stage of the research we carried out the interrogation within the framework of the associative experiment. We examined the verbal reactions of 57 Russian women and 19 Russian men. The experiment aims at determining the structure containing: senses, perception, image, and notion.
Senses as “realizable, subjectively represented in the mind of a person or unrealizable but causing influence on his behaviour products of central nervous system remaking significant irritants” [Nemov 1994, 1: 141]2 3 are verbalized in the Russian woman conceptual sphere of the concept TATAR LANGUAGE by the lexeme teplo (warmth). There were not found any language units nominating feelings in the Russian men mentalese.
Perception as “direct reflection of a unit (phenomenon, process) in the totality of its perceptible features, in its objective integrity” in Russian women’s’ mentalese of the concept TATAR LANGUAGE is nominated with the help of the four language units with the frequency of usage no more than one: tjazjolyj (difficult), melodichnyj (melodious), negativ (negative), neponjatnyj (unclear) [Psychological Dictionary: 56-57]4. Components appropriate to the perception in the structure of the concept TATAR LANGUAGE in Russian men mentalese are verbalized by the two lexemes with the frequency no more than one: pochti rodnoj (almost native), prikol’nyj (cool).
Images as “visual forms of units which appear on the basis of past experience by their representation in the memory or imagination” in the Russian women mentalese of the above mentioned concept is nominated by the language unit tjubetejka (an embroidered hat worn by Tatar men) (3)5 [Psychological Dictionary: 279]6. In the Russian men mentalese of the mentioned concept images are verbalized with the help of various language units with the frequency no more than one: mechet’(mosque), park “Shurale” (a funfair named after a character of Tatar folklore), sabantuj (an ethnic holiday to celebrate the end of the harvest season), tchak-tchak (a traditional Tatar desert).
Notion as “symbolic reflection of main features of units in the surrounding world” is realized in the Russian women mentalese of the concept TATAR LANGUAGE by the lexemes Kazan’ (Kazan) (6) and Tatarstan (Tatarstan) (6) [Psychological Dictionary: 123]7. The elements appropriate to the notion in the structure of the studied concept in Russian men mentalese are verbalized by different language units with the frequency no more than one (Kazan, Tatarstan, unclear unity of words).
The following conclusions have been drawn:
- There are almost no reactions nominating senses in both men and women Russian mentaleses of the studied concept.
- There were several language units on the level of perception in the Russian women mentalese of the mentioned concept showing negative attitude of the Russian women to the Tatar language. The linguistic units verbalizing perception in the Russian men mentalese of the concept TATAR LANGUAGE presented positive attitude to the Tatar language.
- Analysis on the level of notion showed that both Russian men and women associate the Tatar language with the republic of Tatarstan and its capital Kazan.
1–4, 6–7 The translation by the author – Ilvira Musina.
5 The frequency of usage of the nominated linguistic units is given in the brackets.