The Unifying Aspects of Cultures

SECTION:

Transcultural Stereotypes in Works of Art and Literature

S. V. Bannikova (Tambov, Russia)
Precedent phenomena as the markers of ethnic culture

Problems connecting language and culture become main issue in ethnosociolinguistics. Language receives proper interpretation only within culture and society. According to Sepire, all cultural facts can be presented by the means of its language and the content of language is closely related to the culture [1993 : 43].

The specific place of language is determined by its ability to store and transmit cultural values and to regulate and coordinate social activities. It is totally accepted that sense, thoughts, ideas and their lexical representation and associative potential are formed by ethnic culture. So the representatives of different ethnic cultures conceptualize and percept the world differently which manifests in culturally coloured lexical units, i. e. precedent phenomena.

According to V. V. Krasnich, precedent phenomena (PP) can be defined as follows: 1) phenomena which are well known in the linguocultural society, i. e. all the representatives know about their existence; 2) phenomena which are connected with cognitive sphere , i. e. every PP has a mental image behind it which makes its use in speech understandable and connotatively coloured; 3) phenomena which are frequently used in speech [ 1998 : 51]. PP function within ethnic culture and should be interpreted taking into consideration all the semeotic and cultural parameters.

So Russian precedent phenomenon has the following seme content:

I  The famous hero of Russian folklore, who was very strong and fought against different enemies of old Russian state (, , …). He was born in the village of Karacharovo near the town of Murom and served in Kiev prince's army with other heroes (, ). Ylija Muromets is an ideal image of hero and soldier.

II  A very strong man, who is very kind and just. He struggles for justice and truth.

This PP can function in speech to characterize a person as:


Literature:

(). , 1998.

. . - , 1993.

THE UNIFYING ASPECTS OF CULTURES