World picture and its types

WORLD PICTURE AND ITS TYPES

3.1. The notion of the world picture and its types
The term “world picture” was first introduced by Ludwig Wittgenstein in his work “Logical and philosophical trilogy” to indicate a system of images used in science. Since the 60^th of XIX century the problem of the world picture has become the subject of discussion in semiotics (L.Weisberger) and linguistics (W. Humboldt). According to W. Humboldt each language reflects some definite worldview because “for the native speaker the mother tongue represents a form of the conceptualization of the world characteristic of the given culture. The system of values, created within the culture, has its reflection in the language” (Humboldt, 1988).

The notion of “world picture” or “conceptual world picture” has a direct relevance to the problems of cultural linguistics since it is concerned with the processes of cognition, conceptualization and categorization of the world. The world picture reflects the real world, its objects, notions, and phenomena in their complex interrelationships and is interpreted as “a structured set of knowledge about reality, formed in the people’s (as well as group, individual) consciousness” (Попова, Стернин, 2007, p.51). It should be stressed, however, that the conceptual world picture is not a mirror reflection of the reality. It is a certain vision of the world, a way of shaping the world in the human mind (Маслова, 2004). The conceptual world picture is regarded as a result of cognition, as a system of knowledge structures reflecting the human experience in a certain historical period of life. According to G.V. Kolshanskiy, the world picture is “a product of the man’s cognitive activity” (Колшанский, 1990); “a holistic global image of the world” (Пименова , 2004, p.19); “the sum of the conceptospheres and stereotypes of consciousness, which are defined by culture" (Попова, Стернин, 2007, p.52). So, the conceptual world picture, as the result of the human cognitive activity, represents a structured system of knowledge, information about the world, all pre-scientific and scientific knowledge, reflecting the cognitive and cultural experience of a human and his vision of the world. In the conceptual world picture the main components of the human consciousness, cognitive, moral, aesthetic values, correspond to all the spheres of the human activity: science, morality, law, art and etc.

According to V.V. Morkovkin, the sources of the conceptual world picture are the followings:

1. 
   inborn knowledge – at this level a human being does not differ from an animal;
   
2. 
   knowledge as a result of practical activity, and interrelations of the man with nature and society;
   
3. 
   knowledge obtained from the texts (lifelong);
   
4. 
   knowledge generated in the process of thinking;
   
5. 
   knowledge instilled by the mother tongue – “cognitive inheritance”, or “a start-up capital” (Морковкин, Морковкина, 1996).
   

One of the most essential features of the world picture is its variability and changeability under the influence of social-cultural and historical factors. It is a well-known fact that each civilization, each social system are characterized by their own vision of the world. It follows that the mentality of a certain community or an individual is to a considerable extent conditioned by the world picture of the civilization they belong to. In this respect it will be interesting to observe the difference in the perception of the concept WOMAN in the past and at present. A feminine stereotype of the past presents WOMAN as a pretty, weak, tender, delicate, gentle creature. At present the old stereotype is increasingly being questioned. Under the influence of the feminist movement based on the belief that women should have the same rights, power and opportunity as men have, the traditional stereotype is changing. It assumes new qualities that used to be characteristic of men: strong, determined, shrewd, pragmatic, business-efficient like. By illustration the following example can be given:

She means me. I do what I want. This is not some primitive island I live on. Do they expect me to wear a black mantilla on my head and go to mass every day? Not me. I'm an American woman and I will do as I please. I can type faster than anyone in my senior class at Central High, and I am going to be a secretary to a lawyer when I graduate. I can pass for an American girl anywhere - I've tried it - at least for Italian, anyway. I never speak Spanish in public. I hate these parties, but I wanted the dress. I look better than any of these homilies here. My life is going to be different. I have an American boyfriend. He is older and has a car… I hate rice and beans. It's what makes these women fat (J. O. Kaufer “Silent Dance).

The fragment above describes a typical American woman, her independence and life style, her desire to be different from those who stay at home and look not very attractive.

The conceptual world picture can be subdivided into the scientific and naïve ones. The scientific world view, based on the most important scientific achievements and knowledge of different properties and laws of existence, gives the most complete world view, synthesizes knowledge belonging to different sciences based on certain fundamental principles and ideas. The scientific world view is a rational model of the world understanding, through which specific knowledge from different fields of scientific research is integrated and systemized. Scholars identify three main types of the scientific world view: 1) general scientific as the general scientific view of the Universe, Nature, Society and Man, based on the synthesis of knowledge from different scientific disciplines; 2) natural sciences, which generalize the achievements of social sciences, the humanities and natural sciences; 3) special scientific dealing with separate sciences (Вежбицкая, 1996).

The naïve world picture, in contrast, is the vision of the world which is peculiar to an individual. In other words, the naïve world picture is a set of presuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true or entirely false) that people consciously or unconsciously hold about the basic image of the world (stereotypes, images, symbols, etc.)

The conceptual world picture can be materialized in various ways via music, art and language. However, language is considered to be the main means to reflect the conceptual world picture since the human perceives the world mostly by means of language. The conceptual world picture fixed in the language is called the linguistic world picture. So, the linguistic world picture is understood as knowledge and experience imprinted in lexicon, phraseology, grammar. In other words the linguistic world picture is the verbal explication of the conceptual world picture, a means of transferring information about the world, people, and relations.

There are complex relationships between the conceptual and linguistic world pictures. First of all, the conceptual and linguistic world pictures do not coincide; the former being broader and richer. That is accounted for by the fact that there are some limits within which language can express a varying complexity of the surrounding world. Besides, the conceptual world picture is more liable to changes since it swiftly reacts to all changes happening in the world: historical events, social systems, achievements of science and technology, etc. The linguistic world picture, in contrast, is characterized by some stability. Compared to the conceptual picture, it is more conservative and retains old and sometimes even archaic attitudes. For example, many set expressions came from the Bible. Their religious sense is entirely forgotten; they are currently used as quite ordinary, everyday expressions: англ.: alpha and omega, vanity of vanities, twinkling of an eye, daily bread, born again, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a lion in the path, a fly in the ointment, lost sheep, the apple of one’s eye, strengthen one’s hand, harden one’s heart, take smth. to heart, on the face of the earth, wash one’s hands; рус.: знамение времени, суета сует, хлеб насущный, камень преткновения, козёл отпущения, на всё своё время, волк в овечьей шкуре, беречь (хранить), как зеницу ока, бить себя в грудь, око за око, зуб за зуб, в мгновение ока, всевидящее око; заблудшая овца, не от мира сего, наставить на путь истинный, камня на камне не оставить, злоба дня.

The linguistic world picture, be it repeated, is the verbal explication of the conceptual world picture, a means of transmitting information about the world, people, relations (Ashurova, Galieva, 2016). It is worth noting that it is due to the language knowledge can be obtained by the human. E.S. Kubryakova states that the linguistic world picture is an important part of an overall conceptual model of the world in the human mind (Кубрякова, 1988, c 169). The human cognizes the objective reality and records the results of cognition by means of language. The knowledge represented in the linguistic world picture is also called “linguistic world representation”, “linguistic model of the world”.

The linguistic world picture fulfills two main functions: interpretative, which provides access to the world perception; and regulative, which helps to orientate the man in the world. Besides, there distinguished such functions: nominative – the nomination of objects, signs, phenomena, relations, situations, events and etc.); identifying – identification of the world phenomena; sociocultural – reference to this or that culture.

The linguistic world picture and the conceptual world picture are inseparably interrelated. On the one hand, the linguistic world picture reflects the conceptual one, on the other – it influences the formation of the conceptual world picture in the human mind. It can, for example, influence the ways how information about the world is systematized and categorized. So, the conceptual and the linguistic world pictures are linked as a primary and secondary phenomena as mental representations and their verbal materialization, as consciousness and a means of its analysis (Попова, Стернин, 2007).

Many researches distinguish different types of world pictures taking into consideration different criteria: archaic and “civilized”; homogeneous and heterogeneous, global and local (V.I. Postovalova); universal and ethical, national and socially or territorially limited, universal and individual, religious and secular, naïve and scientific (N.F. Alefirenko, E.S. Kubryakova, Yu.S. Stepanov, V.N. Telia, V.A. Maslova, D.U. Ashurova, M.R. Galieva, etc), the author’s individual (G.G. Molchanova, D.U. Ashurova). However, according to many scholars, these types of world pictures can be investigated within the linguistic world picture as its variants.