The object of the investigation are X-phemisms (euphemisms or/and dysphemisms), i. e. units of affective semantics and polite communication. Euphemisms and dysphemisms that make evaluative judgements and stance taking possible are treated dialectically, as variants of a naming in/through its contextual ambivalence and the relativity of its affective semantics (relationality). The evidential base of the research builds on the findings of theoretical analysis and empirical investigation of context, in which direct and indirect naming identifies with a positive or negative stance taken by the ‘namer’ (i. e. speaker). Theoretical interpretation of the context-dependent variation of a naming is based on the textological analysis of dictionary, functional and occasion-specific euphemism and dysphemism on the level of structural semantics with the use of lexicographical and culturological data as well as the pragmatical parameters of the discourse. Empirical analysis implies putting together observational data from the investigation of the experiential context of communicative actions upon the semantic units in question. The research material is based on the dialogical discourse of the TV show Desperate Housewives. A conclusion is made that X-phemism is a dynamic semantic unit characterized by affective valence and blurred lines between its positive and negative value. On a textuallevel, X-phemism is a contextually ambivalent naming.
The genesis of time is explained in the spirit of constructivism combined with the activity approach to cognition. The cardinal temporal categories of present, past, and future are discussed in terms of action-thoughts understood as elementary units of activity whose structure is determined by linguistic semiosis. Husserl’s tripartite model of the phenomenology of time (prime perception, retention, protention) is applied to the analysis of the subject’s experience of his actions. It is demonstrated that, while our lived present is composed of the actually performed actions, our past and future are constructed by reflexive action-thoughts in the cognitive domain of language. It is emphasized that the construction of a temporal sequence that unites what is and what already or still is not, is possible only in linguistic semiosis. The analogy with Husserl’s tripartite structure of the time-consciousness flow helps elucidate the triad ‘present-past-future’ as an instance of the epistemological trap of language: ‘past’ and ‘future’ are mental constructs that belong to the present just as any other act of thinking.
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