Shape as a Cognitive Archetype of the English Linguoculture

Abstract

The article is devoted to revealing the cultural and historic continuity of eidetic and abstract thinking and their structural parallelism. The author describes the cognitive archetype “Shape” in English linguoculture, shows what subject areas are modelled by using the above-mentioned archetype (mental states / properties, action and its effect, objective circumstances etc.) and points out the importance of the cognitive archetype in question for modern abstract thinking and modelling of reality. The role of the cognitive archetype “Configuration of objects” for abstract thinking and modelling of reality is emphasized. In particular, it has been demonstrated that among representatives of English linguoculture the image of a straight line is often associated with simplicity, truthfulness, honesty, sincerity, rejecting ambiguity in expressing thoughts, spontaneity, whereas the image of a curved line is often associated with complexity, deceit, insincerity, hypocrisy, resourcefulness, fraud, wrongness, deviation from the norm, standard, from a simple and clear presentation of thoughts. The author notes that the numerous language examples given in the article indicate an important circumstance in the field of cognitive science: a person does not believe that he has deeply understood the structure and essence of a non-perceivable object until he imagines its spatial outlines. The author states that information about the environment is received through sensory channels, with further processing of the information received through the channels, constructing abstract notions from sensory images, but, as can be seen from the examples, never loses connection with the images. The author also notes that man is an intelligent primate; his picture of the world, figuratively speaking, is a building of the human mind based on ape’s sensations. But the sensations that man has inherited from his animal ancestors do not prevent him from gaining genuine knowledge, developing abstract thinking, and achieving an adequate understanding of the world.