Somatic Cultural Code and Its Role in the Chinese Linguistic Worldview (Based on the Concepts of “Face” and “Heart”)

Abstract

Purpose of the study: The study aims to describe the notion of somatic cultural code. The research pursues several objectives, such as: to describe the concepts of the linguistic worldview, the image of the world, the cultural code; to identify and systematize the somatic code of the Chinese language; to describe the lingua cognitive and linguacultural properties of the selected somatic concepts; to study the role of somatic components in lexical units; to investigate and describe the denotative meaning, functional-stylistic and emotional-expressive connotations.
 Methodology: The author employs the descriptive-representative method to isolate and describe the key Chinese cultural somas. Besides, the conceptual analysis method was used to determine the frequency of somatic metonymy and its influence on linguistic worldview. The material of the study consists of 3,000 examples of somatic concepts.
 Main Findings: The article offers an analysis of somatic cultural code and its role in the Chinese cultural and linguistic worldview. The research was conducted on the material of Chinese lexical and phraseological units. Despite the growing interest of modern linguistics in somatic cultural models, and in particular, in somatic metaphors, there are only a few studies on the lexico-semantic aspects of the Chinese language.
 Applications of this study: The concepts of face and heart are primary elements of the Chinese cultural somatic code with its system of associations, images, and symbols. As part of the traditional linguistic worldview they shape mentality, character, traditions, and stereotypes. As practical and axiological means, they are embedded in the language and consciousness of native Chinese speakers.
 Novelty/Originality of this study: It is one of the first studies of the Chinese somatic cultural code and its national and cultural specificity.

Modelling the Linguistic Worldview: Subject Field Scoping Review

“…Similarly, the experimental study of Russian and Mongolian words denoting pets distinguished cultural peculiarities that account for differences in linguistic worldviews (Davaa, 2015). Mentality, cultural values and national character appeared to be encoded by somas, which was demonstrated by the analysis of Chinese linguistic worldview (Daulet et al, 2019). In addition, groups of professionals can exploit terms that were coined due to metaphorization as is the case with many of…”

“…According to the study of phraseological units with a numerical component in the Yakut language, these units describe the appearance of the heaven hero and the underground creature from the Olonkho (Zakharov et al, 2021). In Chinese, phraseological units with zoonyms reflect the roles of certain animals in the life of the Chinese ethnos (Daulet et al, 2019).…”

“…The languages differ in the number of word classes, modes of verbalising the same concepts, language represents "a segmentation of the world which is not inherent in things but precisely in language" (Christmann, 1967). This accounts for the directions of research which has covered a wide array of linguistic worldview fragments, such as various lexico-semantic groups, idioms representing certain concepts; grammar forms and syntactic structures that govern the expression of the idea; ways of categorising things and phenomena as well as ways of conceptualising abstract notions (Mierzwińska-Hajnos, 2010;Daulet et al, 2019;Bolshakova & Gladkova, 2020;Humeniuk, 2021;Litvishko et al 2022). Studies have utilized either monolingual material or involved cross-linguistic analysis of worldview fragments (Barczewska et al, 2016;Alyoshin, 2018;Rudenka & Fang, 2018;Tóth, 2018;etc.…”

Cognitive-Semantic Analysis Of The Lexeme Heimat In Modern German Language

“…At the moment, the assertion that the participants of communication interact not through separate lexical units, but with the help of more complex functional formations (coherent phrases and texts) seems indisputable. The word captures the meanings in human consciousness, from which it follows that a deep versatile analysis of the semantics of the word reveals the whole range of cognitive meanings that arise in the psyche of communicants when generating or perceiving a text (Daulet et al, 2019;Normurodova & Sirojiddinov, 2019).…”