The synergy of basic factors of semantic commonalities in different languages

Abstract

THE SYNERGY OF BASIC FACTORS OF SEMANTIC COMMONALITIES IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES We may have different religions, different languages, different colored skin, but we all belong to one human race. Kofi Annan This article surveys the idea of commonalities in cross-cultural communication through examining potential semantic universals in languages, particularly in their proverbsthe smallest verbal folklore genre that vividly reflects the mentality and culture of any nation. At the proverb level, it is possible to identify, 1) basic cognitive universal mechanisms that lead to the creativity of metaphorical thinking; 2) principles of verbalization of common human values in different languages; and 3) statements of effability, translatability, and as a result, mutual understanding between nations. At the global level, diverse human languages and cultures exist and are interconnected in a dialectical unity reflecting both its universal/common and specific features. Based on the idea of Noosphere, i.e., the latent planetary source of any kind of intellectual and spiritual information, this metaphysical perspective enables us to identify the synergy of human universality in all its forms.