A Synthetic Outlook on Modern Theories on Concepts

Abstract

Scientific interest towards concepts as basic mental structures reflecting the processes of human cognition of the world and the results of various human activities, has been gaining momentum these last years. The attempts to explain the ontology, the organization and the functional peculiarities of the concepts were extremely numerous and diverse. Reviewing the main theories on the origins of the concept from a linguistic, philosophical, psychological or culturological perspectives, is a necessary stage in constructing a solid theoretical basis for further more specialized reflections on the lexical concept, its structure and the principles of its functioning. Synthetizing statements and theories of scientists belonging to the American and the Russian scientific traditions, we try to present an integrated overview of the modern pluridisciplinary vision of the concept.

Cuvinte-cheie: concept, teoria conceptelor, imagine mentală, concept exprimat lexical, reţea de concepte, categorizare

REZUMAT

Interesul ştiinţific faţă de concepte ca unităţi mentale fundamentale, care reflectă procesele de cunoaştere a lumii şi rezultatele diverselor activităţi umane, a luat amploare în ultimii ani. Încercările de a explica ontologia, organizarea şi particularităţile funcţionale ale conceptelor au fost extrem de numeroase şi variate. Trecerea în revistă şi revizuirea principalelor teoriei asupra originii conceptului din perspectivă lingvistică, filozofică, psihologică sau culturologică reprezintă o etapă necesară în constituirea unei baze teoretice solide pentru reflecţii ulterioare asupra conceptului exprimat lexical, structurii lui şi a principiilor de funcţionare ale acestuia. Sintetizând aserţiunile şi ipotezele savanţilor din școlile americană şi rusă, încercăm, în acest articol, să prezentăm o imagine de ansamblu a viziunii pluridisciplinare moderne asupra conceptului.

LANGUAGE OF PUBLICATION

English

UDC: 81`37 

REFERENCES

Aydede, M. (2015). The Language of Thought Hypothesis. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/cgiin/encyclopedia/archinfo.cgi? entry=language-thought.

Blunden, A. (2012). Concepts. A Critical Approach. Brill Publishing House.

Croft W., Alan D. (2004). Cognitive Linguistics. Cambridge University Press.

Afanasieva, L. (n.d.). The Significance of the Term “Concept” in the International Communication Process in English (pp. 178-181). http://eadnurt.diit.edu.ua/bitstream/1234 56789/2638/1/2.pdf.

Concepts (n.d.). In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford. edu/entries/concepts/.

Kuznetsov, V. (1997). A Concept and its Structures: the Methodological Analysis. Institute of Philosophy of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Press.

Margolis, E., Laurence, S. (2014, Spring). Concepts. In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2014/entries/concepts/.

Murphy, G. (2004). The Big Book of Concepts. MIT Press.

Nemickiene, Z. (2003). “Concept” in Modern Linguistics: the Component of the Concept “Good”. http://dspace.kauko.lt/bitstream/handle/1/817/The%20concept% 20in%20modern%20Linguistics.pdf.    

Peacocke, C.  (2005). Rationale and Maxims in the Study of Concepts. Noûs, 39(1), 167–78.

Weiskopf, D. The Theory-Theory of Concepts. In Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://www.iep.utm.edu/th-th-co/.

Балмагамбетова, Ж., Нургалиева, А. (2016). Понятие концепта в лингвокогнитологии и лингвокультурологии. B: Актуальные проблемы филологии (с. 83-87). Из-тво Новация/Balmagambetova, J., Nurgalieva, A. (2016). Ponâtie koncepta v lingvokognitologii i lingvokul’turologii. In Aktual’nye problemy filologii (s. 83-87). Iz-tvo Novaciâ.

Карасик, В. И., Слышкин, Г. Г. (2001). Лингвокультурный концепт как единица исследования. B: И. А. Стернин (ред.). Методологические проблемы когнитивной лингвистики (с. 75-80). ВГУ / Karasik, V. I., Slyškin, G. G. (2001). Lingvokulʹturnyj koncept kak edinica issledovanija. In I. A. Sternin (red.). Metodologičeskie problemy kognitivnoj lingvistiki (s. 75-80). VGU.

Лихачев, Д. С. (1997). Концептосфера русского языка. B Русская словесность (c. 280-288). Из-тво Academia/Lihačev, D. S. (1997). Konceptosfera russkogo âzyka. In Russkaâ slovesnost’ (s. 280-288). Iz-tvo Academia.

Нерознак, В. П. (1998). От концепта к слову: к проблеме филологического концептуализма. B: Вопросы филологии и методики преподавания иностранных языков (c. 80-85)/Neroznak, V. P. (1998). Ot koncepta k slovu: k probleme filologičeskogo konceptualizma. In Voprosy filologii i metodiki prepodavaniâ inostrannyh âzykov (s. 80-85).

Попова, З. Д., Стернин, И. А. (2007). Когнитивная лингвистика. Изд-во АСТ: Восток–Запад/Popova, Z. D., Sternin, I. A. (2007). Kognitivnaâ lingvistika. Iz-tvo AST: Vostok-Zapad.

Степанов, Ю. С. (2007). Концепты. Тонкая пленка цивилизации. Изд-во Языки славянских культур/Stepanov, Yu. S. (2007). Koncepty. Tonkaâ plenka civilizacii. Iz-tvo Âzyki slavânskih kul’tur.

Received: February 6, 2017 | Reviewed: February 23, 2017 | Accepted for publication: March 27, 2017

Google Scholar cited by