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METHODOLOGY OF CONCEPT INVESTIGATION
Ch.M. Asperdieva1, Senior Lecturer K.M. Kaparova2, Associate Professor
D.B. Madaminova1, Candidate of Philological Sciences, Senior Lecturer
1Osh State University
2Osh Technological University
(Kyrgyzstan, Osh)
DOI:10.24412/2500-1000-2024-5-6-11-14
Abstract. Having considered the concept from the positions of linguocognitive, linguocultural and integrative approaches and having defined its working formulation, let us proceed to the study of the methodology of research and description of concepts. The article describes the most common methods and approaches to the description of concepts. Such research methods as conceptual analysis, method of linguocultural analysis, method of association, etc. are described.
Keywords: concept, language, core, periphery, analysis, conceotual analysis, linguoculture, cognitive linguistics.
Improving the methods of linguistic research is one of the perennial problems in the field of linguistics. The methodology of linguistic research has only recently become the subject of special attention, despite the fact that most textbooks on linguistics deal with this problem. Only since the 1990s have the first textbooks on linguistic research methods appeared [1]. According to many researchers, one of the problems of the methodology of linguistic research is the disorder of the basic concepts that are used. Linguistic methods are not one set of principles and methods for researching and describing language entities.
Instead, they are a "menu" of complementary and/or mutually exclusive methods, used in various combinations and in varying degrees in the study of language. Furthermore, this set is not permanent. It is constantly being enriched, and there are also changes in the attitudes towards certain methods. The same method may be dominant in linguistic practice or, on the contrary, scientifically discredited in different historical periods and in different schools of thought.
The existence of a considerable number of research methods makes it necessary, firstly, to clarify the concept of "linguistic method" and, secondly, to consider how to classify these methods. These two issues have not yet been resolved by modern linguistics and are closely related. It has been pointed out that the term "method" is ambiguous. It is a de-
scription of an aspect of study, a methodology, a technique, a method of description, etc. Naturally, it is difficult to create a scientific classification of linguistic methods with such an undifferentiated approach to the definition of methods [2].
For this reason, even the best works on the methodology of linguistics limit themselves to the description of more or less uncontro-versial methods and list them in a row without indicating a hierarchy of classification. Since in the empirical sciences, of which linguistics is one, classification is a way of gaining new knowledge about the relationship between the phenomena and objects studied, any attempt to clarify the concept of method and to present a consistent classification seems to be useful for linguistics. The degree of development of research methods largely determines the effectiveness of research. From the very first approach to an object, every scientist is faced with questions about how to study the linguistic material, where to start research, what stages of analysis to go through, how much material is needed, what aspects, properties and characteristics of the object need to be analysed, and others. For this reason, the methodology of linguistic research is a traditional branch of linguistics and can be found in almost all known textbooks on introductory linguistics and general linguistics. It can be particularly difficult for beginners to understand the methodology of
the science due to the abundance of terms, the variety of their interpretations, modifications and classification principles. As a result, it is the definition of methodology and methods that is most lacking in textbooks.
The subject of linguocultural studies and the basis of its categorical apparatus is the concept as a component of the national con-ceptosphere, the basic unit of mentality, worldview in the categories and forms of the mother tongue. Traditionally, linguistic methods include all analytical methods, operations and procedures employed to analyse language-cultural relations. These methods can be categorised as linguistic, cultural and sociological. These include: content analysis, frame analysis, narration analysis, methods of fieldwork (describing, classifying, the method of traces), open interviews used in psychology and sociology, the method of language reconstruction of culture, traditional methods of ethnography, methods of experimental cognitive linguistics (the main source of information is the native speaker/informant), psy-cho-sociocultural experimentation, and language-cultural analysis of text, the real custodian of culture.
It should be noted that in the study of concepts, the researchers start from the fact that the concept is objectified by different units of the language. The most complete picture of a concept is obtained through the analysis of the paradigmatic relations of the most important lexemes that name the concept, the particularities of their use and the study of the stable combinations that interpret the content of the concept.
A term may "disperse" in the content of lexical items, in the body of phrases, in the paremiological fund and in the system of stable comparatives. Thus, the meanings of different linguistic units representing the concept, their dictionary interpretations and linguistic contexts are most often used to study the concept. Describing the structure of a concept in terms of core and periphery is the most common way of doing this. This is the case when a concept is grouped around a certain "strong" point of consciousness. Associative vectors start from this point [3]. The associations relevant to the mother tongue form the core, those of lesser
importance form the periphery. The concept does not have a clear boundary; as one moves away from the core, the associations begin to fade away. The linguistic or linguistic unit which helps to actualise the "centre" of the concept is called the concept name. The components of the core of one system may be the periphery of another system. It is through the periphery that each system of conceptual features intersects with and transcends the other systems. It therefore forms an unbroken, coherent conceptual network. For example: if the core concept is "teacher", its periphery includes strict, authority, fear, lesson, educator, pupil, pointer, motivator, etc. The core of the concept is best reflected by the semantics of the key lexeme naming the concept. Analysing the definitions of synonyms of the key word enriches the concept by providing additional distinguishing features.
The so-called method of conceptual analysis, which refers to all the researcher's actions aimed in one way or another at studying a concept with reference to linguistic data, was one of the first methods of linguo-culturalology. One type of conceptual analysis is to analyse the semantic structure and pragmatics of an individual term as a cultural phenomenon in a specific historical context. Conceptual analysis should be distinguished from the semantic analysis of a word, despite the fact that a concept can be studied mainly through the lexical means of its expression. In spite of the outward proximity of their substantive tasks and aims, they are in a certain sense opposed to each other, while conceptual analysis proceeds from meaning to its linguistic manifestations [4]. In general, the aim of this method is not only in necessity to describe the history of a word's use and interpretation in order to create a cultural-linguistic portrait of it. The comparison of the etymological, semantic and pragmatic significance of a word should reveal the deep processes taking place within the word; on the other hand, the comparison of the "revealed" mechanism of word formation with the real significance of the word allows us to trace the particularities of thought, of the view of the world of a person, of a people, of the formation and development of cul-ture.Conceptual analysis involves structuring,
schematising the concept and culturally describing its components. Defining the author's vision of the concept is part of the method of conceptual analysis in relation to the learning process. By classifying the lexemes corresponding to an emotional concept, the students study the ways of verbalising it.
The methodology of studying concepts, called conceptual analysis, which refers to research where the object of analysis is a concept, began to develop in parallel with the existence of the term "concept" in the apparatus of modern linguistics. "Conceptual analysis is concerned with tracing the path of discovering the meaning of a concept and recording the result in a formalised semantic language. It is worth noting that concept analysis does not represent a specific method or technique for explaining concepts, but a set of different research methods.
As a method of conceptual research, the analysis of the dictionary definitions of certain words is actively used as an objectifica-tion of a certain cultural concept. From the point of view of cultural studies, lexicographic definitions often contain important characteristics of the concept and their study provides important information for the researcher [5].
Experimental psycholinguistic methods have also become widely used. The free association experiment is one such psycholinguis-tic method. In essence, the subject is given a word stimulus and is asked to respond with the first words or phrases he or she can associate. The associative field of words and word combinations obtained in the course of the experiment for a given word stimulus can be considered as a special form of revealing the meaning that exists in the consciousness of a native speaker of a given language. Associative experiments make it possible to reveal "national specifics of the people's language consciousness - connections of words in the consciousness, their semantic and hierarchical subordination, brightness of
these or other components of the meaning of the word stimulus, their weight in the society [6].
In addition, a questionnaire receptive experiment, in which subjects are asked to give a subjective definition of the concept name, proves effective in conceptual studies. This technique makes it possible to obtain a great deal of information about how the concept under study is perceived and interpreted by the mind. The results obtained are generalised, similar to the results of association tests, and the scientist obtains a set of conceptual characteristics ordered according to the liveliness and consciousness of the speakers of this or that language.
Another method of conceptual analysis is linguocognitive research. It is one of the most productive methods of studying the national conceptosphere in modern humanitarian science, in which the cognitive interpretation of the results of the study of the linguistic picture of the world is used to describe the primary, cognitive picture of the world. The purpose of linguistic-cognitive research is to study the meaning of all words and phrases that objectify this or that concept in the national language, and to systematise, that is, to describe the system, to present in an ordered form the part of the language system that represents this concept.
Studying the basic concepts will help students to see the connection between language and culture, to understand emotional and evaluative information, and will help to develop emotional intelligence. We can confidently say that in the coming decades much attention will be paid to the study and description of various concepts, their place and role in the national conceptosphere, taking into account the extraordinary interest in the modern world in the problems of national mentality and cultural identity of society. Therefore, one of the most urgent research tasks at present is the development of a unified scientific methodology.
References
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2. Zulpukarova A.K. Information technologies in linguistics, International Journal of Humanities and Natural Sciences. - 2024. - Vol. 4-1 (91).
3.Baudouin de Courtenay I.A. Selected works on general linguistics. - M.: Izd-vo of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1963. Т. 1. - 411 с.
4. Vezhbitskaya A. Understanding Cultures through Key Words / Translated from English by A.D. Shmelev. - M.: Languages of Slavic Culture, 2001. - 288 p.
5. Gofman O.V. On the question of the method of conceptual analysis // World Picture: models, methods, concepts. - Tomsk: Izd. TSU, 2001. P. 213-217.
6. Arnold I.V. Basics of scientific research in linguistics. - M.: Higher School, 1991. - 139 p.
МЕТОДОЛОГИЯ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ КОНЦЕПТА
Ч.М. Аспердиева1, старший преподаватель К.М. Капарова2, доцент
Д.Б. Мадаминова1, канд. филол. наук, старший преподаватель 1Ошский государственный университет 2Ошский технологический университет (Кыргызстан, г. Ош)
Аннотация. Рассмотрев концепт с позиций лингвокогнитивного, лингвокультурного и интегративного подходов и определив его рабочую формулировку, перейдем к изучению методологии исследования и описания концептов. В статье описаны наиболее распространенные методы и подходы к описанию концептов. Описаны такие методы исследования, как концептуальный анализ, метод лингвокультурологического анализа, метод ассоциаций и др.
Ключевые слова: концепт, язык, ядро, периферия, анализ, концептуальный анализ, лингвокультурология, когнитивная лингвистика.
