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“COGNITIVE STUDIES OF LANGUAGE”

ANTHROPOCENTRISM IN THE FORMATION OF CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS OF THE ENGLISH ADJECTIVAL CATEGORY (A CASE STUDY OF ADJECTIVES DENOTING MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS AND APPEARANCE OF HUMAN BEINGS)

ANTHROPOCENTRISM IN THE FORMATION OF CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS OF THE ENGLISH ADJECTIVAL CATEGORY (A CASE STUDY OF ADJECTIVES DENOTING MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS AND APPEARANCE OF HUMAN BEINGS)


Author:  M.B. Antonova

Affiliation:  The National Research University Higher School of Economics

Abstract:  The paper focuses on the principle ruling the formation of conceptual foundations of the two English adjectival categories – “Mental characteristics of human beings” and “Characteristics of human beings’ appearance”. It is argued that the conceptual foundations of these evaluative categories are built by certain archetypical oppositions (life – death, friend – foe etc.), which reflect people’s knowledge of themselves, of relationships between individuals. It is concluded that the anthropocentric principle determines the formation of the conceptual foundations of the categories in question.

Keywords:  anthropocentrism, conceptual basis of a category, conceptual opposition, adjectives.

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Pages:  91-98

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