Cultural Linguistics: Main Issues, Trends and Tasks

Abstract

Linguistics of the XXI century is intensively developing the idea that language is not only an instrument of communication but also the cultural code of a nation. It happened due to the development of a new anthropocentric paradigm, which gives the human the status of being “the measure of all things” and focuses on studying the “human factor” in the language. The emergence of the anthropocentric paradigm caused the shift in linguistic views, methods of investigations and the emergence of new interdisciplinary linguistic trends such as Sociolinguistics, Cognitive Linguistics, Cultural Linguistics (Linguoculturology), Gender Linguistics, etc., which focus on the study of relationships between language and society, language and mind, language and culture. Among these trends, one of the actively developing interdisciplinary linguistic sciences is Cultural Linguistics (Linguoculturology) aimed to investigate the correlation between language and culture, between linguistic meanings and the concepts of universal and national cultures. Currently, though Linguoculturology is a comparatively new science there distinguished within it several trends: lexicographical, phraseological, conceptological, stylistic and comparative. Each of these trends focus on the investigation of a particular aspect of Cultural Linguistics and therefore they have their own research problems and tasks. The article deals with the identification of these trends, and highlights their theoretical assumptions, evolution, main problems and achievements done within each trend.