Linguistic and Cultural Code in Blazing of National Heraldry

The article is devoted to the study of the linguocultural coding of national heraldry specifics. The purpose of the article is to establish the semantic and linguocultural characteristics of the concept “culture code” and to identify the functions of its units – symbols in verbal descriptions of national heraldry. The relevance of the study is determined by the need to understand the essence and lingocultural features of the verbalization of national heraldry symbols. The study was conducted on the material of blazoning of the coats of arms of the former USSR republics, the states of the former colonies of Great Britain, France, Spain and Portugal, which once had a common joint past and a common language of interethnic communication. The novelty of this study lies in the fact that for the first time blazonization is the object of a linguistic description. It is established that a linguocultural code differs from a simple code by the unconsciousness and unintentionality of its creation; it “inherited” the password property from the symbol: possession of this code opens access to a certain culture for its “users”. The linguocultural code is defined in the most general form as a system of images referring to the verbalized concepts of spiritual culture, it is always a set of symbols of a particular ethnic or national culture that can refer to different semantic content. The study showed that the in the creation of the coat of arms the verbal description of the heraldic image is primary – the blazon obtained as a result of blazonig, which consists in explaining the symbols present on the coats of arms. The author came to the conclusion that the figurative embodiment of the basic linguocultural concepts of the national idea in the heraldry of countries united by the common language of blazonization indicates the use of units of the most diverse cultural codes, distinguished by thematic feature. In the heraldic symbolization of power, sovereignty, unity of the nation, the struggle for independence and the positive personal qualities of the inhabitants of the country, units of subject, animalistic, plant, astronomical, “weaponry” and chromatic cultural codes are used. The study uses methods of semantic, semiotic and linguocultural analysis of images symbolizing the ideas of national heraldry.