Linguistic verbalization means of the concept “foreignness” in the Russian and English languages: A comparative analysis of linguacultural meanings

Abstract

The article presents a comparative analysis of linguistic verbalization means of the concept “foreignness” in the Russian and English languages, with the purpose to identify the common (lexicographic) and occasional (implicit and associative) meanings underlying the linguistic and cultural binary opposition ours - theirs. Within the framework of the lexicographic and psycholinguistic approaches, the article studies the data from Russian and English interlingual, synonymous, explanatory and associative dictionaries and national corpora. The investigation is aimed at revealing the synonymous cores objectifying the concept of “foreignness” in both languages. It also determines the explicit and implicit meanings, which fulfill the given concept and characterizes the major linguocultural peculiarities of the concept “foreignness” reflected in the linguistic consciousnesses of both ethnic groups. The paper concludes that, firstly, there is a discrepancy between the connotations of the key English synonyms’ common meanings given in the explanatory dictionaries and the connotations of the responses to these synonyms taken as stimuli (in contrast, the Russian key synonyms generally possess neutral connotation); secondly, we identify the main meanings forming the concept of “foreignness” and later, through the prism of their key linguocultural features, we provide an interpretative characteristic of those believed to be foreign by the Russian and British ethnic groups.