COGNITIVE MECHANISM AS TERTIUM COMPARATIONIS FOR ESTABLISHING COGNITIVE-SEMANTIC UNIVERSALS

Abstract

The article presents the description of the cognitive mechanism as tertium comparationis for establishing cognitivesemantic universals in related languages. Cross-language studies aim to identify common and specific features in the systems of both related and unrelated languages. It is known that units of different levels of language systems are involved in cross-language comparison, and the research of language phenomena itself is carried out from the perspective of theories of generative, referential, ideographic, cognitive, functional linguistics, semiotics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics etc. To conclude, first of all, for comparative and typological linguistics, we consider the terms tertium comparationis and basis of comparison synonymous. Secondly, not only linguistic categories can act as tertium comparationis in comparison, but also certain differential features, semantic fields, grammatical rules, various models, methods, categories, individual concepts, and so on. Consequently, tertium comparationis, in our study, a certain cognitive mechanism for conceptualizing human consciousness was chosen for the related languages, namely archetypation/stereotyping, prototypization, framization, schematization, simulacrization, virtualization, suggestivization, etc. Archetypization/ stereotyping as a universal mechanism for conceptualizing human consciousness in such related languages as English, French, Ukrainian and Russian is presented on the material of the concept of «woman – femme – жінка – женщина», having studied the etymology and taking into account the nuclear and peripheral components of the concept. Analysis of the mechanism of achetypization/stereotyping on the example of the concept of WOMAN showed: 1) the data from etymological dictionaries regarding the concept of WOMAN, proved that English justifies its Germanic origin with the Proto-Germanic etymon *wīfa -; French has preserved the Latin roots of femina, and in Ukrainian and Russian there is a common Indo-European etymon *gᵘenā; 2) proverbs in the studied languages reflect the stereotypical/archetypical idea of a woman, which was formed over many centuries: a woman as a mother, a woman as a housekeeper and a woman as the wife of her husband.