Realization of the world-modeling potential of the LANGUAGE concept in educational texts: analyzing the discursive variation of the linguistic and cultural concept

Abstract

The paper considers the specifics of the manifestation of the universal and variant properties of the linguocultural concept of LANGUAGE in the educational discourse. The invariant core in the semantics of the concept is determined by the diversity of its constituent features and semantic manifestations. The variant content of the concept is determined by the whole set of national-historical and socio-cultural conditions defining the interpretation of the concept within the framework of a certain type of discourse. So far, the educational discourse representing “its own” empirical material, i.e., educational texts on the Russian language as a foreign language, has not yet been sufficiently studied in terms of the linguistic content of the LANGUAGE concept functioning in it. Thus, the novelty of this work is studying the specifics of interpreting the linguocultural concept of LANGUAGE regarding its genre-discursive characteristics through modeling its semantic structure. The following conclusions have been drawn about the discursive-variant meanings in the interpretation of the concept concerned in educational linguistic texts for foreign students: “LANGUAGE is a means of implementing multi-ethnic interaction through a dialogue of cultures and languages”, “LANGUAGE is a scientific object of cognition and a means of teaching”, “LANGUAGE is a way of forming a secondary language consciousness, fragments of a secondary language picture of the world”, “LANGUAGE is a way and means of educating a person based on the principles of respectful and tolerant attitude to representatives of another linguistic culture, someone else’s system of values.”