Cultural Specifcity in “State” Senses Representation in Modern English

Objectives: Under the cognitive linguistic framework the paper discusses the relationships between culture and language within the integrated theory of knowledge representation in language (N.N. Boldyrev). Based on the assumption that cultural knowledge takes an important place in human’s conceptual system this paper focuses on revealing culture-derivative “state” senses and aims at defining language means of their representation in modern English. Methods: The language units representing the interpretative stative function of linguistic cognition form the category of linguistic stativity, which is analyzed with the help of the Prototype theory. The method of cognitive-discursive interpretant provides revealing cultural specificity in “state” senses representation in modern English. Findings: The result of the analysis states that cultural specificity appears on the systematic and discursive levels. The system of the English language abounds in lexical and syntactical ways of expressing culture-specific “state” senses. Among the most numerous are phraseological units, motion verbs reinterpreted in connection with inner organs, emotive interjections, English proverbs and sayings as verbalizations of psychologically significant states. Improvement: The study of cultural specificity in “state” senses representation in modern English contributes, on the one hand, to explaining the correlation between language and cognitive structures and, on the other – to issues of intercultural communication.