Abstract and Concrete in the Study of National Mentalities

Abstract

In the article, we analyze how particular characteristics of the abstract vocabulary help to reveal distinguishing features of the French and Russian mentalities. It is a matter of weak and strong denotation, the metaphorization of meaning and the material connotation (the term was coined by Vladimir A. Uspensky, a professor of mathematics at Lomonosov Moscow State University), which makes it possible for an abstract noun to make up for the weakness of the denoter. The difference in material connotations in various languages adds a resource for a contrastive analysis. The research allows us to make the following conclusions: a real connotation accompanies an abstract concept, helps to comprehend it better while actualizing it in a specific image. It represents the mythologization of modern consciousness and manifests itself in general linguistic metaphors (in individual metaphors, only the development of the image given by the general linguistic consciousness can occur) and, consequently, has an objective (nonindividual) character. This connotation is objectively motivated and sets imperative laws of associating concepts for every native speaker. It is also important to note that the real connotation is not realized by native speakers, forming a kind of metaphorical concept of a specific idea that can only be revealed through reconstruction and exists not in the individual but in the collective unconsciousness, reflecting the peculiarities of an ethnic group’s mentality.

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