LECTURE 2. The concept of "linguistic personality".

The linguistic and cognitive

structure of "linguistic person".

To the history of the term:

The problem of «language personality» is marked by the growing interest in the system of
sciences during XX-XXI centuries. Language is not merely a means of communication, it is a
manifestation of the historical and cultural wealth of the people.
The appearance in linguistics of the term «language personality» is associated with the name of
the scientist V.V. Vinogradov, in 1930, he spoke about the image of the author of the work of
art and consistently pursued the idea that «the study of the individual style of the author, his
place and function in the literature system of a certain time, correlation with other styles makes it
possible to present the author as a language personality – a person expressed in language and
through a language that can be recreated on the basis of the language tools used by it»
(Vinogradov, 1961). The problem of linguistic personality is considered in the works of G.I.
Bogin (2001), S.G. Vorkachev (2001), V.A. Maslova (2001), A.N. Baranov (2009), K.F. Sedov
(1996), V.I. Karasik (2004), V.P. Neroznak (1996), V.V. Krasnykh (2009), T.N. Kochetkova
(1996), T.G. Vinokur (1989), E.V. Ivantsova (2002) and other scientists.
According to researchers, the theory of language personality in linguistics began creating in the
first half of the 80s, when the “language persona” and his ability to use language drew the
attention to linguistic didactics. One of the founders of the theory «The conception of linguistic
didactics», G.I. Bogin believed that a language personality is a person viewed from the
standpoint of his willingness to produce verbal acts. Creating a theory of linguistic personality,
scientists introduced in its scientific context key aspects that are directly related to the desig-
nation of the basic component, the level of generalization of the object of research and the main
area of analysis. So, G.I. Bogin as a generic concept uses the concept of «man», Yu.N. Karaulov
relies on the concept of «personality». Subsequently, definitions emerged where the «subject»,
«individual», «native speaker», etc. act as a basic component. Today’s language is not only a
communicative instrument, but also a cultural and documentary resource that preserves, builds,
protects, delivers, and transmits the history of the country. In accordance with this principle, the
language study is anthropocentric (human study) approach that studies it closely with the
consumer. That is, the special meaning is given to the person’s identity (an individual). In the
meantime, such studies were the subject and the words of the people of the country, which
expressed the national identity and culture through the language, the spiritual creative heritage.
G.I. Bogin suggests a linguistic personality should be displayed as a person with idiomatic
speech, who has the ability to use the language system in his activity at large. There is a similar
understanding given by Y.N. Karaulov: “A linguistic personality is a personality expressed in
language [texts] and through language, it is a personality reconstructed in its main features on the
language means basis” (Y.N. Karaulov, 2004). The problem of the mother tongue, which has the
status of a state, is not limited to linguistics, but as a driving force of socio-social activity,
reflecting national identity. Therefore, the content of a language persona includes the following
components, as scientists suggest:
1) value (axiological - the branch of philosophy dealing with values, as those of ethics,
aesthetics, or religion) world outlook system, the content of education;
2) the level of cultural development as an effective means of interest to the language;
3) personal features (human, deep personality).
In recognition of his commitment, scientist Y.N. Karaulov (2004) proposes to consider the
individual intellectual property of the person and in accordance with the first level of a language
persona the language norm is called “zero level”. This level reflects the degree of mastering
verbal-semantic (semantic, invariant) simple speech language, consisting of an exemplary model
of the phrase and phrase in the language system. At the verb-semantic level, the words are
considered as the basic units, and the relationship between them is expressed through different
grammatical, paradigmatic, and syntactic links, stereotypes - standard phrases and sentences.
This level is implemented in the language system. The person is familiar with the general
features of the language. We explain it as language background education in modern linguistics.
In order to understand the meaning of any statement, the speaker and the listener should have the
background knowledge of the past, the spiritual world of the people. Background knowledge is
the concept formed by the centuries-old experience of the people. The background knowledge
formed in the mind of the learner by learning the language is directly related to cognitive
activity, that is, their thinking system.
That is why in the mind of the linguist at this level cognitive activity creates new ideas and new
concepts about the language. Understanding the structural, comparative, practical features of the
linguistic units encountered by the linguist in the conversation will be a measure that determines
its zero level.
The second thesaurus level is the cognitive level, which consists of concept, idea, conceptual
units in each person’s cognition, creativity. It contains the relevance and uniqueness of socially
relevant knowledge and understanding and the creation of a collective or personal cognitive
space. This level reflects the discourse that is based on the texts of the person’s knowledge,
imagination, knowledge, text-based, textual and text-based integrity. The phenomenon of a
language persona visible through texts is a complex structure of mental, social, ethical and
emotional components. The identity of a language persona is determined by their discourse. That
is, the chosen communicative strategies and pragmatic intentions of a language persona of the
language learner in communication are evident in their psychological, emotional state, friendly,
affiliate friendly, affiliated, interested or vice versa.
The cognitive or the thesaurus level is the stage of the theoretical formulation of the person,
which is the result of language linguistic model of the world, its intercultural competence, a
succession of the language and cognition. The peculiarity of this level is evidenced by the
grammatical and lexical knowledge of the person describing the level of knowledge of the
language learner. As a unit of the linguo-cognitive level, different concepts, ideas, concepts are
discussed through the use of zero-level words, the relationship between them is arranged in a
well-defined hierarchical system, representing the structure of the world, stereotypes - the
various generalized concepts, wing words and regular standard connections between concepts
that are reflected by aphorisms.
The more important concepts that reflect the needs, interests and ideals of a language persona are
reflected in their thesis. A thesaurus is mainly a frequency dictionary, and secondly, it is a
picture of a kind of lunar face that is based on a dictionary. It is based on a conceptual structure
that is directly related to the fragmentary image of a linguistic character. The concept is a
multicomponent, complete cognitive phenomenon, a key part of the linguistic-cognitive level of
a linguistic identity, a unit that identifies the movement of collective consciousness, which
represents the truth or artistic basis of the world. The concept of a world of human consciousness
is labeled by word with the help of concepts, released and verbalized. Its structure can be
represented as a central point, which is a field consisting of core, knowledge, conclusions,
concepts, meanings, imaginations, assumptions and associations that are centered around the
core. The process of human cognition in this direction depends on what direction he has in the
world. The conceptual field is characterized by the linguistic image of the universe within a
particular concept. Defining the notion of the concept from the linguistic and cultural points as a
mental phenomenon is a legitimate step in the formation of the anthropocentric paradigm of
humanitarian, including linguistic knowledge.
In the conceptual field of the language persona of the language learner, multilingual lexical data
performs cognitive, axiological functions. «Language, culture and ethnos come in close contact
and form the basis of personality, define their role of physical, spiritual and social «I»
combination. The linguistic person and the concept are the basic categories of linguistic culture
that form the prototype image of the natural person and the person who expresses the mentality
and consciousness of the «speaking person» (Vorkachev, 2001).
Third high level of pragmatism is the level of motivation that includes the purpose, motivation,
interest and instruction to form the language and the textuality of the language persona. At this
level, the motives and goals that contribute to the development of the linguistic identity are
realized in the pragmatic sense. «Motivations, interests, values and meanings that lead to the
improvement of language, speech, and the textuality are reflected in the language model of the
speaker» (Vorkachev, 2001). The most pragmatic and motivational level of the language persona
is the fact that an adult’s motivation to learn the language is to become a target of mastering the
national spiritual and cultural values of people via the language. Because the language learner
expresses their motives for choosing the language tools that they find most effective in achieving
their ultimate goals, the personality of their linguistic identity is evident at this level. The
motivational level of the language persona includes vital goals, interests and motivations,
principles and intentions. At this level, the linguistic interaction of the learner affects the
perception of life.
The linguistic knowledge of the speaker is in the mind according to Yu.N. Karaulov’s theory,
verbal-semantic, linguistically-cognitive and motivational or action-communicative needs are
expressed. According to the researcher, «the language persona is a set of psychological, ethical,
social components» (Karaulov, 1989).
There are other concepts of the language personality. Thus, V.V. Krasnykh distinguishes the
following components in it:
1) the speaking person is a person whose activities is a speech activity;
2) the linguistic personality is a personality that manifests itself in speech activity, possessing a
body of knowledge and ideas;
3) the speech personality is a person realizing himself in communication, choosing and
implementing one or another strategy and tactics of communication, a repertoire of means;
4) communicative personality – a specific participant in a specific communicative act, actually
acting in real communication (Krasnykh, 2009).
One can notice that a tendency to explain language persona in several ways has formed recently:
1) the identification of the basic systems of a personality formation as a language persona
(surname, place of residence, literary and linguistic, national-cultural influence, etc.);
2) to demonstrate the individual qualities of a person, i.e. his/her own knowledge in self-
education, self-improvement, education, inheritance of his/her language experience, acquired
skills, mastering skills, to apply the experience to change the reality. It is understood that it is
necessary to consider the level analysis of their language as a complex, multidisciplinary study
consisting of properties, which includes the description of associative-verbal, linguocognitive,
pragmatic levels.
The person’s inner world, the level of culture, knowledge, consciousness reflected through the
language. The notion of a language persona demonstrates the connection between the individ-
ual’s consciousness and attitude towards the world and the language. Every person expresses
themselves and their personality not through material acts, but through communication that is not
able to be exercised without language and speech. The person’s word reveals their inner world,
serves as a source of information that reflects their personality. The ability to give or not to give
a significant description of the word depends on the level of the speaker’s inner world.
The study of linguistic personality is currently multidimensional, large-scale and involves the
data from many related sciences. Many scientists speak of a multi-layered, multi-level linguistic
personality. The linguistic personality is a social phenomenon, but it also has an individual
aspect. The imprint of individuality must be present in every speech. The author’s linguistic
identity is necessarily represented in one way or another and so, accordingly, could be easily
followed in the text composed. Each linguistic personality is formed because of a certain
person’s appropriation of all the linguistic wealth created by the predecessors. The language of a
particular personality consists to a greater degree of a common language and to a lesser degree
— of individual linguistic features.

REFERENCES:
1. Bogin, G.I. (2001). Gaining the ability to understand: Introduction to philological
hermeneutics. Moscow.
2. Karasik, V.I. (2004). Language circle: Personality, concepts, discourse. Moscow: Gnosis.
3. Karaulov, Yu.N. (1989). Russian language persona and the tasks of its study. Moscow:
Language and Personality.
4. Vinogradov, V.V. (1961). The problem of authorship and style theory. Moscow.
5. Vorkachev, S.G. (2001). Linguoculturology, language persona, concept: The formation
of the anthropocentric paradigm in linguistics. Philological Sciences.