Contrastive semantics of profession nominations

Abstract

Linguocultural approach to the study of agentive professionalisms is aimed at investigation of the correlation of these nominations as signs of English and Ukrainian culture. In this regard, the importance of the system of standards, symbols and stereotypes is actualized to describe the cultural and national specificity of the system of agentive professional nominations. In our research the identification of national and cultural content of agentive professionalisms is performed from the standpoint of linguistic, contrastive, linguistic-cultural and cognitive approaches. The present study focuses on the contrastive typology of meanings of profession nominations in English and Ukrainian in economic discourse. The following aspects or types of meaning while contrasting English and Ukrainian lexemes under consideration are addressed: referential or denotative aspect; conceptual, or significative aspect; pragmatic, or connotative aspect; and systemic, or differential aspect. The referential semantics in our research deals with the meaning of a word denoting a profession as its capacity to represent the sphere of economic discourse in English and Ukrainian. The conceptual aspect of lexical meaning in our material is determined by the reference of the investigated lexemes to a mental entity. Pragmatic aspect of lexical meaning in lexemes denoting professions in both languages is defined by the communicative situation the word is used in. The systemic aspect of word meaning in the lexemes under study is established on the basis of the word’s relations to other words within a group of lexical units denoting professions in economic discourse. The investigation of profession nominations in the economic discourse analyzes the SL lexemes in their correlation with the corresponding TL lexemes.