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THE ISSUE OF STUDYING LINGUOCULTUREMES
Mustafаyeva Saodat Burxanovna
Karshi State University
G.N.Tojiyeva
Scientific advisor: Doctor of Philology, Professor
Annotation:
This article explores the theoretical foundations of the concept of linguocultureme
and its role in the interrelation between language and culture. The paper analyzes examples of
linguoculturemes in Uzbek and English languages, revealing their semantic and cultural
meanings. Particular attention is given to the challenges of translating linguoculturemes and their
significance in intercultural communication. Moreover, the article highlights the relevance of
linguoculturemes in foreign language teaching methodology and translation studies.
Keywords:
linguocultureme, linguoculturology, language and culture, concept, translation,
intercultural communication, phraseologism, national values.
INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, in text analysis, researchers rely on achievements in various fields such as grammar,
semantics, cognitive science, psycholinguistics, and linguoculturology. The main goal is to
determine the role of the speaker and the listener in linguistic activity, as well as to study the
semantic and linguoculturological features of the text in greater depth. One of the current issues
attracting much attention in linguistic science is the concept of language and culture, which is
closely tied to linguoculturology. Although many linguists are researching this topic, it has not
yet been fully resolved. This article is noteworthy in that it focuses specifically on this issue - the
new branch of linguistics known as linguoculturology.
In modern linguistics, the relationship between language and culture has become one of the most
essential areas of research. With the emergence of linguoculturology as a scientific discipline,
scholars began to focus on cultural meanings embedded in language units. One of the central
concepts of this field is the linguocultureme, defined as a unit of language that reflects specific
cultural values and national identity.
This article aims to examine the issue of identifying, classifying, and interpreting
linguoculturemes, particularly in the Uzbek and English languages. It also discusses the
complications that arise in translation and how misunderstandings in intercultural
communication can occur due to differences in cultural concepts.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Linguoculturology is closely related to several emerging branches of linguistic science, such as
communicative linguistics, text linguistics, the anthropocentric approach in text analysis,
cognitive linguistics, pragmalinguistics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, linguistic regional
studies, and ethnolinguistics. It is interconnected with research that analyzes issues in these areas.
The methodological foundation for issues related to the interconnection of language and culture,
and the problem of how culture is reflected in language, has only begun to take shape in recent
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years. The works of V.V. Vorobyov, V.M. Shaklein, V.N. Telia, and V.A. Maslova serve as the
foundation in this regard.
METHODOLOGY
The study uses descriptive and comparative linguistic analysis. Data were collected from Uzbek
and English idiomatic expressions, proverbs, and culturally loaded terms. Semantic and
conceptual analysis techniques were applied to determine the cultural components within these
expressions. The research also involves contrastive analysis to reveal cultural gaps and
translation challenges. Examples were selected from authentic texts and native speakers’
language use.
RESULTS
The analysis revealed that each language has unique linguoculturemes shaped by its national
worldview, traditions, and values. For instance, the Uzbek phrases like “kelin salom” (bride’s
greeting ritual) and “mehmon otangdan ulug‘” (a guest is greater than your father) emphasize
family hierarchy and hospitality, which are core values of Uzbek culture.
In contrast, English expressions such as “tea time”, “privacy”, or “gentleman” reflect cultural
priorities like individualism, personal space, and etiquette. It was also observed that some
linguoculturemes have no direct equivalents in the other language, making them difficult to
translate or fully convey their meaning.
Linguoculturology considers its main object of study to be “the interconnection between
language and culture at the point of their interaction, and the interpretation of this relationship as
a unified system.” The subject of the field, in turn, is defined as “the nationally specific forms
that emerge in the process of linguistic communication within society and are based on cultural
values,” as well as “everything that constitutes the linguistic worldview”.
V.V. Vorobyov introduces the concept of the linguocultureme as the basic unit of linguocultural
analysis, defining it as “a dialectical unity of linguistic and non-linguistic (conceptual and
referential) content”. He explains the difference between a word and a linguocultureme using
A.A. Potebnya’s notion of “the near and distant meanings of a word.”
Unlike a word, a linguocultureme has a more complex structure: its content level is divided into
linguistic meaning and cultural meaning. This unit carries connotative meaning and “continues to
exist as long as the ideological context that gave rise to it remains relevant”. The unit can be
expressed either as a word or as a segment of continuous text.
Representatives of the Volgograd school, V.I. Karasik and E.I. Sheygal, focus primarily on the
comparison of language and culture. They consider the cultural concept as the main unit of
linguoculturology. This concept represents a “deeper meaning” that includes the content of both
concrete and abstract names, and requires additional information about the culture of the people
in question. E.I. Sheygal and V.A. Buryakovskaya define linguoculturology as “the study of
specific objects in the conceptual worldview and how these objects (e.g., ethnos) are perceived
through the collective consciousness and language of that group.” These authors explore the
linguoculturological potential of ethnonyms.
The study of cultural markers in language is a result of the achievements linguistics has made to
date. The growing interest in linguoculturology determines the future of the field, although its
theoretical and methodological foundations are only just beginning to take shape.
Phraseologisms and proverbs are being studied as the main units that reflect cultural elements in
language. Some studies even refer to samples of classical literature.
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The relationship and interaction between language, culture, and ethnos (people) is an
interdisciplinary issue, the resolution of which requires the combined efforts of several fields
from philosophy and sociology to ethnolinguistics and linguoculturology. For example, the study
of national linguistic thinking is a branch of linguistic philosophy; the examination of social or
group communication through language falls within the scope of psycholinguistics. Language is
closely intertwined with culture: it develops within culture and serves as its expression. Based on
this idea, a new science-linguoculturology-emerged. This discipline took shape as an
independent field in the 1990s.
The term “linguoculturology” appeared in the works of the phraseological school led by V.N.
Telia, as well as in the publications of other researchers such as Y.S. Stepanov, A.D. Arutyunova,
V.V. Vorobyov, V. Shaklein, and V.A. Maslova. While culturology (the study of culture)
examines human consciousness in relation to nature, society, art, and other forms of socio-
cultural reality, linguistics studies the worldview reflected in language as a unique mental model
of the world. In linguoculturology, however, both language and culture are objects of study and
are analyzed in their interconnection.
If the traditional interpretation of the relationship between language and culture involves solving
linguistic problems by relying on various cultural concepts, in this study we explore how
language, through its own units, encompasses, preserves, and expresses culture.
DISCUSSION
The results demonstrate that linguoculturemes serve as cultural markers within a language,
expressing the unique worldview of a speech community. They play a critical role in
intercultural communication and language education. Translators and language learners must be
aware of the cultural context behind these units to ensure accurate interpretation and
communication.
Failure to understand or translate a linguocultureme correctly can lead to miscommunication or
the loss of cultural nuance. Thus, integrating linguoculturemes into teaching materials and
translation training programs is essential for developing intercultural competence.
In the mid-20th century, American linguist Dell Hymes laid the theoretical and methodological
foundations for the "anthropological study of language and speech" (1963). He proposed the
view that "the task of linguistics is to explain knowledge about language from the perspective of
language itself, while the task of anthropology is to convey knowledge about language from the
human perspective." Alessandro Duranti, in turn, emphasized that linguistic anthropology differs
from other branches of linguistics by focusing on the individual's perception of material reality
(1992). This direction is also referred to as "language as embedded in human nature".
Due to the fact that Soviet linguistics was based on Marxist-Leninist philosophy and had
different theoretical sources, the anthropocentric approach was subject to criticism. However, as
Y.S. Stepanov noted, in the past decade there was hardly a linguist who did not criticize
dogmatic structuralism and did not show a tendency toward anthropocentrism in language
studies (1975).
CONCLUSION
Language is not only a means of communication but also a reflection of national culture and
identity. Linguoculturemes offer valuable insight into how a society perceives the world and
expresses its values. Studying them contributes to a deeper understanding of both the source and
target cultures in translation and foreign language education. Future research may involve
applying corpus linguistics and AI technologies to analyze linguoculturemes more systematically
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and broadly.
Thus, ethnolinguistics and sociolinguistics are distinct fields. While ethnolinguistics relies on
historically significant information and seeks to identify historical facts related to a particular
people through modern materials, sociolinguistics focuses on the study of present-day language
data. Linguoculturology, in contrast, examines both historical and contemporary language
phenomena through the lens of spiritual culture. To be fair, there are differing opinions on this
matter as well. For instance, V.N. Telia argues that linguoculturology studies the relationship
between language and culture exclusively from a synchronic perspective that is, it analyzes real-
time communication processes and the use of language expressions that reflect the current
mentality of a people.
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