ON COGNITIVE MODELLING OF KINSHIP CLUSTER IN RUSSIAN AND ENGLISH

Cognitive methodology allows to look at language from a new perspective, the perspective of experience in understanding reality. Classification and categorization are the key cognitive processes that are basic in understanding and conveying information. Investigating language through cognitive structures like categories of perception and understanding greatly extends the subject and contributes to our knowledge about the language. This work is devoted to cognitive modelling of kinship cluster in languages belonging to different families and syntactic types. It is inspired by works of G. Lakoff, prominent American linguist, who outlined the general direction in investigating semantic groups through their mental representations. The objective is to form the cluster of key kinship terms in Russian and English (mother, father, parents), identify language and cognitive differences in this social domain and study the role of stereotypes and ideal images in its structure and content. The methodology of structural techniques, psycho-linguistic approaches, and comparative analysis have been chosen to profile the category that invokes a cluster of cognitive models. The further research will focus on semantic shifts of this experiential cluster to identify the channels and regularity of its cognitive development.