Kubatova T. Lingual Actualization of Conceptual Sphere GEOPOLITICS in Modern English-Speaking Worldview

The thesis focuses on studying the verbalization means which serve to represent the conceptual sphere GEOPOLITICS in the modern English-speaking worldview. Some structural-semantic and structural-functional peculiarities of the diverse arsenal of English means are used to actualize the conceptual sphere GEOPOLITICS. Methods employed in the research reveal the connection between language means and knowledge representation structures and rely mostly on the ideas professed by Cognitive Semantics. Cognitive modeling and interpretation combined with traditional linguistic methods enabled us to identify the contexts of cognitive understanding the phenomenon of geopolitics in the modern English-speaking worldview. The bulk of words and word combinations analyzed in the research amounts to 3200 units selected from English dictionaries and illustrated by the examples taken from the US and Great Britain periodicals issued at the beginning of the current century (2008-2014). We identify the conceptual sphere GEOPOLITICS as a complex of interrelated concepts that structure the phenomenon of geopolitics in native speakers' consciousness. The research presents two cognitive models of the conceptual sphere - the nuclear and peripheral one and the hierarchical one. The conceptual sphere under study is a сomplex multidimensional mental formation, its content being formed by its notional, figurative and evaluative components. Such nucleus concepts as POLITICS, SPACE and TIME form an ontological base of the conceptual sphere. From the hierarchical point of view, the concept GEOPOLITICS can be presented as a hyperconcept, while such components as GEOPOLITICAL SPACE-TIME, GEOPOLITICAL ACTIVITY, SUBJECT OF GEOPOLITICS, OBJECT OF GEOPOLITICS can be considered hypoconcepts which include a number of concepts (GEOPOLITICAL SPACE, GEOPOLITICAL TIME, FOREIGN POLITICS, GLOBAL SOCIETY, INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION, POLITICIAN) and subconcepts (COLD WAR, DIPLOMACY, HUMAN RIGHTS, BALANCE OF POWER, GEOPOLITICAL CONFLICT etc.). The means of verbalization of the given conceptual sphere include substantive (65%), adjective (13%), verbal (17%) and adverbial (5%) nominations that are represented by one-component lexical units (39%), free collocations (53%), phraseological and idiomatic units (8%). Of special interest are abbreviations (12%), which are widely represented in the sphere of geopolitics to nominate international organizations and political blocs.