Dovhaniuk E. The evolution of the concept BEAUTY in the English discourse of the 14th - 21st centuries

The paper focuses on the concept (HUMAN) BEAUTY, verbalized by the means of the English language in the discourse of the 14th-21st centuries. The subject matter of the study is the conceptual properties of BEAUTY and their diachronic variation in the British discourse of the 14th-21st centuries. The aim of the research is to determine the content, structure and historical transformations of the concept BEAUTY, actualized in the British literary discourse during the 14th-21st centuries. The main scientific methods are proposed by cognitive linguistics and historical cognitive semantics. These are component analysis, conceptual cross-mapping and frame modeling. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that it has disclosed archetypal grounds of BEAUTY, defined the place of the concept in conceptual category HIGHER UNIVERSAL VALUES, modeled the frame of BEAUTY taking into consideration the type of connection between slots, revealed syncretic notional-image-axiological characteristics of BEAUTY, singled out invariant and diachronically variable conceptual characteristics of BEAUTY in specified periods during the 14th-21st centuries and the overall vector of the concept evolution. The theoretical significance of the paper is determined by its contribution to historical cognitive semantics, linguocognitivistics, cognitive metaphor theory, historical linguoconceptology. The practical value of the obtained results lies in the possibility to apply them in the teaching lexicology of the English language (themes "Lexical semantics", "Synonymy", "Polysemy"), general linguistics (themes "Language and Thought"), courses on cognitive linguistics, in theory and practice of lexicography, in the further scientific research of students and post-graduate students.