Rozvod E. Verbalization of the concept SUN: linguo-cultural aspect (based on the material of American English).

The dissertation focuses on the linguistic and cultural aspects of the SUN concept in the American variant of the English language. Decompositional analysis revealed the semantic components which constitute the nucleus of the concept under study. The most common conceptual metaphors with concept SUN were established as follows: SUN IS PERSON, SUN IS A ROUND OBJECT, SUN IS A VESSEL CONTAINING LIQUID, SUN IS A BURNING OBJECT, SUN IS TIME і SUN IS DIRECTION. These cognitive metaphors, in their turn, serve as a basis for an unlimited number of language metaphors, both frozen and image ones. It was found that sun idioms embody both the universal conceptions of the sun and the American culture specific conceptions. Free associative experiment with the American participants is an integral part of the study. The results of the experiment indicated that the lexicographic representation of concept SUN coincides, to a great extent, with the representation of this concept in individual pictures of the world. Since the author treats SUN as a linguistic and cultural concept, much attention is given to its mythological and symbolic meaning revealed not only in texts and narratives but also in man-made objects. The material objects having a special cultural significance are used to look into the symbolic meaning of the sun. The axiological dimension of concept SUN is studied in relation to the values entrenched in the American society. The study also deals with the way the concept SUN is verbalized in fiction and in religious discourse.