Lashchuk O. The Objectification and Discourse Actualization of the Binary Concepts NÄHE and DISTANZ

The thesis is devoted to the study of the binary concepts NÄHE and DISTANZ, their semantic content and discursive actualization. Studying important worldview units in close relationship with their oppositional categories has become a relevant direction in modern linguistics. The concepts under study, NÄHE and DISTANZ, are interpreted as binary because they are characterized by natural axiology, asymmetry and binary type of relations at the conceptual, figurative and value-based levels. The present work singles out the speaker’s personal space levels as integral characteristics of the binary concepts NÄHE and DISTANZ, based on the idea of the personal space and on the layered relationship model: Ich-Welt, Mit-Welt, Um-Welt and Fremd-Welt. The scientific work is devoted to the study of the semantic block NÄHE/DISTANZ as an expression of the human mental and emotional states. During the study it has been found that the concepts NÄHE/DISTANZ are conceptualized in the consciousness of the linguistic personality in the form of conceptual fields. They are represented by the nuclear components INNER WORLD (ICH-WELT) and OUTER WORLD (AUßENWELT). The peripheral component in the frame network is explicated into NORMATIVITY (NORMATIVITÄT), RESTRAINT (ZURÜCKHALTUNG) and OBJECTIVITY (OBJEKTIVITÄT), distinguished by neutral marking, and vagueness of positive/negative connotation (Pseudonähe/Pseudodistanz). This suggests a deep mental connection and interdependence of the present concepts, where the binarity is manifested as their existential essence. Studying the figurative component of the binary concepts NÄHE and DISTANZ, the associative survey method has been applied, the results of which allow to identify the stereotypes in the mentality of the German native speakers. The scientific work has shown that at least three types of the attributive-substantive profiling of concepts: emotional, spatial, and ontological constitute the perceptively shaped component of the binary concepts NÄHE and DISTANZ. The reconstruction of the binary concepts NÄHE and DISTANZ was carried out based on the value characteristics, in particular, using the analysis of phraseological units, aphorisms, and the paremiological fund. The thesis describes the system of values (manifestations of the NÄHE concept which are positively connoted) and anti-values (manifestations of the DISTANZ which are marked by destructive influence). The perspective for further scientific research is to study the diachronic and cross-cultural variations of the concepts NÄHE and DISTANZ, which will contribute to the development of historical and comparative directions of lingua-cognitive studies.