LEXICAL MEANING AND CULTURAL WORLDVIEW: A CROSS-LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE ON CONCEPTUAL ENCODING

Аннотация

Lexical meaning is not solely a reflection of referential content; it is deeply embedded in the cultural knowledge, cognitive categories, and social values of its speakers. This paper explores how lexical units encode culturally specific worldviews, and how cross-linguistic comparison reveals the profound interdependence of language and culture. Drawing on theoretical insights from Wilhelm von Humboldt, Edward Sapir, Benjamin Lee Whorf, and Anna Wierzbicka, as well as the contemporary framework of cultural linguistics, the study argues that words carry with them more than semantic denotation—they function as cultural signposts that transmit ethical systems, spatial cognition, kinship relations, and collective emotions