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The study makes a case for purposely elaborated text entry arrangement criteria in THREAT-corpus. THREAT-corpus (Russian language, 10.4 m words) was built in 2018 to investigate “sociocultural challenges/threats” in fiction, non-fiction and internet news texts. Various types of sociocultural threats and challenges, spread around the Internet and literature, strongly influence modern culture and ideology. The aim of the study is to substantiate the approach to text entry arrangement in the corpus. For the purpose linguists analyzed the conceptual domain “sociocultural challenges/ threats” and built a frame of the domain. So, frame “sociocultural threats” was by design implemented as a cognitive foundation for the corpus. The set of methods used included conceptual analysis, framing, representative sampling, cognitive modeling. The methods applied made it possible to collect texts, detect and describe sociocultural threats in diverse types of discourse and, consequently, to analyze cognitive aspects of frame-based corpus elaboration. With the objective to optimise analytical processing, all text entries were grouped by the following criteria: 1) discursive characteristics and strategies; 2) types of threats represented; 3) types of cognitive mechanisms for text arrangement. The first criterion groups texts as representative samples of different types of discourse. The second criterion allows for categorizing texts by content. The third criterion creates a cognitive foundation for text entry arrangements. Combining corpus elaboration with linguistic frame analysis resulted in more precise configurations of cognitive models in the conceptual domain “sociocultural threats/challenges”. Word frequency for lexemes, manifesting sociocultural challenges appeared to be an important factor of conceptual structures representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study deals with the cognitive approach to investigation of conceptual metaphors in speeches of American presidents. According to G. Lakoff, conceptual metaphors are cognitive mechanisms that structure the perception of socio-political reality in the minds of population. Conceptual metaphors, used by a particular president, form the scope of key concepts crucial to balancing negative and positive in minds of people. Investigation of these mechanisms within a considerable period of time provided new data for conceptual metaphor role in influencing and changing mindsets of population. The obtained data can be used for further research not only in the USA, but in other countries. The goal of the investigation consists in identifying key conceptual metaphors of "threat to the nation" and "counteracting / overcoming threat" in president's speeches from R. Reagan to D. Trump. Much attention is paid to the methodology of metaphor identification. Methods, employed in research, are: method of conceptual analysis, method of cognitive modeling of complex conceptual categories; method of mental spaces blending. The research was based on published speeches of American presidents. The result of the study was in finding out how conceptual metaphors of "threat" and "threat counteracting / overcoming" helped each president bring to the minds of people the balance of negative and positive in perception of political, economic, and sociocultural threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes complex cognitive mechanisms which underlie multiple changes that have affected value systems of English and Russian speaking communities throughout the centuries. It is assumed that values permeate conceptual world view at all its levels and changes in axiological system are bound to have far-reaching consequences - sometimes even posing a threat to the viability of a community. In the present paper changes in axiological underpinnings of Anglo-American and Russian world views are examined building on the example of socio-temporal concept of "everyday life". The method employed is that of conceptual analysis, which is still viewed as quite authoritative and reliable. Drawing on diverse empirical data from the English and Russian languages the authors argue that general vector of everyday life perception dynamics is that of successive devaluation. The latter is thought to be caused by the shift of the concept's basic reference value that might be prompted by universal cognitive mechanisms of metaphoric, metonymic and metaphtonymic mapping. Leading to a common result - elimination of some or all of the conceptual value features - the process of devaluation in each language has a number of unique characteristics. These culture-specific features reflect a direct correlation between main tendencies in temporal experience categorization and various non-linguistic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In their study of polysemy, the authors build on the principle of cross-disciplinarity and resort to the methods of conceptual analysis and conceptual modelling in linguistic research. The authors focus on the notion of conceptual structure and analyse the role of different conceptual attributes in word sense formation. The article shows that conceptual attributes have a different status and play different roles in the structure of the concept associated with a sense of a polysemous word. Conceptual attributes vary according to the degree of their centrality, proneness to change and their inferential potential. Building on recent research in cognitive psychology, the authors hold that central and immutable attributes play a crucial role in maintaining the conceptual structure of a word whereas those having a high inferential potential stimulate the process of word sense formation. The authors explore the nature of the conceptual processes of inheritance and inference in polysemy. On the basis of the QUALIA structure, the authors simulate the conceptual process of new meaning development using polysemous nouns as a case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study deals with the cognitive approach to investigation of sociocultural threats in Russia. Cognitive approach is understood in this article as a set of tools and methodologies used to identify in different types of discourse (news, fiction, academic) linguistic representations of threats as they are conceptualized and verbalized in modern Russian society. The purpose of the research is threefold: 1) to use the data of specially elaborated THREAT-corpus with the aim of identifying conceptual metaphors of threat; 2) to create a frame of sociocultural threats in order to structure macro-concept THREAT in social conscience of modern Russian society; 3) to categorize conceptual metaphors of threat in different types of discourse as SOFT THREAT and HARD THREAT. Methods employed in research, are: method of conceptual analysis, specifically, conceptual metaphor analysis; method of cognitive modeling of complex conceptual categories; method of knowledge representation modeling; socio-cognitive method of discourse analysis. The results of the study came as follows: 1) the search in the tagged THREAT-corpus provided the researchers with the scope of "threat"-centered collocations and sentences. The sub-sample of "threat"-representations was subsequently grouped into categories. 2) That grouping enabled the researchers to start the second phase: building a frame. During this part of the study the typical beliefs of people and institutions about phenomena that bring potential threats to the significant social structures constituted the basis for the slots of a macro-frame THREAT. The frame structure identified causes, motives and intentions of agents and situations that are conceptualized as threatening. The frame also represented feelings of patients, experiencing various types of threats: fear, alarm, search of security, finding the guilty, etc. 3) Next step of research resulted in identifying SOFT THREAT and HARD THREAT conceptual metaphors. It was determined that the subordinate category HARD THREAT includes such concepts as WAR, TERRORISM, MURDER, etc. The subordinate category SOFT THREAT includes such concepts as ISOLATION, SEGREGATION, LONELINESS, UNEMPLOYMENT, ANOMIE, etc. The results of the study have contributed much to the general interdisciplinary study of people's behavioral and mental patterns of identifying threats as negative phenomena of life. The study opens a new direction of interdisciplinary research of sociocultural threats in narratology, corpus and cognitive linguistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the model of integrated methodology which can be applied within cognitive science in several dimensions. We proceed from the new model of knowledge generation and transfer which is interdisciplinary by nature. Hot research at the moment is taking place not within, but between paradigms. The new type of research requires new integrated methodology. The methods are closely connected with the problems posed in the research. Traditionally, the linguists follow the dichotomy "qualitative vs. quantitative" methods of analysis. However, for the past few years the tendency for the convergence of two methodological paradigms has set in. The main question under discussion regards the degree of integration of qualitative and quantitative methods? Opinions differ. The main problem here is the problem of transferability and compatibility of different paradigms and methodologies. We argue that the model of integrated methodology can be applied within cognitive science at different levels: a) local integration within separate subject area (e.g. cognitive-discursive paradigm in linguistics); b) integration within the cluster of sciences (e.g. integration between different subject areas within the humanities); c) integration between clusters of sciences (e.g. synthesis between science and humanities). The method used in the paper is integrated methodology based on multi-dimensional analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]