The concept of “Mental activity” as a component of the hero's linguistic personality in the novel by I.A. Bunin’s “Life of Arseniev”

The work analyzes the concept of “Mental activity” as a component of the linguistic personality of a child during his infancy and early childhood on the linguistic material of the first book of the autobiographical novel by I.A. Bunin’s “Life of Arseniev”. Thus, the subject of the research is the linguo-cognitive model of the concept of “Mental activity” with a core and a system of peripheral means. Cognitive activity as a component of the characteristics of a linguistic personality occupies an important place in cognitive linguistics. Thus, the relevance of the presented article lies in the appeal to the phenomenon of the linguistic personality of the character of a work of art, the problem of its typology and method of description. The purpose of the article is to identify and then analyze the lexical means of representing the concept of “Mental activity” and its functioning in the novel based on statistical, descriptive methods and the method of conceptual analysis. In the conclusions reached by the author of the article, it is substantiated that the mental activity of a child reflects the specifics of his age and intellectual development, the characteristics of his environment, the socio-economic and cultural-historical conditions in which he grows up, is associated with the communicative strategies of his linguistic personality. The materials of the article can find practical application in university courses on textual criticism, cognitive linguistics, and linguistic text analysis. 

1. Melnik N.V. Tekstovoye modelirovaniye yazykovoy lichnosti [Text modeling of linguistic personality]. Yazykovaya lichnost’: modelirovaniye, tipologiya, proyektirovaniye. Sibirskaya lingvopersonologiya. Ch. 1 [Linguistic Personality: Modeling, Typology, Design. Siberian Linguopersonology. Pt 1]. Moscow, LENAND Publ., 2014, 640 p. (In Russian).

2. Maslova V.A. Vvedeniye v kognitivnuyu lingvistiku [Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics]. Moscow, Flinta, Nauka Publ., 2011, 296 p. (In Russian).

3. Kubryakova E.S. Kratkiy slovar’ kognitivnykh terminov [A Concise Dictionary of Cognitive Terms]. Moscow, 1996, 245 p. (In Russian).

4. Demyankov V.Z. (executive ed.). Kognitivnyye issledovaniya yazyka. Vyp. 27: Antropotsentricheskiy podkhod v kognitivnoy lingvistike: sbornik nauchnykh trudov [Cognitive Studies of Language. Issue 27: Anthropocentric Approach in Cognitive Linguistics: Collection of Scientific Works]. Moscow, Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences Publ., Tambov, Publishing House of Derzhavin State University, 2016, 779 p. (In Russian).

5. Boldyrev N.N. Antropotsentricheskaya sushchnost’ yazyka v ego funktsiyakh, edinitsakh i kategoriyakh [Antropocentric nature of language in its functions, units, and categories]. Voprosy kognitivnoy lingvistiki – Issues of Cognitive Linguistics, 2015, no. 1 (42), pp. 5-12. (In Russian).

6. Vorozhbitova A.A. Teoriya teksta: antropotsentricheskoye napravleniye [Text Theory: Anthropocentric Direction]. Moscow, Vysshaya shkola Publ., 2005, 367 p. (In Russian).

7. Rodina Y.D. Yazykovaya lichnost’ personazha v avtobiograficheskoy proze A. Belogo (na materiale romana «Kotik Letayev»): avtoref. dis. … kand. filol. nauk [The Linguistic Personality of the Character in the Autobiographical Prose of A. Bely (Based On the Novel “Kitty Letaev”). Cand. philol. sci. diss. abstr.]. Elets, 2020, 17 p. (In Russian).

8. Nikolayev P.A. Bunin [Bunin]. Russkiye pisateli: Bibliograficheskiy slovar’: v 2 ch. Ch. 1. A–L [Russian Writers: Bibliographic Dictionary: in 2 pt. Pt 1. A–L]. Moscow, Prosveshchenie Publ., 1990, pp. 125-128. (In Russian).

9. Mikhaylova M.V. I.A. Bunin [I.A. Bunin]. Russkaya literatura XIX–XX vekov: v 2 t. T. 2: Russkaya literatura XX veka. Literaturovedcheskiy slovar’ [Russian Literature of the 19th–20th Centuries: in 2 vols. Vol. 2: Russian Literature of the 20th Century. Literary Dictionary]. Moscow, Moscow State University Publ., 2010, pp. 38-92. (In Russian).

10. Rogover E.S. Russkaya literatura XX veka [Russian Literature of the 20th Century]. St. Petersburg, SAGA Publ., Moscow, FORUM Publ., 2004, 493 p. (In Russian).

11. Karaulov Y.N. Yazykovaya lichnost’ [Linguistic personality]. Russkiy yazyk. Entsiklopediya [Russian Language. Encyclopedia]. Moscow, Great Russian Encyclopedia Publ., Drofa Publ., 1997, pp. 671-672. (In Russian).

12. Ozhegov S.I. Slovar’ russkogo yazyka [Dictionary of the Russian Language]. Moscow, Russian Language Publ., 1986, 797 p. (In Russian).

13. Bunin I.A. Zhizn’ Arsen’yeva: Roman. Temnyye allei: Rasskazy [Arseniev’s Life: A Novel. Dark Alleys: Tales]. Moscow, Literatura Publ., Mir knigi Publ., 2005, 496 p. (In Russian).

14. Dubova M.A., Larina N.A. Yazykovaya lichnost’ geroya v rasskaze V. Bryusova «V bashne» [Language personality of a character in the story “In the Tower” by V. Bryusov]. Mir nauki, kul’tury, obrazovaniya – World of Science, Culture and Education, 2020, no. 5 (84), p. 429-430. (In Russian).