The cognitive aspect of evaluation meaning of English adjectives denoting moral qualities

Abstract

The paper focuses on the cognitive foundation of the English adjectives that denote moral characteristics of human beings. Word semantics is treated as a two-level phenomenon that comprises the semantic (external) level and the conceptual (deep) one. The modelling of the adjective conceptual basis is also based on the etymological data. The etymological data have revealed that the conceptual basis of the English adjectival category of ‘moral qualities’ is formed by a certain set of conceptual oppositions, such as LIFE — DEATH, MOTION — STILLNESS, FRIEND — FOE, LOVE — HATRED, and so forth. These oppositions vary in terms of productivity, the most productive being the opposition FRIEND — FOE; it produced 25 % of the adjectives. Since the first element in the oppositions is usually marked as positive while the other is marked as negative, the first element accounts for the meaning of positive evaluation, while the other produces negative meaning. However, each concept tends to realize two polar values, i.e. the concepts tend to possess ambivalent value. The concept realizes positive or negative value due to the interaction with a frame in which it is incorporated. This peculiarity of the concepts enables any concept to form polar evaluation meanings of different adjectives and within the frame of a polysemantic adjective. Both antonymy and enantiosemy are predetermined by the conceptual structures that determine the interpretation of the abstract, moral qualities in English.