Resemantizing necessity modality lexemes: comprehension strategy

Abstract

This article examines a problem aspect generated by word meaning changes during language development; one consequence is unreflected word perception by the subject. Simultaneously, the word remains the primary psychological cognition and self-cognition tool. Consequently, searching for methods enabling the subject to restore original meaning and reflect on word perception as a linguistic picture of the world component becomes relevant. The authors examine this aspect using material analyzing dominant negative associations and connotations in modern usance practice for the lexemes dolg / dolzhen ("duty" / "must") and obyazannost' / obyazan ("obligation" / "obliged"), compared with analyzing these lexemes' role in linguistic personality development, psychological maturity acquisition, and linguistic picture of the world formation acting as a human activity regulator. Accepting the striving for meaningfulness as an essential human trait, the authors specify the research problem as a contradiction between the striving for meaningfulness, including personal vocabulary meaningfulness, and the lack of methods for its comprehension. One considered method is linguopsychological resemantization, developed by the authors based on combining various word comprehension techniques—restoring original word meaning, which is non-identical to its definition and acts as a thinking object possessing intrinsic value. The article presents and justifies the linguopsychological resemantization implementation procedure using the modal picture of the world defining lexemes dolg / dolzhen ("duty" / "must") and obyazannost' / obyazan ("obligation" / "obliged"), examined regarding the correspondence or contradiction between their existing usance semantics and possible original semantics. The presented linguopsychological resemantization results demonstrate the method's productivity and its application possibility for subjects with diverse cultural backgrounds and linguistic personality development levels. Original word meanings revealed during the linguopsychological resemantization process allow the subject to comprehend and appropriate them, overcoming the usance and original semantics contradiction, which counteracts displacing these lexemes beyond usance limits and preserves them as crucial human linguistic picture of the world units.