MODERN APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF SEMANTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF ENGLISH COGNITIVE VERBS

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the lexico-semantic group of English verbs which represent human mental activity. The authors, relying on the numerous studies of scientists, have scrutinized multiple classifi cations of the English cognitive verbs, which are considered to be constituents of the lexico-semantic fi eld “Mental activity”. On the basis of the data obtained, it was concluded that the lexical units which thoroughly explain the whole process of cognition not only represent the way a person can observe and realize a new phenomenon, but also how new information is obtained, understood and remembered as well as reproduced in future. Within the limits of the research, the most effi cient existing principles and criteria of cognitive verbs description were investigated in detail, as well as a general classifi cation of the verbs which describe the whole process of thinking and the arrangement of verbal vocabulary within the lexico-semantic fi eld “Mental activity” was proposed.