BINARY CONCEPTS AS AN OBJECT OF LINGUISTIC RESEARCH

Abstract

The article deals with the study of the main modern approaches of the concept investigation. Special attention has been paid to the methods of binary concepts analysis in modern linguistics. The research has been conducted on the example of the binary concepts HAPPINESS::UNHAPPINESS in modern English. The author has carried out the definition analysis of lexemes verbalizing the concepts HAPPINESS::UNHAPPINESS. It has been stated that the conceptual core of the binary concepts is represented by three main content components which prove their binary nature and reveal that happiness is a positive emotion deriving from the luck or the beneficial event of any kind, it is a state of well-being, abundance, pleasure and bliss while unhappiness is a negative emotional state occurring from adverse events or conditions, it is a failure, trouble, and misfortune. The research also examines combinatorial properties and synonymous series of lexemes “happiness” and “unhappiness” as a means of expressing the analysed concepts. The article deals with the actualization of key lexemes in the context, defines additional conceptual characteristics of the binary concepts HAPPINESS:: UNHAPPINESS and determines their associative field. The author has come to the conclusion that the study of the lexical-semantic representation of the concepts allows determining the conceptually meaningful characteristics of happiness and unhappiness as the key notions representing English speakers’ worldview.