Culture vs Stereotypical Thinking vs Language Facts

Abstract

The paper considers the topical issue of contemporary Intercultural Communication, Linguoculturology, Psycholinguistics, and Psychology, dealing with the importance of an individual’s awareness of cultural factors of different nations, specificity of national thinking (stereotypical in particular), the ability of different languages to reflect reality differently, as well as establishing their interrelation. The findings prove close (integral and interdependent) relations between culture, stereotypical thinking, and language facts. It is stated that all the cultural universals contain a kind of deep structures of human consciousness that correlate with each separate culture’s national peculiarities. Any changes in society always cause changes in vital senses and values fixed in cultural universals. Language is a prerequisite and “a verbal expression” of culture. As a sociocultural factor, language helps to gain and organize human experience, and any national culture depends upon the character and specificity of a separate language. The results show that thinking is investigated through language analysis. The authors argue that thinking is influenced by the national values and customs of the country where a person is brought up, thus confirming the existence of stereotypical thinking. Such stereotypes are rooted in social conditions and prior experiences; they may be neutral or have a positive/negative impact. People should be aware of explicit/implicit stereotypes’ existence and of an individual’s ability to think stereotypically. In this connection, language facts (in their relation to stereotypical thinking within various cultures) are readily perceived by most representatives of discrete nations/groups and reflect both the encouraging moral values and beliefs, as well as stigmatized human vices and ridiculed negative phenomena.