The Origins And The Development Of Mediation

Abstract

The article describes the objects of sensual perception as an immediate environment of a subject. This environment affects the senses of the subject and influences his or her activities in constant interaction with the outside world. The work describes an integral image of the objects of perception as a set of invariant properties of things, senses, and notions created by means of our social and cultural experience and as a set of a language and perception spheres and one of the main factors that help a person to navigate in the world. The article uncovers the model for describing the objects of sensual perception. This model is used in teaching and lexicography and helps to represent a cognitive picture of different aspects of sensual perception. The work shows an internal model of the world, organized by the system of sensual perception and represented in a language. Such an approach allowed the authors to give a comprehensive description of the objects in all spheres of perception as well as the representation of the extralinguistic context. The authors also explored these objects manifested in language units in reference to extralinguistic content. The objective world recurs in the human perception and forms a secondary ideal world i.e. a mental image of what has been seen or heard, or a concept. Conceptualization is one of the most important characteristics of cognitive activity. This is a process of interpretation of the input information, mental construction of objects and phenomena.

Keywords: Sensual perceptionobjective worldperceptive imagetactiletaste

Introduction

Language is both subjective and objective. It aims at both the world and a human. Language can’t exist separately from human cognition of the world, as it conveys the human world as a form of reflection of the objective world (Kolshanskiy, 2005).

Perceptive or cognitive activity is related to the acquisition and usage of knowledge. Any objective knowledge is a result of perception which participates in the creation of a kind of object copies and relations between them. In terms of a trivial point of view, the surrounding reality is detached from the object of perception. However, we can’t interpret a cognitive act as purely passive. Perceiving the reality i.e. things, events, colors, sounds, smells a human not only receives information but interacts with the world. The ability to perceive is a natural trait of a human and every living being on the planet. As Barabanschikov (2006) wrote, there is no life outside perception. However, we can’t explore perception outside the reality which, in turn, affects our senses.

Problem Statement

Traditionally, any act of perception includes a subject, an object, a process of perception, and a perceptive image or a picture of an object.

Perception is a set of processes aimed at constructing the image of the surrounding world, reflecting an object in integrity with all its properties. A human perceives the surrounding objects largely and multi-dimensionally in all its manifestations and relationships that include form, sizes, color, position, quality, relationships to other objects, etc. (Apresyan, 1995; Kolesov, 2004; Yakovenko, 1987; Wierzbicka, 1997).

The situation of perception involves two main participants: the one who sees, hears, feels (passive subject), watches, listens (active subject) and what is heard or felt as well as relationships between them. This means that the perception of objects and phenomena supposes the presence of a perceiving subject and a perceived object. A subject of perception can passively see, hear, feel and actively watch, listen, touch, smell, probe, etc.

The perception is interpreted as a system of actions aimed at exploring the perceived object and the creation of its integral image. In this image, we see the object itself and not our subjective states. Usually, the object of perception contains the whole thing and the set of its invariant properties, meanings and senses, created by means of our social and cultural experience. By means of watching and seeing, listening and hearing, smelling and feeling cold, warmth, pain a person receives information. The brain processes this information and turns it into knowledge, which is a product of cognitive activities.

Empirical evidence of images and feelings, cognitive experience, related to information processing, the metaphorical experience of using a language as a system of signs – all these play their roles in building a perceptive image.

The reality reflected in a language forms an object. It’s a commonly shared view that the surrounding world is detached from an object and any objective knowledge is a result of perception which participates in the creation of a kind of object copies and relations between them. However, we can’t interpret a cognitive process as purely passive this way. A person doesn’t explore the world passively but analyzes it. As noted by Demyankov (1996), a perceiving subject is a bearer of cognition. He or she plays an active role in generating the meanings and not taking them from nature in a ready-made form. The border between subjects and objects is not stable. To perceive objects, a subject must act with them. In the course of this interaction with the outside world, a subject constructs what has been perceived. It’s neither a copy of the objects in the internal world, nor it is a simple deconvolution of structures reflected in the cognition of the subject. The source of knowledge is not in objects or subjects but in their relationships. Perceived phenomena and material objects don’t represent the surrounding reality but the objective reality in its relationship to a perceiving subject. This subject is also one of the components of the objective world. The object of perception is a functional construct manifested in the activities of a subject (Barabanschikov, 2006).

The objects of reality are interconnected and exist as an ordered structure. An object is the simplest result of discrediting the Universum, defining its separate fragments, and treating those fragments as independent, understanding different forms of matter that fills the space (Kubryakova, 1997).

Research Questions

The cognition aims at defining the objects and real things in the outside world. It implies active cognitive work. This is a complex process as a person doesn’t explore the world passively but analyzes and processes the received information and reflects it in the mind. The systems of perception organize the internal model of the world in visual images, sounds, and feelings i.e. create the world of concepts represented in a language. And the chosen “part of reality is segmented in a language unevenly: some attributes of things and situations are treated as very important while others ignored” (Urison, 2003). A person perceives and segments reality unevenly: some information is more basic, and the other information is new and more important at the moment (Rakhilina, 2000). Our brain structures signals in such a way that an object takes a meaningful configuration.

The object of perception can be called a thing, a fact, an event, a situation, a referent, etc. The designation of an object as a unit of a set having a particular property or the interconnection of the corresponding objects showing one link of a process must be treated, according to Kolshanskiy (2005), as the facts of the material world. Let’s look at some examples: But the word die evidently startled her, and she turned on her husband a supplicating and inquiring look (L. Tolstoy) Pina looked at the face of Rodion in surprise and carefully took his arm . As he walked over the soft rug towards the door, he could not help overhearing a conversation he did not want to hear .

Here the object of perception is represented by a broad variety of words. For example: see the rainbow, fog, snow, rain; look at a field, a forest, a sunset, watch a film, a concert; examine a room, examine a patient; hear a song, a thunder; listen to music, drumming, the noise of planes; feel the touch of cold hands, feel the pulse, feel the switch; produce, radiate smell; snuff tobacco, ammonia; feel the dampness; taste wine, hot pepper, etc.

The object represents not only a separate thing or phenomenon but any subject or phenomenon of the reality that can be seen: We looked into the hut. There was a red pillow, old short fur coat on the straw, rusty gun in the corner, a piece of the wood stump at the entrance with a piece of black bread, a teacup, and a self-made little knife on it ... Tsar looked and saw that there was a very small mote lying on a silver tray.

The object of visual perception can turn into an entire picture. In this case, a subject perceives everything he or she can see: objects and the background. The Prince led his guests to a window, and a charming view opened out before them. The Volga flowed past the windows, and upon its bosom floated laden barges under full sail, and small fishing-boats known by the expressive name of "soul-destroyers." Beyond the river stretched hills and fields, and several little villages animated the landscape...

The objects of perception are objects of attention. They take a passive role in the process of visual perception. Unlike passive perception objects, the sounding object is active and independent (Nosulenko, 1988).

The objects of hearing perception can be represented by noises, voices, sounds, music, etc. They are represented by various linguistic units. We hear sounds of people, animals, birds, machines, mechanisms, natural phenomena: hear/listen to the birds singing, the noise of water, the signal of a car, the whistling of the wind, the howling of wolves, the squeaking of the door, the noise of steps: For an instant all was still, then once more the tree bent over; a crash was heard in its trunk... The noise of the ax and of footsteps ceased .

The object of hearing perception can be represented by abstract nouns: silence around, drowsiness in the voice; verbal nouns: the humming of cars, the splashing of waves, the trembling of voice, the rattling of a train, the crackling of branches, the howling of the wind. For example: You could hear the humming of cars, the howling of a diesel engine at the station, voices and laughs , the noise of planes, the howling of wind and barking of dogs . Some bubbling and cracking were heard from the room where there were only quiet voices. Then everything became silent .

One of the most common groups of dictionary words contains lexical items that represent sounds produced by objects hitting each other: the sound of impact, the creak of the gates, etc. (Kildibekova, Gafarova, & Ismagilova, 2013). In this case, sounds are part of the situation.

A sound is a prototypical object of the hearing perception. Unlike the object of visual perception, it is less related to the object. However, a sound can also be a source of perception. According to Nosulenko (1988), sounds can be classified into natural or artificial according to their source. According to the information content, all sounds can be classified into communicative or characterizing the environment of sounds.

However, such classification doesn’t account for human voice as a unique type of sound used as an instrument for communication and, at the same time, obtaining information about the world (Ismagilova & Khakimova, 2016). Sounds and noises vary as sources of perception. Sounds are not viewed negatively unlike noises. For example: “They have been making noise with this drill all day! I’ve got a headache.” Noise includes rattling, shooting, explosions, etc. Sounds are music, sounds of nature, birds singing, babbling of a brook.

As in the case of visual perception, the object of hearing perception can turn into the full picture. A person can use vision and gearing to perceive both specific objects and complex knowledge related to events, situations, and episodes. The nomination of events is implemented in semantic models of sentences (Arutyunova, 1999; Paducheva, 2004). Sounds as well as the objects of vision go along with some action and constitute the components of a situation. However, sounds are less connected with an object. At the same time, the semantics of events gives allows us to create a broad cognitive base to explain the mechanisms of accumulation, knowledge processing, and information communication.

Situation models are the form for representing personal experience. A watcher sees a situation or event or hears sounds that accompany some actions in this situation, i.e. The fragment of the world. The extender of an object, expressed by the subordinate clause, is transformed into the situation or event that includes three-dimensional information: Levin pretended to be asleep. He heard the horses munching hay, then he heard the peasant and his elder boy getting ready for the night; then he heard the soldier arranging his bed on the other side of the barn, with his nephew; He heard the boy in his shrill little voice telling his uncle what he thought about the dogs; and asking what the dogs were going to hunt next day...

The tactual perception representing the opposition between tactile sensations and pain is less developed in humans. Tactile sensations are the signals of active movements while pain is a signal for defense. For example: hit/beat, shake/jiggle, pinch/tweak, kick/boot, stick/jab; bang, bruise, cut, hit, chafe, catch the sun, etc.: As I understood he was tortured , I hit the door , but it was locked

The core of the visual perception zone is defined by such adjectives as hard, soft, cold, warm, thick, liquid, hot . Tactile sensations can be represented in the semantics of nouns, e.g. hardness, softness, roughness and adjectives, e.g. moist, wet, smooth, jagged, flanged, viscose, etc. We assume that the surface in the examples described above plays the role of an object of tactile perception. Mechanical and thermal impacts of objects on the surface of the skin in the form of a touch, press, pain, temperature or any other natural impacts, such as wind, air, snow, rain, water provoke some sensations on the skin.

The perception of objects and phenomena is based on rethinking the main concepts of human experience. The content of memory representing past experience greatly impacts the perception. A perceiving person views new information in the context of his or her knowledge. At the same time, a part of the information is brought by this person. The human memory is able to store “the sketches of nature” and include enriched knowledge into particular concept with its further activation in mind (Baksanskiy & Kucher, 2001; Yakovenko, 1987). The touches of a hand together with kinaesthetic sensitivity provide a person with information. All information perceived by a subject is a combination of the sensory perception of an object or a phenomenon and the activities of a person.

Scientists distinguish two important spheres in a language. One is energetic which contains all physical actions and processes. The other one is experiential. The verbs of perception may include other components except perceptive: movement, state, action, accident, space, color, form, etc. Many aspects of combinations with such verbs as see, hear, feel, smell show the presence of movement semantics: movement of hands and eyes, straining the hearing perception. Watch, listen, smell, touch, taste are active processes. Their definitions represent objective direction, their goal, and result.

In the case of passive perception, a subject sees the surrounding environment without effort, as it is performed with the organs of senses: Suddenly, I saw the gates and drove into the yard of our mansion . Lagrange heard the noise, yells, saw the boys who were running somewhere . The targeted perception supposes the conscious obtaining of information using organs of senses. Touching water, air, fire, snow, rain or ice with a hand or a part of a body is expressed in the following verbs of the tactile perception: stab/pinch, touch/feel, hit, tap, stoke/pat, nose/scrabble, slam/bang , etc. What a beautiful girl! – a count thought while looking at her and trying to touch her leg with his as if he tried to take a seat at the window (L. Tolstoy). I couldn’t take my eyes off the father’s pen which was moving quite slowly .

Untargeted perception is performed automatically. The passive tactile perception is manifested in the following verbs: feel/sense (a touch), feel/experience (pain), etc. In any case, a subject receives information from one object: The doctor approached her and took her hand ; The pulse was getting lower and lower .

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the article is to find the interrelationship between the images of the outside world and human activities through sensual perception in the context of interaction with the outside world.

Research Methods

The research employs a psycholinguistic method aimed at defining the specificity of the object of sensual perception as a fragment of language cognition; a descriptive method which took the form of sampling the illustrative examples; a method of linguistic analysis; a descriptive method; methods of interpretation, classification, and systematization. The application of these methods allowed us to see the different sides of an organized system of perception represented in the language of the internal model of the world.

Findings

The following results were obtained in this research.

Conclusion

Thus, sensual perception is the basis of any process of cognition. It is a perception that becomes a connection between the human mind and the surrounding world and organizes the input information. Sensual perception as direct contact with the outside world and the reflection of the properties of objects and phenomena when they affect the organs of senses is the source of all our knowledge. The obtained knowledge organizes the process of perception in a particular way. Perceived objects should be identified and interpreted.

Perceiving the reality i.e. things, events, colors, sounds, smells a human not only receives information but interacts with the world. Life and perception are not distinguishable. The essence of perception is in the reflection of reality in the connection of a human and the environment which is performed in the form of events and situations. A human perceives the surrounding world in a three-dimensional and multi-aspect way: form, sizes, color, location, quality, interrelation with other objects. At the same time, the qualitative content is not defined by the objective parameters of stimuli. A human builds its own image of the world based on his or her experience, logical thinking, emotions, cognition, encapsulating the connections between objects and phenomena.

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