PRINCIPLES AND DICTIONARY DEFINITIONS REGARDING ANTHROPOCENTRISM

Abstract

The human consciousness perceives and reflects the external world in a manner which is selective, rather than uniform, and this in turn is reflected in the outgrowths from the knowledge embodied in the language system of each linguistic and cultural group. Along with this, particularly in the organization of the language, its semantic subsystems have an affect on the universality of the perceptual and cognitive activity of the individual, regardless of racial, cultural or other associations. It is possible to detect manifestations of anthropocentrism in different aspects of language and speech. In this article, it is noted that the activities of lexicographers who formulate dictionary definitions can provide indications regarding general principles of knowledge. For example, specific vocabulary definitions, including those relating to animals and plants taken from English, German, Italian, Ukrainian, Polish and Russian dictionaries, show that the interpretation reflected the major components of cognitive activities, such as isolating a single item within the perceptual continuum of information, categorizing it, selecting distinctive features within subcategories, formulating prototypes, and matching or comparing objects at a single categorical level.