User:Prof. Sergei Grinev-Griniewicz

Anthropolinguistics, anthropological linguistics - study of the evolution of human mentality on the basis of its reflection in respective evolution of language, first of all of its vocabulary. It is based on the assumption that practically all historical changes in human mentality, progress of culture and knowledge growth are reflected in changes in the lexical system. Investigations on the evolution of various fields of knowledge as reflected in the historical development of respective terminologies showed that the character of human reasoning was not the same during various stages in the development of human mental abilities. In the history of development in any field of scientific knowledge we can observe a number of stages and, first of all, we can distinguish the scientific stage which is based on the predominant use of concepts and terms and the protoscientific (early, primitive-science) stage which is based on the use of special notions and proto-terms. In a number of cases, especially when analysing terminologies of the oldest fields of knowledge, we can single out three stages in their development with the addition of the earliest pre-scientific stage based on the usage of general notions and words in everyday vocabulary.

Comparing synchronic sections of terminologies viewed as a means of formalising respective systems of concepts attributed to various chronological epochs, we obtain the possibility of estimating the tempo of development of a chosen conceptual fragment in a picture of the world, its quantitative and qualitative historical variations, and stages of specialisation and filiation (branching) of particular scientific disciplines. In general it might be used as a relatively reliable basis for research aimed at discovering the causes and conditions of accelerating knowledge growth. It also creates the opportunity to reconstruct the historical states and tendencies of development in culture. Therefore anthropolinguistics is connected with such sciences as epistemology, anthropology, science of science, age psychology, social psychology, ethnolinguistics (linguistic anthropology) and linguocultural studies.

The emergence of anthropolinguistics was proclaimed in the "Bialystok Manifesto" signed by a number of leading terminologists from Germany, Great Britain, Poland, Russia and Ukraine in 2004 in Bialystok at the conference results of which are reflected in the first volume of the "Bialystok Series of Anthropolinguistics" entitled "Language and Culture". In 2005 the first manual of anthropolinguistics "Foundations of Anthropolinguistics: Towards Linguistic Principles of Evolution of Thinking" (in Russian) was published.

Literature

Language and Culture: Establishing Foundations for Anthropological Linguistics. Bialystok Series of Anthropolinguistics. Vol.1. - Bialystok, 2004.

S.V. Grinev-Griniewicz, T. Skopiuk, P. Thomas. Foundations of Anthropolinguistics: Towards Linguistic Principles of Evolution of Thinking. - Moscow, 2005 (in Russian, now being translated into English and Polish).

--Prof. Sergei Grinev-Griniewicz 16:14, 1 August 2006 (UTC)Prof. S.V. Grinev-Griniewicz