The “Family” Thematic Field
in the Yakut and the Japanese Linguistic Consciousnesses
Sardana K. Yefimova
(Senior lecturer of North-Eastern Federal University, the Institute of Foreign
Philology and Regional Studies, the Department of Oriental Languages, Yakutsk)
In order to externalize the modern content of the thematic field “family” in the linguistic consciousness of
the young Yakut and Japanese people, a free association experiment (FAE) was administered in 2011. In
the process of the analysis of the data 5 semantic groups of associative verbal reactions were identified:
Emotional Image of the family, Family members, Family characteristics, Spatial family characteristics
and Figurative meanings of family.
1. Introduction
The complex processes of globalization, covering broad areas of human activity,
have no doubt also affected a narrower area of life – the family as the fundamental
“unit of society”. In order to externalize the modern content of the thematic field
“family” in the linguistic consciousness of the young Yakut and Japanese people, a
free association experiment (FAE) was administered to the students of Tokyo
University and North-Eastern Federal University in 2011.
During FAE participants were asked to fill out identical questionnaires, each of
which contained 20 word-stimuli, including “family”. In response to each verbal
stimulus the participants were required to write down the very first association
which came up in their minds. Participants' verbal reactions were not restricted or
manipulated in any way. There were tutors who ensure that participants supplied
their first reaction to the stimulus. In the experiment participated 127 female and
113 male participants, ranging in age from 18 to 24 years; all participants had to be
the native speakers of their native languages (i.e. Yakut and Japanese).
At the completion of FAE and following the rejection of unacceptable
questionnaires, the total of 100 questionnaires in the Yakut and Japanese languages
were received and subsequently analyzed. Frequency analysis revealed the most
frequent components of the “family” thematic fields of the Yakut and Japanese
participants. In addition, a comparative analysis of the data was also conducted. It
showed both the general and the specific in the constituent components of the
linguistics consciousnesses of the Yakut and Japanese participants. Assuming that
the underlying logic of FAEs is correct, then our results can be interpreted as the
reflection of the linguistic consciousnesses of the Yakut and the Japanese people in
general.
2. Theoretical Background of the Study
The relevance of this study is defined by the increased interest, over the past
decade, in the problem of linguistic consciousness. Modern linguistic science has
focused on the examination of language and culture, language and ethnicity,
language and national mentality. The role of language in the development of culture
is obvious and very significant. At the same time language is one of the main
defining features of a people because it is the people of a particular culture who
speak it and through its use create a culture. Modern anthropocentric approaches to
language study focus not only on language, in isolation from culture, but also on the
role of language in culture. Such a perspective allows to study language as a
reflection of the material and spiritual identity of an ethnic group.
Several Russian scholars have addressed the problem of "linguistic
consciousness"; among some of the most prominent ones are T. Ushakov, S.
Rubinstein, A. Zalevskaya, A. Leontiev, A. Stetsenko and G. Yaeger, etc.
Conceptually it is difficult to draw a clear distinction between the terms "thinking"
and "consciousness." However, in practice these concepts are treated differently
depending on the goals and needs of a researcher; sometimes they are apposed to
each other and sometimes they used more or less synonymously. We believe the
term "consciousness" in its most essential sense emphasizes the static aspect of the
mind, and "thinking" its dynamic qualities. Thinking is a function of the brain
endowed with the state of consciousness (i.e. a state of awareness or reflection of
self and the world) (Apresyan 1995: 67).
Consciousness is the center of integration of both perceptual and logical
knowledge (Likhachev 1997: 94). Consciousness is formed with the participation of
language – a highly complex system of signs which function as the material supports
for making mental generalizations in the process of concept formation. That being
said language itself does not need consciousness for its functioning is based on a
universal system of objective codes (Apresyan 1995: 24). The study of linguistic
consciousness assumes that linguistic units and structures are psychologically real
and are stored in the verbal memory of the mind as a set of semantic components.
Another assumption is that these semantic components have cultural properties
reflective of a particular ethnic group (Apresyan 1997: 43).
According to A. Stetsenko, linguistic consciousness is one of the levels in the
entire structure of a person's worldview. He conceptualizes it as one of the variants
of possible ways of adapting to the world and which most suited for the purposes of
communication (Tarasov 1993: 241). According to S. Rubinstein, consciousness is a
mental activity performing the function of reflection of the world and oneself. The
unit of conscious activity is the integrated act of reflection of the object by the
subject which includes within itself two apposing components – knowledge and the
relation between knowledge and the mind (Ushakov 2000: 14).
T. Ushakova maintains that "higher forms of mental functioning” are associated
with consciousness. Higher forms of mental functioning include thinking and
reasoning as well as the capacities for creativity, reflection, understanding the
hidden properties of the world, abstracting and generalizing, developing moral
concepts, as well as the ability to take responsibility for one's own actions and to
implement large-scale actions involving substantial natural and human resources
(Sorokin 1991: 65). Thus, according to T. Ushakova, the terms "language" and
"linguistic" should be used in a broad sense, as a means of verbal expression – i.e.
equivalent to the terms “speech” and, "speech" and “speech-related” (Sorokin 1991:
79).
A. Zalevskaya's understanding of consciousness is close to the concept of G.
Yaeger (Yaeger 1991: 147) who argues that linguistic consciousness is one of many
different types of consciousness. It is the "controlling mechanism of speech activity
which generates, stores and converts the linguistic signs along with the meanings
they express, the rules of their combination and use, as well as a person's perceptions
of language and its elements" (Zalevskaya 1999: 93).
A. Leontiev defined "linguistic consciousness" as a stratified-system of
communication (Leontiev 1999: 133). In this context, linguistic consciousness is
conceptually similar to the notion of a “worldview”, a theoretical construct
commonly used in Russian psychology. It refers to the process of reflection taking
place in the mind of a person of the objective world mediated by substantiative
meanings which are correlative with relevant cognitive schema and amenable to
reflection. Therefore, A. Leontiev proposes to view linguistics consciousness as a set
of mediated meanings from the point of view of a worldview. According to him, this
definition of linguistic consciousness naturally follows from the view of language as
a unity of communication and generalization, and from the recognition of the fact
that meanings exist in both objective and verbal forms (Leontiev 2005: 21). The
phenomenon of objective reality is reflected in the mind of the person in such a way
that this reflection fixes causal, temporal and spatial relations of events and object in
the outside world. Since these factors are not universal, it follows then that every
culture's worldview is unique. (Leontiev 1999: 138). Thus, in this paper we base
our interpretation of "linguistic consciousness" on A. Leontiev, who believes that
"linguistic consciousness" is a set of all the linguistically expressible mental
images/concepts that arise in the mind of an individual in his interactions with the
outside world. (Leontiev 1999: 79).
Experimentally linguistic consciousness is studied by means of a free association
experiment (FAE), which allows the experimenter to reconstruct the various links
among the linguistic units in the mind, and to externalize the nature of their
interrelation in various forms of cognitive activity (Zusman 2003: 23). FAE reveals
the availability of psychological components associated with the meaning(s) of a
word, and by extension of the object(s) denoted by it. The total set of such
associations makes up a thematic network or a thematic associative field with a
central core. The nature of the associations is affected by a number of demographic
factors (e.g. age, place of residence, occupation...etc). However, being a member of
a particular ethnic group or of one culture, makes the “center core” of an associative
field on the whole sufficiently stable and the associations regularly repeatable for
any given language. According to the A. Zalevskaya, associations depend on the
cultural and historical traditions of a people (Zalevskaya 1999: 193).
3. Results
In the process of the analysis of the data obtained from the two independently
conducted FAEs, one for each participant group (Yakut and Japanese), using the
word-stimulus “family (Yak: “дьиэ кэргэн”; Jap: 家族 [kazoku]) 5 semantic groups
of associative verbal reactions were identified. The results are presented in the tables
below.
1) Family members (verbal reactions denoting kinship):
Yakut 38%
Japanese 29%
1 ийэ (mother) 7%
両親 [ryoushin] (parents)
11%
2 аҕа (father) 6%
父 [chichi] (father) 7%
3 бииргэ төрөөбүт дьон (near relatives); уруу, お祖母さん-お祖父さん
аймах (relatives); оҕо (children); эр, кэргэн [obaasan,
ojiisan]
(husband) 4% each
(grandmother, grandfather)
6%
4 убайдар-эдьиийдэр, балты-быраат (sisters 子 [ko] (children) 5%
and brothers), эбээ-эһээ (grandmother,
grandfather) 3% each
From this table one can see that for the Japanese participants of all members of the
family group, the most important place is occupied by "parents" 11%, while for the
Yakut participants, it is "mother" 7%. For both group of participants the second most
frequent response was "father", 7% and 6% respectively. Also, the Japanese have a
high percentage of responses "Grandma, Grandpa," 6%. These data show that the
family structure in Japan, based on the Confucian code of governance, where the
father is the head of the family household with absolute power, is still relevant in
modern Japanese society.
In accordance with the theory of cultural dimensions of G. Hofstede, Japan
belongs to the masculine culture that is dominated by values such as perseverance,
strength and material success (Sadokhin 2004: 94). From the answers of the Yakut
participants, it is reasonable to infer that the Yakut culture values feminine qualities,
such as greater emotional connection between people and caring for other members
of society ("family, relatives, husbands, brothers and sisters").
In addition, both the Yakut and the Japanese participants gave "child" responses,
4% and 5% respectively. Finally, all the Yakut women gave such reactions as
“husband”, “my husband”, “my great husband”. This reflects a rather narrow
understanding of the family as a union of a man and women.
2) Spatial family characteristics (verbal reaction describing the internal and external
space of the family):
Yakut 21%
Japanese 11%
1 дьиэ (home) 12%
家 [ie] (home) 5%
2 дэриэбинэ (country) 3%
日本 [nihon] (Japan) 4%
3 улуус (district), Сунтаар (Suntar), 栃木県
[tochigiken] (Tochigi
Бүлүү (Vilyuisk), Нам (Namtsi), Prefecture), 神戸 [koube](Kobe)
Харбалаах
(Harbalah),
Ньурба 1% each
(Nyurba) 1% each
This semantic group included response that described the internal and external
family space, family's location, as well as those items that belong to family
members. The common and the most frequent response for both groups of
participants was "home" – Yakuts 12% and Japanese 5%. This can be explained by
the fact that for the Yakut and the Japanese people the idea of “home” being a
dwelling place for the family is equally typical. For the Yakuts the concept “family”
is primarily associated with “home”. This is explainable by the fact that in
conditions of severely cold climate, home is a place that provides protection from
the external often hostile conditions. Based on the reaction "Japan", it can be
concluded that for the Japanese people a sense of patriotism, a love of their country
is an important component of the concept “family”. The Japanese is an invariant.
Similarly, for the Yakut people, based on the reaction “country”, it is possible to
infer that unquestionable love for the homeland, the place where one was born and
raised, is also an important component of their understanding of “family”.
3) Family characteristics (verbal reactions of syntagmatic type):
Yakut 23%
Japanese 18%
1 Number of population 9%: улахан assessment of family 6%: 肝要な物
(large) (6%), элбэх оҕолоох (many [kanyouna mono] (important) 5%,
children) (3%).
よい [yoi] (good) 2%.
2
3
4
5
interpersonal relations 8%: дьоллоох
(happy) (5%), эйэлээх (peace) (1%),
иллээх (united) (1%), тапталлаах
(favorite) (1%).
the period of life 3%: оҕо саас
(childhood)
(2%),
каникул
(vacations) (1%)
material well-being 2%: баай (rich)
(1%), этэҥҥэ (prosperou) (1%)
the value orientations 1%: сиэрдээх
(the pious) 1%
interpersonal
relations
4%:
睦まじい
[mutsumajii] (united)
2%, 強い [tsuyoi] (strong) 2%.
the time characteristics of the family
3%: 婚姻 [konin] (marriage), 結婚
[kekkon] (the wedding),
離婚
[rikon] (divorce) 1% each
the period of life 3%: 幼年 [younen]
(childhood) 3%
a taste sensations 1 %: うち料理
[uchiryouri] (home cooking) 1 %
For the majority of the Yakut participants “family” is "big" 6%, "happy" 5%, and
"large" 3%. For the Japanese “family” is the most "important" part and parcel 5%.
The Japanese participants' associations reflecting temporal characteristics of the
family included "wedding" (starting a family), "marriage" (maintaining a family),
"divorce" (ending a family); this suggests that the Japanese perceive family as a
dynamic phenomenon. “Childhood" was a common reaction for both experimental
groups, Yakut 2% and Japanese 3%. Also "united" was given by both the Yakut and
the Japanese participants, 1% and 2% respectively. It should be noted that neither
group gave specifications for family size and material well-being. These data
suggests that the concept “family” differs across cultures, reflecting the peculiar
mentality of their people.
4) The emotional image of the family (verbal reactions of paradigmatic type):
a) positive emotional images of the family
Yakuts 11%
Japanese 39%
1 Өйдөһүү (understanding) 4% 責任 [sekinin] (responsibility) 9%
2 Таптал
(love),
көмүскэл 援護 [engo] (support) 7%
(protection) 2% each
3 Үөрүү (joy), тирэх (support), 安全性 [anzensei] (reliability), 信用
эппиэтинэс (responsibility) 1% [shinyou] (confidence), 幸せ [shiawase]
each
(happy) 4% each
4
愛 [ai] (love) 3%
5
温情 [onjou] (warm feelings), 健康
[kenkou] (health), お祭り [omatsuri]
(holiday) 2% each
6
住み心地の良い [sumigokochi no ii]
(comfort), 安穏 [annon] (peace) 1%
each
The data in this table shows that for the Japanese “family” evokes very positive
emotional (39%). Individual associations were as follows: "responsible" 9%,
"support" 7%, "reliability", "trust" and "happiness" 4% each. The Yakut participants
responses were "understanding" 4%, "love" and "protection" 2% each. It is probably
that the Japanese participants' high percentage of associative responses in this
semantic category is related to Japan's strong cultural roots in Confucianism.
b) negative emotional images of the family:
Yakuts 3%
Japanese 1%
Өйдөөбөт (confusion), этиһии (quarrel), ストレス [sutoresu] (stress)
сорох кэмҥэ ыарахан (sometimes 1%.
difficult) 1% each
In this semantic category were very few responses for both experimental groups.
The lack of negative associations with “family”, suggests that in general both
cultures view family as a positive social institution.
1
5) Figurative meanings of family (verbal reactions of secondary importance in
relation to the word-stimulus):
Yakuts 4%
Japanese 2%
1 төгүрүк остуол (round table) 2% お寺 [otera] (temple), 神道 [Shinto]
(Sinto) 1% each
2 холумтан (home hearth), Аал Луук
Мас (Aal Luuk Mas) 1% each
It is reasonable to assume that “round table” in association with the concept
“family” for the Yakut people reflects the idea of the family members' intimate
connection with one another. “Home hearth" brings up the image of a circular or
semicircular sitting arrangement of family member around fire. In modern
conditions this could be around table about which family members gather. "Aal
Luuk Mas" elicits the idea of strong family ancestry with deep roots. For the
Japanese participants "shinto" and "church" in response to “family” is suggestive of
a link between Japan's national religion (Shintoism) and a sense of unity as a nation
or in a connotative sense “family”.
In addition to the responses presented above, we analyzed the data for possible
gender-effects. Our analysis revealed that men's reactions were primarily in the
cognitive sphere, while women's were mainly emotional in character. This suggests
that men and women differ in their ways of perceiving and learn about the world, as
well as themselves. In general, Yakut woman's reactions in response to “family”
were “understanding” - 3* and “love” - 2. Also, Yakut women often produced
associations with qualitative modifiers – e.g. “pure love”, “sometimes difficult”,
‘beloved husband”, “my husband”, ‘wonderful husband”. For Japanese woman the
idea of “family” evokes “happiness” – 4, "love” - 3, and “warmth” - 2.
For Yakut men “family” is “home”- 8, "relatives”- 3, “large family”- 2, “vacation”
- 1; and for Japanese men the concept “family” is associated with “responsibility” 7, “Japan” - 4, and “trust” - 2.
In general, “family” evokes positive associations for both the Yakut and Japanese
men and women. The percentage of negative responses by gender is very small –
Yakut women 3%, and Japanese women 1%; there were no negative associations
with “family” for either the Yakut or the Japanese men. This is probably due to the
greater involvement of women in family affairs, and therefore it is especially
important for the woman, regardless of her culture, to achieve intimacy, trust,
harmony, safety and security within the established family relations.
4. Discussion
Our experiment identified 5 semantic groups of the thematic field “family”. For the
Japanese participants the most frequent categories were "Emotional Image of the
*
Number of responses
family"-40%, "Family members" -29%, and "Family characteristics” - 18%. "Family
members" – 38%, “Family characteristics” - 23%, and “Spatial family
characteristics”-21% were the most frequent semantic categories for the Yakut
participants. The semantic category differences between the two groups of
experimental participants in relation to the concept “family” is probably due to both
linguistic and extralinguistic factors, the latter being religion and culture.
For the Japanese participants, the concept “family” was most frequently associated
with parents – 11%, responsibility - 9%, father - 7%, support - 7%, [grandmother /
grandfather] 6%, and [home / important / child] 5% ; for the Yakut participants
“family” was most frequently associated with home - 12%, mother - 7%, father 6%, large – 6% and happy - 5%. These differences in the patterns of verbal reactions
suggest that there may be differences in the linguistic consciousnesses of the
Japanese and Yakut people, reflective of each culture's unique dynamics underlying
the relationship between language and life experience.
From a cognitive perspective, the idea "family" for the Japanese has three main
underlying conceptual features: 1) PLACE/HOME: in the minds of the Japanese
people “family” is equivalent to a particular physical location (place) or
environment (home); 2) AGE HIERARCHY: reactions “parents” (両 亲), “father”
(父), “grandparents” (お祖母さん, お祖父さん) and “child” (子) may be indicative
of the gradation of family members based on seniority and age inherent in Japanese
family dynamic. This may be related to Japan's traditional ties to Confucianism
where submission to and respect for the elder generation was highly praised; 3)
VALUE SYSTEM: reactions (support, trust, love, happiness) and (reliability,
responsibility) indicate that the Japanese place great emphasis on the social
(interactional), ethical and moral aspects of “family” life.
The concept "family" for the Yakut people is associated with several cognitive
constructs: 1) PLACE/HOME: “family” first of all a physical location with a sense
of security from the outside world, as well as an environment of security in a more
general existential sense; 2) MEMBERSHIP: “family” is a set of individuals with
close ties ("people", “mother”, “father”, “relatives”, “parents”, “children”,
“spouses”, “grandparents”, “brothers” and “sisters”), reflective of the traditional
view of family as a community with a lot of relatives upon whom a family member
can rely in difficult times from whom he/she can draw encouragement and support.
3) SIZE: for the Yakut, it seems, “family” denotes the size, likely in a quantitative
sense, of the set of its members ("big" and "happy"), which possibly a
subcomponent of the construct MEMBERSHIP (see 3 above). 4) VALUE
SYSTEM: Also, the Yakut people think about family as “love”, “understanding”,
“protection” which reflects mostly the social and psychological aspect of “family”
life.
Despite apparent difference in the response patterns of the research participants,
there are also several points of convergence (areas of cognitive synonymy) with
respect to how the Japanese and the Yakut people understand “family”. There were
8 instances of overlap: home (12% for Yakut, 5% for Japanese), child (4% for
Yakut, 5% Japanese), responsibility (1% for Yakut, 9% for Japanese ), support (1%
for Yakut, 7% for Japanese), grandparents (2% for Yakut, 6% Japanese), friendly
(1% for Yakut, 2% for Japanese), love (2% for Yakut, 2% for Japanese) and
childhood (2% for Yakut, 3% for Japanese). These findings suggest that there are
probably certain similarities in Japanese and Yakut cultures which are fixated in the
linguistic conscientiousness of their bearers.
Finally, our experiment showed a gender-effect: men's “family” associative field
can be said to be predominantly cognitive in terms of is semantic content, while that
of women tends to be more emotional/evaluative.
5. Conclusion
In this study we compared the verbal responses of Yakut and Japanese students in
response to the word-stimulus “family”. According to Leontiev “linguistic
consciousness" is a set of all the linguistically expressible mental images/concepts
that arise in the mind of an individual in his interactions with the outside world.
(Leontiev 1999: 79). From this theoretical perspective the results of our experiments
reflect the linguistic consciousnesses of the representatives of two different cultures
with respect to the concept “family”. On the basis of our findings it possible to make
one main concluding generalization: the linguistic consciousnesses of the Yakut and
the Japanese people concerning the concept “family” have both areas of overlap and
divergence.
The former probably stems from certain universal tendencies to view family as a
natural phenomenon based on a set of basic rules for its creation and organization, as
well as the basic motivating forces underlying kinship behaviour which probably
derive from the basic survival instinct. It is important to mention that if such basic,
universal rules and motivating drives, probably a consequence of biological
evolution, did not exist, then it is unlikely that kinship and familial behaviour would
be at all possible. Culture requires raw materials to work with, but it is through
cultural mediation that the universal human properties are transformed into
ethnically specific ones. Therefore, the differences in the linguistic consciousnesses
of the Yakut and the Japanese people are probably due to how the Yakut and the
Japanese cultures actualize the different aspects of the “kinship/family”
phenomenon and therefore are likely to be reflective of these two culture's
interpretations of the concept “family”. Finally, it is reasonable to make a
concluding inference that in both cultures, there are certain material objects and
patterns of behaviour which fix such culture-dependent interpretations in order to
transmit this information to their future generations.
References
Apresyan, Y.D. 1995. Style according to the human language: an attempt to describe
the system / / Problems of Linguistics. № 1. Pp 37-67.
Apresyan, Y.D. 1997. Deixis in vocabulary and grammar, and a naive model of the
world / / Semiotics and Informatics. Vol. 35. Moscow. Pp 278-298.
Leontiev, A. 1999. Fundamentals of Psycholinguistics. Moscow: Meaning.
Leontiev, A. 2005. Language, Speech, Speech Activity Moscow: KomKniga.
Likhachev D.S. 1997. Russian Language Conceptosphere. Moscow: Russian
literature.
Sadokhin, A.P. 2004. Theory and Practice of Intercultural Communication.
Moscow: Unity-Dana.
Sorokin, U.A. 1991. Language, Consciousness, Culture. Methods and Organization
of Foreign Language Teaching in High School Language. Moscow: The
Academy.
Tarasov, A.E., 1993. Introduction to Language and Consciousness: Paradoxical
Rationality. Moscow: Legion.
Ushakov D.N. 2000. Dictionary of Russian. Moscow: Reprint.
Yaeger, G. 1991. Language and Identity. Kharkov: Kharkov State University.
Zalevskaya, A.A. 1999. An Introduction to Psycholinguistics. Moscow State
Humanitarian University.
Zalevskaya, A.A. 2005. Psycholinguistic Research. Moscow: Gnosis.
Zusman, V.G. 2003. Concept in the Humanities. Moscow: Education.