Article.

Наталія Попова

УДК 811.134.2’42                                                                                                                                   

GENESIS OF THE CONCEPT “AVENTURISMO” AND ITS ROLE IN FORMATION OF THE NATIONAL CONCEPTUAL SPHERE OF SPAIN

Статтю присвячено дослідженню динаміки розвитку іспанського національно-маркованого концепту aventurismo протягом XVI-XX століть. Встановлено його тісні зв’язки з іншими ключовими елементами національної концептосфери, що базуються на етно-специфічних асоціаціях, та визначено способи репрезентації концепту в мовній картині світу. Шляхом комплексного синхронно-діахронного аналізу визначено вектори його розвитку, зміни понятійної та аксіологічної складових, з’ясовано причини значущості базових категорій концептуального ядра в свідомості іспанської нації. Описано відмінності первинного і вторинного прототипів концепту, відображених у мовній картині світу етимологічними дублетами aventurismo i aventurerismo.

Ключові слова: національно-маркований концепт, семантико-когнітивний аналіз, синхронія, діахронія, прототипне ядро концепту, базові категорії, асоціативні зв’язки.

Introduction. An unprecedented increase of convergent and divergent processes in today’s society forces linguists specialized in cognitive science to contribute to global stability explaining the ways of perception and interpretation of reality by representatives of different nations through language units. The study of the peculiarities of formation and development of national conceptual spheres and their units – concepts – gives an opportunity to understand better ethno-cultural, social, political, moral and valuable dominants of a particular society in order to achieve effective cooperation and understanding among representatives of different nations. The identification of national conceptual sphere key concepts which link closely all life and activity fields of a certain nation and influence on further development vectors is necessary for the investigations of this complex mental information system and its ethnical peculiarities.

Short review on scientific sources. A lot of scientific papers are devoted to the study of linguocultural and nationally-tagged concepts at the synchronic level. In particular, O. Horodets'ka explored nationally-marked concepts in the British language world view of the 20^th century (Horodets'ka). K. Karpova investigated means of verbalization of modern American nationally-specific concepts (Karpova). The analysis of German chancellors’ linguocultural concepts was carried out by M. Chernomorets (Chernomorets). Some linguists compared concept’s meaningful, associative and axiological contents in different nations’ language consciousness (Balashova). L. Fedoryuk has developed a theory of seven-stage linguocultural concepts’ analysis at the level of synchrony (Fedoryuk 75).

However, some scientists underline the importance of using diachronic research methods for better understanding of cognitive process developing in human consciousness (Winters 10, Garachana, Hilferty 71-73) while investigating the evolution of a certain concept (Bobrova) and comparing the ways of concept’s development in different language cultures (Bohatyreva). R. Langacker pointed out person’s ability to perceive concept’s semantic connotations which had not been reflecting in its linear semantics for a long period of time as an indicator of synchronic and diachronic development inseparability (Langacker 54). D. Wanner stressed the importance of ways of categorical unit’s formation and of permanent repetition of these processes in human analytical thinking at the synchronic level (Wanner 103). D. Geeraerts’s Theory of prototypes, which states that concept’s prototype core consisting of a set of basic categorical features is variable and dynamic, represents a significant achievement in the development of historical cognitive semantics (Geeraerts 12). This theory was supported by many linguists working in the field of cognitive science (J. L. Cifuentes Honrubia, С. Company Company, T. Givon, G. Kleiber, J. R. Taylor) and was developed in the research of J. Fernandez Jaen working on semantic genesis of Spanish verbs of physical perception (Fernández Jaén).

Some linguists such as O. Panteleeva (Panteleeva), N. Solov'eva (Solov'eva), V. Jiménez Expósito (Jiménez Expósito) devoted their research to certain Spanish concepts at the synchronic level.

However, above mentioned approach to the research does not provide a complex vision of nation’s world perception specificity. This methodological question can be resolved by applying a complex synchronic and diachronic analysis of Spanish key concepts, one of the most significant of which is the concept aventurismo characterized by the ability to modify other meaningful concepts of the Spanish conceptual sphere due to its wide web of associative connections and numerous means of representation in the language world view.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the role of the Spanish nationally-tagged concept aventurismo in the development of the national conceptual sphere and to determine its vectors of evolutionary changes during the 16^th-20^th centuries.

Methods and sources. The purpose of the paper requires a complex synchronic and diachronic approach to concept’s semantic-cognitive analysis by determining its language means of representation in the Spanish language world view of the 16^th-20^th centuries. The semantic analysis of concept’s key word-representatives and cognitive interpretation of the results obtained at the synchronic level gave us a possibility to compare concept’s meaningful, axiological and associative components from diachronic point of view and to define the most striking tendencies in the development of its prototype core.

The research was carried out on vocabulary definitions from Spanish interpretive and historical dictionaries and works of Spanish philologists, philosophers, historians of language and writers of the of the 16^th-20^th centuries.

Discussion and interpretation of results. The effectiveness of person’s interaction with other people is greatly facilitated by his/her predisposition to adventurism – the special trait of human’s character allowing to reach quickly a desirable result without making too much effort (Sannikova, Melenchuk 70). Almost every Spaniard possesses it as an inalienable feature of the Spanish mentality and an important mover of logical thinking processes. This fact is proved by analysis of microcontexts containing words-representatives of Spanish nationally-tagged concepts,  including honor, libertad, religión, feminismo, lengua, patria, corrida, flamenco, cocina, castellano, café cantante, caballería, monarquía, autarquía, independentismo, tolerancia (Popova, “Protsesy v Rozvytku Natsional'noyi Kontseptosfery” 236).

The prototype core of the concept honor, being considered one of the most notable  nationally-tagged concept of the Spanish conceptual sphere and widespread in works of famous Spanish writers, including Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Calderón de la Barca, Diego Fajardo, Francisco de Quevedo and others, is characterized by such basic categories as feudo and tierra in the 16^th-17^th centuries (Dolzhenkova 13) which were associated with the protection of lands and castles from invaders. The emancipation from Arabs in the epoch of Reconquista required adventurous spirit and courage from Spanish knights, and the conquest of the American continents in the period of Conquista stressed the value of the basic category aventura in the prototype core of the concept honor associative connections of which are closely interwoven with another key concept of the Spanish national conceptual sphere – caballería.

The Spanish knighthood, which basic components of the prototype core are represented by the categories caballero, hidalgo, caballo, valentía, honradez, nobleza in the language world view and which ethno-specific conceptual features are unbridled courage, crazy passion for feats, knight’s immortal spirit and disobedience provoked by the belief that the Lord directs knight’s hand (Popova, “Tsinnisna Skladova Kontseptu Kabal'yero” 191), is fully imbued with the spirit of adventurism:

Los dos cabalgan presto, la aventura (adventure experience) deseando saber  (Lobo Lasso de la Vega 25).

The Spanish chivalry, being marked with adventure and devotion, is closely related to elements of the nationally-tagged concept fe which played an important role in the formation of the Spanish mentality creating its secondary prototype under the influence of the brutal Spanish Inquisition – “the right hand of God” and a political tool of governance (Popova, “Transformatsiya Otsinnosti Natsional'no-Markovanoho Kontseptu Fe”, 228).

Adventurism is also a basic component of the prototypal core of the Spanish nationally-tagged concept corrida which represents a special unit of Spanish world perception and is verbalized with a word igualismo – the possibility for a poor and unaristocratic man to achieve a high social status due to his own courage and dignity. All these traits of character revealed in combats with bulls on the arena. Despite many Spanish bullfighters were injured or killed in such combats, young people went out to the arena again and again. Describing this historical and cultural tradition as a social phenomenon and the fate of men from poor families, V. Blasco Ibáñez shows torero’s fear, his determination and thirst for victory before each meeting with a bull and also his adventurous character reflected in his hope for Providence:

Pero de pronto reaparecían sus preocupaciones, apagábase el brillo de sus ojos, y volvía a sumir la barba en las manos, chupando tenazmente el cigarro, con la mirada perdida en la nube de tabaco. Pensaba codiciosamente en la hora del anochecer, deseando que viniese cuanto antes; en la vuelta de la plaza, sudoroso y fatigado, pero con la alegría del peligro vencido, los apetitos despiertos, una ansia loca de placer y la certeza de varios días de seguridad y descanso. Si Dios le protegía cual otras veces, iba a comer con el apetito de sus tiempos de hambre, se emborracharía un poco, iría en busca de cierta muchacha que cantaba en un music-hall (Blasco Ibañez 3).

The significance of the concept aventurismo in the national conceptual sphere of Spain is also proved with a wide line of language means verbalizing it in the language world view. They are   lexical units (aventura, acaecimiento, lance, contingencia, peligro, riesgo, hazaña, enredo, duda), idioms (por aventura, por suerte, a la aventura), set phrases (novela de aventuras, deporte de aventura); sayings (Quien no se aventura no pasa la mar), metaphors (Carta de gruesa aventura; aventurismo es la filosofía que se aplica a la oferta de viajes) and contextual synonyms and descripions (llevar hacia los destinos más deseados sin importar la distancia).

The key words verbalizing the concept are aventura and derivatives aventurar, aventurado/a, aventurismo, aventurerismo. The noun aventura comes from the Latin adventūrus which means “what is going to come”, while the Latin verb advenīre has the meaning “come, approach” (“Diccionario histórico de la lengua española” 1933-1936. Web. 12 Julio 2017). A. de Nebrikha was the first linguist who included this word in his dictionary in 1495 (Nebrija. 1495. Web. 28 Junio 2017) and later it was found in a line of bilingual and multilingual dictionaries of the 16^th-18^th centuries (R. Percival. “Dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine” (1591), N. Mez de Braidenbach “Diccionario muy copioso de la lengua española y alemana hasta agora nunca visto, sacado de diferentes autores” (1670), B. Henríquez “Thesaurus utriusque linguae hispanae et latinae” (1679), F. Sobrino “Diccionario nuevo de las lenguas española y francesa” (1705), J. Stevens “New Spanish and English Dictionary” (1706), R. Bluteau. “Diccionario castellano y portuguez para facilitar a los curiosos la noticia de la lengua latina, con el uso del vocabulario portuguez y latino” (1721), E. Terreros y Pando. “Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes en las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana” (1767)).

The word aventura was used in the texts of the 16^th-17^th centuries with the meaning “future, something what is going to happen”: Y no se halló en el cielo ni en la tierra , ni debajo della, alguno tan confiado que probase el aventura ni presumiese abrirlo (Cabrera. 1601. Web. 28 Junio 2017). This meaning became obsolete in the following centuries.

According to the Dictionary of the Spanish Royal Academy of the 18^th century aventura was interpreted as:

- an unexpected event or event coursed by a reason. This meaning was appropriate to chivalric novels where the word aventura meant an armed conflict, confrontation or fight between errants: Con todo alababa en su Autór aquel acabar su libro con la promessa de aquella inacabable aventúra ... Irse por todo el mundo con sus armas y caballo à buscar las aventúras, y à exercitarse en todo aquello que él havía leído (Cervantes 5);

- a chance, unexpected luck: Porque la guárdia aviéne por sesso, è la ganáncia por aventúra (Herrero 156);

- danger, risk, doubtful business, difficult situation: Porque están los panes en aventúra (Herrero 76). Con todo esso no quiso poner el negócio en aventúra (Cervantes 265);

- a possibility, chance, fortuity. The event is suggested to have happened accidentally or may be happening: Cá seyendo hí el Rey, si por aventúra fuesse muerto ò presso (Partid 219). Por aventúra segun esto el Rey de Navarra, ò el Infante (Ciud 14) (“Diccionario de autoridades” 1726-1739. Web. 29 Junio 2017).

The dynamics of concept’s development is revealed in the meanings of the past participle aventurado. At first an approving and negative evaluation was determined by the adverbs bien and mal accompanying the word: bien aventurado meant “happy, joyful”, mal aventurado meant “unhappy, unfortunate”.

Porque no hai mas bien aventuráda República, que la que es regida por Príncipe de buena conciéncia (Guev 16).

Soi yo, dixo, el mal aventurádo Juan de la Encína (Quevedo 67) (“Diccionario de autoridades” 1726-1739. Web. 29 Junio 2017).

The phrase bien aventurado in its direct meaning was used with the names of saints, for example, Bienaventurado San Amaro, Bienaventurado San José. But then a contemptuous meaning of the phrase appeared and it was used for mocking with someone because he was foolish, feeble-minded or mad: Es un bien aventurado.

We found some additional meanings of the word aventura in the interpretative dictionaries of the 19^th century:

- a prerogative right of wealthy people to judge on tournaments and other acts which were held on their lands (Núñez de Taboada 124);

- the sea trade term named a contract according to which a certain amount of money could be lent with a condition of its returning with a determined interest when the sheep arrived at the port of its destination. Contract pawn could be the sheep or its goods. Prestamo a la gruesa aventura meant the anticipated amount of money according to the contract (Castro y Rossi 324);

- a love affair. The word was usually used in plural and always with a bad connotation if it was talked about women.

The verb aventurar is also used as a reciprocal: Quien no se aventura no pasa la mar (Gaspar y Roig 277).

In the early 20^th century a new meaning of the word aventurero was mentioned in dictionaries:  a person who is going to sell groceries or other goods without obligations. That meaning was applied to a person with bad ancestors, without any occupation or profession, who tried to conquer a position which did not correspond to him in the society (Rodríguez Navas y Carrasco 222).

Therefore, the development of semantic meaning of words-representatives of the concept aventurismo, fixed in interpretive dictionaries and revealed from contexts of written sources of the 16^th-20^th centuries, testifies to the expansion and transformation of concept’s meaningful, evolutional and associative components reflected on its prototype core as well. Changing of the set of basic prototypal categories of the investigated concept suggests the formation of a secondary prototype of concept’s core, evidenced by the emergence of new meanings and the existence of etymological doublets aventurismo and aventurerismo in the language.

These words’ usage contexts attest to the fact that the doublets are not absolute synonyms. The basic categories of concept’s primary prototypal core, verbalized by the word aventurismo, are aventura, turismo de aventura, acción ariesgada, suerte:

Ahora se parece más a un país encaminado hacia el autoritarismo fronteras adentro y que abraza el aventurismo (fortune/good luck) en el exterior  (El país. 1999. Web. 17 Junio 2017).

“Para recuperar la credibilidad, no se nos puede ver como un partido que andemos de aventuras, de aventurismo político (applying some political methods without previous experience and deep analysis to improve situation), no se nos puede ver como un partido de oportunismo... el PSOE tiene que tener calma y no debe tomarse nada con ansiedad ... es la garantía de la estabilidad”, ha recalcado Díaz (Noticias de RTVE. 2015. Web. 12 de Julio 2017).

While the basic categories of concept’s secondary prototype, verbalized by the word aventurerismo, are politics without a definite ideological position, a serious failure probability, individual’s political adventurous attitude with obvious purposes to obtain own benefit, irresponsible political behavior involving ill-defined or risky actions without intrinsic possibilities of success:

El aventurerismo de Aznar reside en la alianza establecida con el sector más agresivo y expansionista del hegemonismo (Diccionario electoral. 2006. Web. 4 Julio 2017).

... todo esto es perfectamente trasladable a la enconada “cuestión catalana”, en la que la incompetencia de unos se ha visto potenciada por el aventurerismo de otros (Harguinday. 2016. Web. 13 Julio 2017).

Conclusion. To sum up, we state that wide line of language means representing the concept aventurismo in the language world view of the 16^th-20^th centuries demonstrates its importance in the national conceptual sphere of Spain. Extensive associative connections and constant interaction with other key concepts of the Spanish national conceptual sphere have caused dynamic development of its meaningful and axiological components contributing, in their turn, to the formation of concept’s secondary prototypic core, so that not only meanings of lexical units changed, but also etymological doublets appeared in the language. The creation of forecasting models of investigated concept’s development based on the obtained results outlines a prospective of research.

References. 

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Надійшла до редакції 08 серпня 2017 року.