Duality and singularity in thinking and language (german-ukrainian phenomenon)

Work number - M 44 FILED

Author: BarkarU. Ya.

The work is presented by the Mykolayiv V.O.Sukhomlynsky National University

The purpose of the work. An important scientific problem of correlation between categories of duality and singularity in conceptual thinking of a person of the European mentality is solved, etymological and semantic features of the verbal realization of the numerals 'one' and 'two' in the German and Ukrainian languages are determined that are essential for solving the problem of origin of the concept of number and its common origin.

Scientific bases. In numerous proceedings the first numerals 'one' and 'two' are considered in the relationship as such which have common background. However, despite of a lot of works and studies in this area, there is still no unified vision of the primacy of one or the other number, so this problem remains unsolved. Our approach is based on understanding the primary binarity in the nature of quantitative units. Out of this binary concept the number 'one' as a part of it subsequently formed. Besides, the following methodology is developed, binary code of text material is displayed, the concept of pair formula is introduced into scientific use.

Scientific novelty of the research lies in the comparative study of complex verbal forms of implementation and in content of the numbers 'one' and 'two' in the large text material of the Ukrainian and German languages in different historical periods. In particular the following results are obtained: first the expression of thought in the dual German and Ukrainian folklore is investigated; the more frequent expression of dualism in ancient Ukrainian culture in contrast with German is proved; first the evidence of the singularity concept dominance in a modern man thinking, in contrast with the archaic concept of duality (based on thinking of children) is obtained; etymology of the numerals 'one', 'two', 'first', 'second' of the German and Ukrainian languages is refined and their common archetypes *k^wa, *ра / *ba, *k^wana, *k^wara, *tara are developed; the main tendencies and vectors of the number category development in general and in the German and Ukrainian languages in particular are described.

The results can be included in etymological dictionaries of both languages and serve as a basis for further research in the field of linguistics (in particular in etymology, semantics and semasiology and in such modern lines of research as lingvocognitology, cultural linguistics, psycholinguistics), as well as psychology and cultural studies.

Research results are reflected in 18 publications, including: 7 – in the specialized scientific journals, 3 – in international journals included in the scientometric basе.