Markers of intellectual calibration in Russian language

The article is devoted to studying of means of representation of category intelligence inthe Russian language. Research is based on the following theoretical points: 1) categories are subdivided into two groups: with a clearboundary (the categories whose members are equal; e.g. triangular, quadrangular ,etc.) and with indistinct boundary (the categorieswhose members are not equal and they are distributed within the category as its most or least typical representatives; 2) categories with aclear boundary can allow contrasts and locate on poles as oppositions (legally - illegally, a man - a woman); 3) categories withindistinct boundary can have oppositions (clever - stupid / silly) but it does not exclude the opportunity to grade such categories. Thecategory of intelligence is vague and graded (i.e. not having a clear boundary and assuming gradation of its members), e.g.: the wisest -wise - the cleverest - clever - reasonable - judicious - sane - unreasonable - silly - the most stupid - stupid - the dullest - muddlehead,etc.). In Russian the sign of intellectual gradation is represented at such language levels as word-formative, morphological, lexical,phraseological and syntactical. Units of verbal representation of signs of intellectual gradation are distributed into two groups dependingon the degree of intensity of manifestation of this sign: 1- markers of actualization of sign of intellectuality in smaller or bigger degree,2 - markers of actualization in the highest or lowest degree (verbal markers are represented in the article). The graded categories areusually represented in the form of scale where members of the category are placed depending on the degree of intensity of manifestationof their typical features. The category of intelligence should be represented in the form of a vertical scale. There are many languageunits and cliches, which emphasize the property of ''verticality'', thus and reflecting one of the features of Russian mentality - toconsider many categories through the opposition ''the top - the bottom'' where the top is estimated positively and the bottom is estimatednegatively. Mental abilities are closely connected with two other spheres of human life: pragmatical and creative. So we mark out thepragmatical sphere (the sphere of application of mental abilities) and the creativity sphere (the sphere of creative abilities) along with thescale of intelligence representing possibilities of the person to carry out mental procedures. The components of three spheres ofmanifestation of signs of intelligence have axiological characteristics. But assessment does not correspond to gradation and degradationdegrees (the positive - to gradation degrees; the negative - to degradation degrees). Specifics features of national consciousness areshown in this assessment. Semantic components of the specified spheres are reflected in the diagram presented in the article.

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