The Formation and Development of Linguoculturology

Abstract

Linguoculturology emerged as an interdisciplinary field that studies the ways in which language preserves, represents, and transmits culturally significant meanings. Its formation was prepared by several earlier traditions, including ethnolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, cognitive linguistics, sociolinguistics, semiotics, and Cultural Linguistics. However, linguoculturology acquired its most recognizable disciplinary form within Russian and post-Soviet scholarship, where language began to be examined not only as a communicative system but also as a carrier of national mentality, cultural memory, value orientations, and symbolic codes. This article analyses the theoretical essence, formation stages, conceptual apparatus, and contemporary significance of linguoculturology. The research is based on a theoretical-analytical review of scholarly works retrieved through Scite, including studies on Cultural Linguistics, post-Soviet linguoculturology, anthropocentric linguistics, Uzbek linguistics, cultural conceptualisations, symbols, and national-cultural codes. The article argues that linguoculturology should not be reduced to an alternative name for Cultural Linguistics. Rather, it may be understood as a historically specific paradigm shaped by the anthropocentric turn in linguistics and by the post-Soviet tradition of studying culturally marked language units. Its key categories include linguocultureme, concept, national-cultural code, symbol, metaphor, phraseological unit, and paremial unit.