Motivational language awareness is an object of comparative motivology

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the linguo-mental phenomenon of motivational language awareness as an object of comparative motivology, the science that studies the lexical phenomenon of word motivation based on the data of meta-linguistic consciousness of speakers of different languages. Motivational language awareness is regarded as a type of «mental operation» actualizing the ability of human consciousness to comprehend the connection between the sound form and meaning of a word to create a holistic view of the subject. The article rests on a brief history of the issue, presents the authors’ understanding of this phenomenon, and describes the research methods. As a result, the article provides a fragment of comparative-motivological analysis of the motivational language awareness of speakers of Turkic and Slavic languages from the perspective of comprehension strategies, explicating multiplicity of motivation (polymotivation). There are identified common and specific strategies of comprehension of the names of plants and birds by speakers of different languages, and peculiarities of their motivational language awareness are determined. Based on the study, the authors conclude that motivational language awareness is a universal property of human meta-linguistic
thinking, which determines the orientation of human consciousness towards understandability of the connection between the sound form and meaning of a word, which is expedient to be considered as an object of comparative motivology.