DOI: 10.12731/wsd-2015-5.8-8 UDC 81'42
EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE INDIvIDUAL
consciousness semantic transformation caused by film construct perception
vinnikova T.A.
The paper deals with the current issue of modern linguistics connected with meaning perception of the film construct (a movie) by the recipient. The subject value is determined by a variety of linguistics, psycholinguistics and semiotics challenges, the art work perception is associated with, as in film construct understudiness in general and its perception and understanding in particular; it is also determined by modern science attention to semiotically heterogeneous texts. The demand for conceptual explanation of film construct perception, the recognition of the piece of screen meaning-forming role are of the essential linguistics tasks. The paper has experimentally determined that film construct (movie), translating foreign meanings, can change cognitive structures of the recipient consciousness due to the semantic categories formation for new knowledge and concepts. Native culture knowledge and stereotypes are less likely to change as a result of the movie reception. Even with greater semantic intension and artistic significance of the text there is little change in the recipient conceptual system.
Keywords: text perception; recipient individual consciousness transformation.
экспериментальное исследование смысловой трансформации индивидуального сознания в результате рецепции кинотекста
винникова т.А.
В данной статье рассматривается один из актуальных вопросов современного языкознания, связанный с исследованием смыслового восприятия кинофильма реципиентом. Значимость темы определяется широким кругом проблем лингвистики, психолингвистики, семиотики, с которыми непосредственно связаны вопросы рецепции художественного произведения, а именно очевидной малоизученностью кинотекста в целом и механизмов его восприятия и понимания в частности, а также вниманием современной науки к семиотически неоднородным текстам. Необходимость концептуального объяснения специфики рецепции кинотекста, установление смысло-формирующей роли кинематографического произведения представляют собой актуальную лингвистическую задачу. В статье экспериментально устанавливается, что кинотекст, транслирующий инокультурные смыслы, способен изменить когнитивные структуры сознания реципиента за счет формирования смысловых категорий в отношении новых знаний и представлений. Знания и стереотипы родной культуры менее склонны к изменениям в результате рецепции кинотекста. Даже при условии большей смысло-
вой насыщенности и художественной значимости текста наблюдается незначительные изменения в концептуальной системы реципиента.
Ключевые слова: рецепция текста; изменения индивидуального сознания реципиента.
The main objective of the artistic communication is to transmit producer's meanings which are significant in her/his culture for the purpose of certain changes in the recipient semantic field. In the process of text perception the recipient decodes information through the various codes transmitted by the author. The result of decoding may be a change in the recipient consciousness structure. Thus, due to the perception and understanding processes there is an influence on the personal meanings of an individual and their subsequent transformation [1, p. 277].
It is assumed that the change in recipient personal meanings depends on her/his cognitive basis [2, p. 622], including the linguocul-tural knowledge and understanding, and is determined by film organization of semantic spaces expressed using by polycode signs (verbal / non-verbal, visual / auditory) [3, p. 224] .
This study suggests that foreign culture codes may have some impact on the recipient consciousness categorical structures by introducing new categories for the subject. As a result of the foreign culture text reception new personal meanings can be formed that fit into perceiving individual general categorical structure through which she/he perceives reality [4], [5]. So, new forms of relationship to reality are formed. The process of reception can be difficult, because it requires signs of a different cultural code transcoding into the recipient con-
ceptual system [6]. In case of perception and understanding of the text similar to the recipient culture it requires a different kind of work, affecting the categorical structure restructuring to overcome the established linguocultural stereotypes [7].
In order to analyze mental representation formation in the film construct recipient consciousness and the subsequent impact on the personal meanings of the recipient, it was necessary to identify recipient existing system of knowledge and understanding corresponding to the film content.
Reconstruction of the recipient mental representation can be performed by constructing a model of subjective semantic spaces, describing the results of the text perception processes [8, p. 30]. It allows to identify the decoding process in the recipient cognitive system and to track the changes in the structure of the individual consciousness that occur as a result of the text understanding and subsequent interpretation.
Two historical dramas, «The Queen» (2007) and «The Agony» (1974-1981) were selected as the study material as their genre specificity expected a potential film recipient to have a system of ideas about the events shown, historical characters and their relationship [9]. Film selection criterion was the demonstration of well-known political figures that played a significant role in the political life of their states. One of the central themes of both movies is the conflict relationship of these political figures (queen / monarch) with his people [10]. This semantic text dominant is the focus of the current experiment. An experimental study is to identify changes or stability in audience mental representations concerning relations «monarch - people».
The experiment is preceded by a pretest conducted in order to obtain basic semantic categories, or constructs, which will be used to evaluate the semantic text dominant [11, p. 34]. After watching the movie «The Queen» and «The Agony» two groups of 13 and 14 test persons (who are not participating in the subsequent experiment) are asked to describe the «monarch - people» relationships shown in the movies. They are to give 2-3 antonymous adjectives (bipolar oppositions) in according to the J. Kelly [12] personal constructs procedure. The most frequent oppositions are selected. The categories used by Ch. Osgood [13, p. 280] are added. A total of 30 oppositions stimuli are:
Test persons are 53 students of Omsk State University and Omsk State Technical University from the age of 20 to 24 [14], [15] . The experiment is carried out using the semantic differential procedure, followed by the data factor analysis [16, p. 11]. It helps to reveal a relatively small number of conceptual constructs and to model the recipient semantic space.
The experimental investigation is performed in three stages. In the first stage of «The Queen» movie experiment test persons are asked to assess the relationship between historical figures with people as a nation by antonymous categories. They use 7-point scale, where - 3 means maximum quality, standing in the list on the left, +3 means maximum quality, standing in the list on the right. The test persons are to assess the relationship for the following British political figures: the Queen Elizabeth II, her husband Prince Philip, Prince Charles, his late wife Princess Diana and Prime Minister Tony Blair. At the second stage a week later the test persons are proposed to watch «The Queen».
1. Unpleasant - pleasant
2. Calm - anxious
3. Sad - joyful
4. Stable - changeable
5. Shallow - deep
6. Sensless - meaningful
7. Light - difficult
8. Serene - tense
9. Angry - peacefull
10. Static - dynamic
11. Informal - formal
12. Weak - strong
13. Uncomfortable - comfortable
14. Apathetic - interested
15. Distrustful -trustful
16. Passionless - hearty
17. Hard - soft
18. Repulsive - attractive
19. Light-minded - serious
20. Rough - delicate
21. Unpredictable - predictable
22. Cruel - kind
23. Heavy - light
24. Uptight - free
25. Reserved - enthusiastic
26. Serious - ironic
27. Unceremonious - tactful
28. Simple - grandiloquent
29. Boring - interesting
30. Fierce - quiet
After watching they are asked the same task to assess the relationships. Now they assess not real political figures but movie characters. In the third stage, conducted a week after watching, the test persons repeat the first stage task. This three-stage experiment allows us to trace changes or stability occurring in the recipient cognitive structures. The movie was shown in the original language so less perceptual sensitivity could be expected [17].
The next step is the similar experiments with Russian historical drama «The Agony». All three stages of the experiment are similarly conducted with other 25 test persons. They are asked to assess the relationship between Russian people as a nation and last Russian Tsar
Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra and Rasputin. As in the previous part of the experiment, the survey is repeated after movie watching. The last stage also takes place a week after watching.
After conducting all steps individual data matrix in both test persons groups are summarized in a single group which is then subjected to the factor analysis procedure.
After the factor structures rotation the data are processed on vari-max method and three relatively independent, orthogonal factors (received the maximum factor weight load equals more than index 0.7) are found out. The first factor, F1, includes the 14th «apathetic - interested» scale (factor weight load = 0.707) and the 16th «passionless -hearty» scale (0.7408). It is interpreted as «affection». The second factor, F2, has the 8th «serene - tense» scale (weight equals 0.7) and is named «tension». The
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