The concept of ‘insularity’ as part of British worldview and its linguistic representation in British English

In modern research, works on peculiarities of various cultures and the connection between concepts and cultures are becoming more and more topical. The article deals with the concept of ‘insularity’ as part of British conceptual worldview. The purpose is to analyze the linguistic means representing the concept of ‘insularity’ in British English. British mentality inevitably finds its linguistic manifestation in British English. This statement is supported by examples from the British National Corpus (BNC) and the daily British newspaper The Guardian. In the course of research, the author analyzed dictionary definitions of lexemes that form an integral part of the concept in question. These lexical units are noted to carry negative connotations and be labeled ‘disapproving’ in authoritative monolingual dictionaries. The material was selected from the contexts presented in the BNC and The Guardian using the continuous sampling method. The main research methods employed are contextual, linguocognitive, and discourse analyses. The lexical items were taken from authoritative monolingual dictionaries, in which more than a half of the analyzed lexical units are marked as ‘disapproving’. Among these were words such as ‘complacent’, ‘philistine’, etc. Having analyzed the usage of the words ‘insular’, ‘insularity’, and other lexical units as used for characterization of the British, the author draws a conclusion about the role the concept of ‘insularity’ plays in shaping British conceptual worldview. Further research in the field would promote better understanding of British mentality and the peculiarities of British English.