Verbal Aspect of Cultural Memory

The article is devoted to the study of verbal aspects of cultural memory. Being represented in mental and iconic dimensions, cultural memory is a property of culture that consists in value labelling, storage and transmission of information. Value labelling is carried out at the level of correlation of knowledge with the axiology of culture, its fixation in the meanings of linguistic elements. The major way for value labelling of an object of reality is the internal form of its nomination and the evaluative component of meaning. Storage presupposes the existence of some forms, material objects accumulating selected information that can be used for its transmission. The main verbal means of storing cultural memory include cultural connotation, certain types of linguocultural units – symbols and etalons. Cultural memory has a lay character. The signs accumulating memory embody linguocultural subjects. Memory is interpreted as a dialogue of various subjects of culture or subject's auto-communication. In the process of transmission, information can be transformed under the influence of the fact that the sender and the receiver have different codes. The main construct of cultural communication is the text generated by the previous generation and decoded in accordance with the current value system by the subsequent one. Texts can be replaced by indexical signs pointing to them or transformed into short lay memories having the form of storytelling. Cultural memory acts as a means of integrating generations and thus provides the identity of linguocultural community. Cultural memory is targeted, the transmitted information is directed only to familiar recipients with the expectation of its proper decoding. The development of every culture reflects the most important types of knowledge, which become the basis of cultural memory. The paper establishes that the universal is a mental block associated with the preservation of national-and-cultural identity.