Language Motivation as a Manifestation of Biased Cognition: Analyzing Signs Denoting a Result of an Object’s Position Shift in Russian and Chinese

Introduction. The article demonstrates the logical vulnerability of the opinion that ‘language categorizes the world in different ways’, and considers the existing idea of language motivation as interrelation and interdependence of various phenomena — and as proof of inseparability of the cognizer, what can/is to be cognized, and what has been cognized. Goals. Based on the fact that the common beginning of cognition for various linguistic collectives is neither some objective external world nor the inner world of a person, but rather the presence of the cognitive ability inherent in all humankind, the work articulates and tests a hypothesis that cognitive bias be a predetermining factor of linguistic categorization and incomplete interlanguage equivalence. Materials and methods. The paper provides comparative insights into groups of situations involving the use of signs denoting a result of an object’s position shift in Russian and Chinese. The main research method is deduction. Results. The non-equivalence of the considered signs from the two languages is predetermined by that Russian is characterized by the strategy of a person who ACTS and concentrates directly on the dynamics of his/her movement. The signs associated with the preliminary assessment of the initial arrangement of objects and the selection of an appropriate direction of movement become significant. Chinese is dominated by the strategy of a person who OBSERVES, which includes the latter’s own position in the coordinate system and shows much more interest in the relocated object’s position to the subject proper. The two strategies can be sometimes compatible and sometimes contradictory. Accordingly, there is both a zone of conditional equivalence and a zone of lacunarity for the examined signs. Conclusions. The paper shows that language categorizes no world independent of a person but rather — the person’s experience from interacting with the environment. And since at the moment of interaction with the environment a person necessarily performs a certain role, cognitive bias proves inevitable. Awareness of the features underlying linguistic categorization depends on the role of the individual in this interaction.

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