About the "Slavofraz" conference
Slavofraz 2016: Phraseology and (naive) psychology
April 7 - 10, 2016
The conference will examine how linguistic and thus naive aspects of mental processes are reflected in Slavic phraseology (in the broadest sense, from collocations to proverbs), i.e. how phraseologisms describe the mental state of people. We assume that the linguistic image of mental states is represented in phraseological units. The following questions are of interest:
- How are physiological processes associated with feelings reflected in phraseology (get on someone's nerves, butterflies in the stomach, freeze with fear, green with envy, pale as death)?
- How is the connection between sensory perception and thinking, judging, understanding, drawing conclusions expressed in phraseology (to look someone in the heart, to sense danger, to close one's eyes to something, to listen with one ear)?
- How are interpersonal relationships and oppositions, such as clever - stupid, emotional - rational, sensitive - insensitive, expressed in phraseology?
- Does naive psychology reflect scientific facts?
- Is it possible to use naïve psychology in first and second language acquisition?
This list is by no means exhaustive, and the conference will provide an opportunity to discuss further aspects. Analyses of individual Slavic languages (including dialects), comparative analyses between Slavic languages and between Slavic and non-Slavic languages are welcome.