CONCEPT SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE CONCEPTUAL SYSTEM OF THE ECOLOGICAL DISCOURSE

Abstract

The article deals with the structural-and-semantic characteristics of the concept SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT as one of the basic world outlook concepts of the modern global conceptual sphere. It is a complex, multi-layer mental unit that has a diversified mental space. The objectification of the concept is implemented on the extensive basis of international treaties, academic, and applied publications in traditional and electronic media. The content of the concept is characterized by a certain hierarchy and consists of the nuclear (the basic concept), near nuclear zone (the derived concepts of the first level), close periphery (the derived concepts of the second level), distant periphery (the derived concepts of the third level), and the outermost periphery or adjacent concepts. The basic concept SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT forms its nuclear; thus, a terminological word combination explicates the primary nomination of the concept. The near nuclear zone consists of the derived concepts of the first level that conceptualize the main cognitive characteristics of the basic concept, they are as follows: SUSTAIN (SUSTAINABLE), DEVELOP (DEVELOPMENT), COMMUNITY, ECONOMY, COMMUNITY CAPITAL, CARRYING CAPACITY, EQUITY. These concepts are marked by a considerable concept- forming potential: when combining with one another they form new derived concepts differentiating new notions and further building up the notional basis of the sustainable development concept. The following mechanism of enriching the basic component with new meanings has been observed: a content segment of the interpretative field of a concept gets further development and starts functioning as a new derived concept of the next level. The interpretative fields of the concepts of the second level intersect. The notions of the primary and final interpretative fields and their definitions are introduced. Some concepts of the near nuclear zone demonstrate a multi-module structure of the informative content: the modules of the derived concepts expand the cognitive characteristics and foster the further development of the key notions of the conceptual system forming cognitive chains from a narrower notion to a broader one. The derived forms of the concept SUSTAINABILITY (SUSTAINABLE, SUSTAINABLY, UNSUSTAINABLE, UNSUSTAINABLY) get evaluative meanings and create separate segments of the evaluative zone of the concept. Further perspectives of the research are connected with the complex analysis of the concept SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT as a coherent mental unit and the investigation of its macrostructure, it is also important to expand the language basis of the nominative field of the concept under research.