Abstract
The article is devoted to the analysis of the ethnocultural specifics of the functioning of the concept ‘face’, as a carrier of special meanings, determined by the somatic code of the Chinese linguoculture. The results of the study show that the interpretative field of the concept “face” in the Chinese language consciousness is extensively represented by a set of mental and evaluative stereotypical judgments containing differently valued predications and belonging to different cognitive layers of this concept. The analysis of lexicographic definitions, the results of the associative experiment and the social survey demonstrate that the characteristic feature of the language objectification of the elements in the interpretation field is the extensive representation of the concept ‘face’ with the active involvement of language arsenal not including key lexemes. The examined linguistic material shows that the concept ‘face’ does not have prominent gender features, though having an age specific. The ‘face’ being the key concept of the somatic code of Chinese culture possesses not only general cultural, but also general linguistic properties, which are enshrined in the lexical-semantic system of the Chinese language with symbolic meanings. The results of the associative experiment clearly demonstrate that ‘face’ is not only universal but also culturally conditioned concept: Knowledge, enshrined in the lexical foundation of the national language, leaves an imprint on the perception of the world of Chinese speakers and directly affects the quality of the communicative processes. This fact allows the author to assert that the concept of face is the key mental formation of Chinese linguoculture.