The Concept in the Cognitive-Synergetic Aspect

IntroductionCurrently, the scientific community is in search of an interdisciplinary approach that would solve many very complex problems in various fields of science.

Many scientific branches borrow experience from each other, adapt methods to their goals and objectives, expand and supplement their own methodology.     Synergetics is a scientific discipline that offers a universal language of scientific cognition ^{[1, p.33; 2, p.83]}. Initially originated in the depths of natural sciences, synergetics begins to cover the fields of other sciences. Synergetics explores all natural phenomena in their unity - and therefore binds together the humanities, exact and natural sciences. It is the synergetic model that is used in the methods of various disciplines, including linguistics. Cognitive linguistics can go beyond its borders, turning to synergetics as a science, which allows it to create a multidimensional model of the evolution of the concept ^{[3, p.24; 4, p.367]}.

Main contentA concept is a complex, multidimensional, dynamic system, for which the means of existing theories are insufficient to describe.

Cognitive linguistics considers the concept as a cognitive tool that performs cognitive functions: organizes, interprets, captures information about the world in the form of words, symbols, idioms, texts. A great contribution to the development of cognitive linguistics was made by the works of such researchers as A. I. Sternin, S. G. Vorkachev, V. V. Krasnykh, E. S. Kubryakova, A. Y. Maslova, G. G. Molchanova, etc.

Classical methods and approaches to the study of the concept led to a crisis, because they did not contribute to the identification of new, deeper knowledge. Synergetic science offers a new universal methodology for studying open, nonlinear, fractal, dynamic, dissipative systems, which is the concept.

Synergetic thought integrates into different areas of linguistics, where it enriches established theories and techniques with new ideas.  The synergetic direction is one of the most dynamically developing in linguistics in the XXI century (L.V. Bronnik, V. A. Pishchalnikova, K. S. Baranov, R. G. Piotrovsky, E. V. Ponomarenko, K. I. Belousov, I. A. German, G. G. Moskalchuk, N. L. Myshkina, E. V. Bondarenko, etc.).

In the synergetic vision, the world appears as an unpredictable phenomenon that has static and unstable characteristics, shows tendencies to self-organization, the creation of more complex forms from simple ones ^{[5, 6]}. The subject of synergetics is the disclosure of the most uniform patterns of the emergence, organization and reorganization of space-time structures, self-organization of matter from chaos ^{[7, p. 105; 8]}.  Synergetics highlights such issues as the cause of evolution, the formation of macrosystems.  The theory of relativity is confirmed in synergetics: the mutual transformation of matter and energy; the creation of higher levels of organization by energy. The formation of new structures is possible under the condition of exchange with the environment and the influx of energy. Development in synergetics is the process of becoming qualitatively new, something that did not exist before and that the appearance of which was unpredictable.

The system is one of the concepts of synergetics. In synergetics, open, nonlinear, fractal systems are distinguished. The self-organizing system is open and far from equilibrium, where the formation of new structures occurs due to such phenomena as fluctuation, bifurcation, dissipation, attraction ^{[9, p. 313]}.

The term "concept" is interdisciplinary, is the object of research in many scientific fields of knowledge dealing with the problems of thinking and cognition. At the end of the XX century, the concept was mainly considered in the framework of cognitive research, where linguistic units are studied as conceptual structures.

Cognitive linguistics describes the complex nature of a concept. On the one hand, a concept is a unit of "mental or psychic resources" our consciousness, the "quantum of structured knowledge". The concept concentrates the knowledge of an individual, from simple, everyday (not always conscious) to rational, logical experience.  On the other hand, a concept is a linguistic unit, a means of naming objects of reality, through mental images. The word is a way of preserving, realizing, interpreting, encoding and transmitting information. On the third hand, a concept is a unit of speech that arises at the moment of a communicative act moving from the author to the recipient. "A special "semantic energy" is generated in speech, an implicit meaning that appears outside the will of the author, acting at the same time as a "semantic generator"" ^[10].

The concept is a single entity that manifests itself in various forms at different levels: mental, linguistic and speech. It circulates from one sphere to another, changing its essence and status, being modified. The concept exists in three hypostases: "in speech — concrete, in language — abstract, in conceptual systems — abstract."  The conceptual meaning is transformed from a mental entity (image) into a linguistic unit, from language it gets into speech reality (and back) ^[11].

A comprehensive description of the concept, at the junction of diachronic and synchronic approaches, thus presupposes the study of it in three aspects — conceptual, linguistic and speech. The complex essence of the concept determines the specifics of its development. By the development of the concept we understand the cycle of its movement from the emergence of a sensory image – its transformation – designations in language – use in speech – further comprehension and interpretation. The movement and strengthening of the concept is a circular transition from one level to another: mental sphere ? language sphere ? speech sphere ^[12].

The concept initially appears in the mental sphere in the form of a visual image as a result of sensory perception of the surrounding world. Perception is the primary allocation of information from an endless stream. A person observes various forms of matter in the external environment. He contacts "certain "thickenings" of matter, "bundles of signs", "clusters of information" and other groupings of properties in the natural phenomena themselves" ^[13]. Considered the most "irrefutable facts" about reality, those that are directly perceived by the senses: different forms of matter, sounds, tastes, tactile sensations, etc.

Perception is not a simple registration of sensory stimuli, but a complex and complex work of the senses, which includes a number of sensory operations: comparison, evaluation, combining data about objects, their qualities and sides. As a result, an integral dynamic formation (perceptual complex) is formed: a picture, a representation together with an assessment, an attitude, an attitude, a perceptual need ^[13].  

Primary images arise from the need for an individual to adapt to the environment, which requires continuous adaptation to situations and regulation of behavior. Sensory concepts have direct analogs in reality. These include: concepts of space, movement in space, localization of an object in space, concepts of an object and its parts, concepts of attributes of objects, etc. These concepts belong to the simplest elements of the conceptual structure and are universal.

Initially, the concept exists in the mental domain in the form of "semantic energy", "quantum of information" outside the form, outside the word. Human thinking is carried out in a non-verbal form, with the help of non-verbal object-shaped codes: schemes, images, olfactory, tactile imprints of reality, kinetic impulses, etc. ^[14]. The concept strives for its embodiment, formality.

The concept is "wrapped", "packed" into a language sign and included in the lexical system of a particular natural language. The concept is denoted by a word, otherwise its existence is impossible. The name of a concept is a linguistic sign that most fully conveys its essence. A language sign denotes a thing, a real object in a real or fictional world. But at the same time, the word does not represent the object itself, but the thought of the object (a cognitive product of consciousness) ^[14]. The word is a means of accessing the conceptual meaning, but at the same time it does not fully represent the concept, but conveys several basic conceptual features.

With the advent of new realities, new knowledge about reality, concepts, meanings, signification in the language requires. First of all, a person in his life activity proceeds from his urgent needs, desires and interests. In consciousness, through language, concepts are fixed with which he comes into contact in his practical activities and confirmed by his personal experience. The pragmatic factor also plays a role in the act of nomination, only those concepts that are communicatively relevant are subject to linguistic formalization ^{[15, p.16]}. The language embodies concepts that meet the internal needs of the individual – the desire to share information and emotions with other individuals, the need to communicate and explain something to the interlocutor, etc.

The concept indicated by the word is virtual, potential, actualized in speech. A concept is something abstract, a "bundle" of ideas, concepts, and knowledge. The concept is an "intangible", "vague" phenomenon, a "wandering", "mobile energy" that does not disappear anywhere and strives for embodiment. The concept, as an ideal object, has an unlimited volume, contains many variants of its designation and semantic shades. In communication, only some part of the conceptual content is objectified in various ways (lexical, phraseological, texts). 

In the communicative environment, the concept reveals many of its hidden meanings and relationships. The concept in speech is included in the associative-semantic chain of the generation of meanings, where one potential meaning is the cause of the emergence of another hidden meaning. Speech is an environment where the concept discovers new ways of interpretation, acquires a lot of connections and, "being accumulated, enters the language channel again." The infinite realization of the concept in speech triggers a kind of chain reaction of accumulation of implicative information. Each of its subsequent inclusion in the context activates its previous incarnation, and at the same time forms a more powerful context for a new inclusion, which in turn enhances its semantic potential.

The concept thus undergoes a multi-stage implication in speech, which leads to an increment of the implicit meaning. Each time, being organized in a new way in a communicative act, conceptual meanings are able to change the very matter of language. Moving along the chain of complex thought processes and embodiments, meaning is increasingly being dissected, detached from the concrete, striving for the highest degree of abstraction. As a result, the entire associative thematic chain appears in the form of a complex three-dimensional specific semantic pattern that exists in the form of "fields vibrating in both horizontal and vertical planes" ^{[15, p.16]}.

The concept can be considered from the point of view of synergetics, since it is considered an open, nonlinear, dissipative and dynamic system, therefore falls into the sphere of interests of synergetics. The concept evolves over time, acquires new properties under the influence of external factors, which indicates its ability to dissipate. The dissipativity of the concept is manifested in its ability to dissipate energy and information that is useless for its further development. This manifests itself in the loss of properties and attributes of the concept, no longer meeting the requirements of cognition and communication.

The process of dissipation is inextricably linked with the openness of the concept. The concept is constantly in a state of energy-informational exchange with the environment. The concept changes, expands in interaction with reality, becomes unstable. At the critical point of bifurcation, the concept recycles old, irrelevant energy into a new one that satisfies new needs. Exchange with the environment is a necessary condition for the development of the concept, because without the influx of new information, the concept fades. However, it is worth noting that openness is a relative characteristic of developing systems, an absolutely open system cannot be preserved and merges with the environment. Therefore, the sign of a real self-organization of the concept is its ability to evolve at the expense of its own potential.

Concept – fractal and recursive system. Recursion is "the complication and self–reproduction of the system according to the algorithm of its own unfolding by analogy", i.e. the process of "embedding a component into another component of the same kind" ^[16]. A fractal recursive system is inherently capable of "infinite unfolding and complication through self–repetition", as well as generating hierarchically similar and self-similar structures at different levels - fractals. There are many vivid examples of fractal structures known to everyone in nature, where small parts repeat the structure of larger ones, forming branched structures. The structures of trees and their branches, the nervous and circulatory systems that branch into smaller paths, snowflakes, etc. ^[16].

In fractal geometry, self-similar objects are objects whose component parts are similar to the whole. The evolving nature of a fractal is not just a space–time movement, but a self-movement directed inward. That is, at some levels of the fractal, "there may be a tree-like "expansion" of recursion not only in depth, but also in breadth" ^[17]. Fractal is always incomplete, is in a state of endless reproduction and deployment of new and new self–similar structures ^[18].

The concept produces itself through the same conceptualization and categorization procedures. The concept organizes and systematizes the world according to the principle of analogy and self-similarity. Conceptualization is a mental operation associated with the comprehension of information and the formation of concepts. Categorization is the process of dividing information and separating categories, using cognitive comparison procedures, establishing similarities and similarities, etc. Perception of information occurs on the principle of recursion, selectivity of signals from the external environment. Everything depends on the "usefulness" of the signals, the strengthening of the reaction occurs in favor of those that lead to the formation of new knowledge structures. It is worth noting that in order to determine the "usefulness" of incoming information, it is necessary to have an assumption about it. The initial signal (primary image) plays a system-forming function in the assimilation of information from the outside, which occurs on the basis of "previous mental operations". Faced with new realities, a person understands and interprets them on the basis of "initial information".  Thinking is thus self-contained ^[19].

The concept is "self-building" and is constructed according to a hierarchical principle - embedding some structures into others. The concept thus grows into a complex fractal system, where its components repeat the properties of the whole. The concept is the beginning of the movement of meaning and its final stage. The concept reproduces itself at every stage of development and in the continuous cycle of reincarnations constantly returns to its "global" meaning (concentrated energy), the "peak of abstract thought".  The concept resembles a funnel that captures more and more information from space, accumulates and compresses it in its narrow part. In the process of conceptualization, the information flow, controlled by mental operations, flows and concentrates at one point – the focus of information bundles and human experience. "Abstract thought" and "absolute truth" at the top of the concept "crystallizes" in the process of a multi-stage transition from one level to another. The concept is moving towards it, and having reached its limit, it begins a new path, since the truth is "incomprehensible" ^[12].

The concept is secretive, it "hides" behind all kinds of "forms", constantly "clothed" in an image, then in a concept, then in a symbol. "The energy of meaning, focused in the symbol, is again transformed into a semantic gene, initiating a new semantic development. The point of return in the conceptual circle cannot be identical to itself. It undergoes mental "splitting", forming at the same time a new conceptual turn, where it continues its evolutionary path at a qualitatively new level. The formation of a concept is understood as the formation of meaning from speech uses, through language structures, into conceptual systems." The conceptual meaning eventually takes the form of a vertically twisted spiral ^[12]. 

As we can see, the concept is a self-regulating system, as it accumulates its potential, it manages the process of self-organization. In synergetics, the point of "attraction of meanings" is called an attractor. In the most general sense, an attractor is a "stable fixed point", "area of orderliness", "invariant set", "prototype", "point of attraction", "goal of evolution", "final state".

The attractor is associated with the "secret" of memory, where the genetic control of the system takes place. The attractor is the point of interaction and fusion of the "past" of the system, what caused its occurrence, and the probable "future" of the system, what is being programmed. In this area, a hereditary program is being implemented that defines the "corridor of evolution" of the system. It is worth noting that these are relative boundaries, which "makes it possible to preserve identity and further increase the complexity of the system" ^[19]. Thus, "the information in the system is organized in the form of an "information pyramid", in which information about the entire previous evolution is rolled up in the form of a spiral" ^[20].

We see the action of the attractor in the process of deploying the concept in the semantic space, within certain boundaries established by the "semantic gene" ("embryo", "inner form of the word", "memory of the word"). It is this "semantic core" as a substitute for an indefinite set of phenomena of the same kind that generates a chain of germinating implicit meanings that together form the implicative potential of meaning. This is the stochastic nature of the meaning of the word, where "potential semantic energy, all the force that is able to be objectified in the future" is concentrated ^{[15, p. 4]}. The information received from the external environment "in all its accumulative power is a compressed semantic spring, which is minimal in content and global in volume" ^{[15, p. 4]}.

As we can see, the concept exhibits a "recursive", "spiral" evolutionary model. The concept illustrates the properties of polyvariance and nonlinearity. He is "forever branching out, going to innumerable options for the future." The concept moves from the mental domain to the linguistic sphere, then to the sphere of communication. After passing the circle of transformations, the concept returns to its starting point, only on another branch. In other words, alternative ways of development are emerging.

ConclusionHaving considered the development of the concept in the synergetic aspect, we come to the conclusion that the synergetic model is successfully superimposed on the process of self-organization of the concept, since it has the necessary systemic properties: openness, self-regulation, fractality, nonlinearity.

The synergetic direction provides limitless possibilities for describing the processes of the emergence of concepts, ways to improve them, the causes and mechanisms of their evolution. Thus, the goals that the researcher of this work faced were achieved, and the tasks were fulfilled.