The Value of “Loyalty/Devotion” in English and Arabic Linguocultures: a Cross-Cultural Corpus Analysis

Introduction. The relevance of this study stems from linguistic interest in the cross-cultural description of conceptual value formations, including those of a universal nature, such as moral and ethical values. The novelty of this study lies in its identification of the culturally specific content of the value of "Loyalty/Devotion" in Arabic and English cultures.

Methodology and sources. The study utilized corpus linguistics and interpretive discourse analysis. The empirical basis for the study was the Leeds Corpus of Contemporary Arabic; the English corpora COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English); The British National Corpus (BNC1994; BNC2014) includes texts of various genres. Corpus methods were used to identify the frequency of lexical units representing the concept, describe their collocation profile, analyze contextual meanings, and define a cognitive-propositional model of value. Interpreting the results in the context of Max Weber's theory of social action revealed value implications reflecting behavior patterns characteristic of different linguistic cultures.

Results and discussion. It was established that in English linguistic culture, devotion/loyalty is correlated with Weber's goal-oriented rationality, is pragmatically determined, and is oriented toward an external demonstration of commitment, expressed through specific actions and compliance with institutional rules, norms, and laws. In the Arabic linguistic culture, which is oriented toward value-based and rational action, loyalty/devotion is based on intrinsic motivation and a sense of duty, which determine the value orientations of members of the discourse community.

Conclusion. The proposed methodology can be used in the analysis of other moral and ethical values in terms of their content and discursive-textual processing, as well as in the cross-cultural study of values to identify their universal and specific features. 

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