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Slovo.ru: Baltic accent

2017 Vol. 8 №4

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Proskurina A.

Linguocultural Transfer: Memplexes in the Anglo-Saxon Tradition

DOI
10.5922/2225-5346-2017-4-8
Pages
91-100
linguocultural transfer non-genetic information memes meme complexes

Abstract

This article considers information transfer in time and space. Following the scientific ideas of the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, the author draws a parallel between ideas and the evolution of genes. Such a parallel is represented by a cultural replicator — the meme, which affects the preservation of an individual’s ideas. The process of copying and transferring non-genetic information in time and space is never perfect. Mutations occur in replicator populations. The imperfect linguocultural transfer has contributed to the emergence of a wide range of religious movements, schools of thoughts, etc. This article shows that the theory of linguistic cultural transfer can be considered and described from the perspectives of cultural matrices and of memes (meme complexes). The meme theory of religion and the disappearance of religious components in the modern designation of animals from the Old English bestiary are quoted as cases of reinterpreting the values of one culture in the tradition of another.

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