ON THE LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL INTERPRETATION OF THE IDENTITY PROBLEM

The article shows that one of the most important concepts of modern humanities is identity. In the course of the study the author makes an attempt of linguistic and cultural comprehension of identity, highlights the key problems in the study of identity and outlines ways to address them. The article defines that identity includes self-perception, self-understanding. The essence of identity lies in the identity of the explanation of the world, reflection on reality, ways and means of their implementation. Identity is associated with the search for an answer to the question, who am I / we?, which determines the essence of the identification process, that is, categorization based on mental filters: own / alien, mine / not mine, near / far, understandable / incomprehensible, acceptable / unacceptable. When solving the problem of types of identity, it is necessary to take into account the nature of the subject of culture. Depending on the degree of generalization of ideas about the subject, we can talk about individual, social, regional, cultural and other types of identity. The study of the mental aspects of identity is associated with the description of the conceptual sphere of culture. The symbolic dimension of identity is made up of culture metalanguage, which includes sets of culturally labelled signs, the core of which consists of symbols, standards, amulets, measures, emblems, brands. The manifestation of identity takes place in the verbal texts of culture. The author determines that it is necessary for a culture to declare its identity. Identity participates in the formation of the sign-cognitive base of the linguistic and cultural community, which includes thesaurus of culture and precedent texts. The thesaurus includes ideas, norms, prohibitions, attitudes, stereotypes. The cultural subject uses the set of cultural texts defined by identity in typical situations. The article points out the need to comprehend the boundaries of identity.