Old English terminological word-complexes in natural philosophic worldview (exemplified by terms of astronomy)

   The research focuses on the study of terminological word-complexes in Old English. Following a complex multidisciplinary approach, it addresses the linguistic evidence from the viewpoint of terminology, phraseology and linguoculturology. The article analyzes the role of terminological word- complexes from the Anglo-Saxon Manual of Astronomy in the semiotic segment of natural philosophy in the Pre-Norman linguistic community of England. The research is conducted mainly within the framework of linguocultural approach. The 27 terminological word-complexes under analysis belong to the sphere of theoretical and observational astronomy and are taken from the text of the 10^th century Anglo-Saxon Manual of Astronomy. The system of methods includes analysis of dictionary definitions, componential analysis, phraseological identification, contextual analysis, etc. The research proceeds from the assumption that Old English astronomic terms subsume culturally significant information on the Early Medieval prescientific worldview. Most terms are substantive phrases denoting heavenly bodies and their characteristics, peculiarities of the Universe’s physical structure, and events of the astronomic calendar. A number of inherent characteristics, such as recurrence of use and metaphoric transformation of the components’ semantics allow for treating the terminological word-complexes as phraseological entities. The entirety of word-complexes falls into two groups of word-combinations of idiomatic and phraseomatiс type. The research consecutively puts to scrutiny the terminological word-complexes verbalizing the concepts ‘heavenly body’, ‘outer space’, and ‘orbital rotation’. Attention is paid to the volume and character of culturally significant information conveyed by the astronomical terms in context and demonstrating the natural philosophical interpretation of the physical world structure as different from the modern scientific views. A conclusion is made that further research of phraseologically bound terminological word-complexes pertaining to various spheres of knowledge is needed to reconstruct the complete picture of natural philosophic worldview for the benefit of phraseology, terminology, linguoculturology and history of English.

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