Pojęcie kulturemu w lingwokulturologii hiszpańskiej .......... 35

THE CONCEPT OF CULTUREME IN SPANISH LINGUO-CULTUROLOGY

The aim of this article is to describe the emergence, development, and conceptualization of the term cultureme within the field of Spanish linguo-culturology. The culturologist and anthropologist Fernando Poyatos defines a cultureme as any unit that carries symbolic meaning - an action, object, social habit, or phrase - recognized and interpreted by members of a specific cultural environment. This term has been adopted in translation studies, where it is regarded as a significant cultural element. However, its full meaning becomes evident only when compared to a corresponding component in another culture. The methodological foundations of Spanish linguo-culturology have been influenced by the work of Soviet scholars, including Viktor V. Vinogradov’s classification of fixed expressions, Yuri D. Apresjan’s research on lexical semantics, and Veronika N. Telia’s theoretical principles of linguo-culturology. Telia’s approach is based on the idea that language and culture are semiotic systems that continuously interact, with this interaction reflected particularly in fixed expressions. Spanish linguo-culturology pays special attention to the cultural semantics and motivation behind fixed expressions and metaphors. A cultureme is understood as a culturally determined extralinguistic symbol that serves as the basis for the formation of figurative language units. The meaning of these units can be grasped thanks to the widespread cultural familiarity with the symbol, which enables the decoding of both fixed and free word combinations. A cultureme that has acquired symbolic status may lose it as its relevance in society declines. However, historical culturemes are deliberately preserved in the collective memory of linguistic and cultural communities to maintain national identity and a sense of patriotism. Culturemes can be national or supranational. National culturemes reflect the worldview of a particular culture, while supranational culturemes are shared by at least two close - or even distant - cultures. The same symbol may exist as a cultureme across several cultural communities, but its meanings may only partially overlap, intersect, or even differ entirely. Thus, identifying culturemes and their meanings helps reveal both culture-specific values and universal ones recurring across various cultures.