Pronouns in a cognitive aspect
The questions raised in the paper concern the determination of the role and functions of language in man's cognitive activity. The subject under consideration includes the deictic words, primarily pronouns and their derivatives, whose uniqueness in organizing and conceptualizing the semantic field of language is no more disputed by anyone. The innovative approaches to the linguistic material suggested within the last two decades by the cognitive linguistics make it possible to connect the semantics of pronominal words with the conceptual sphere of man's speech behavior. In the author's opinion, deictic systems play an important role in the process of understanding the outer world by man; they serve as links that connect the semantic, semiotic and conceptual fields in the communicative and cognitive activities of linguo-cultural communities; they also take part in the creation of a national linguistic picture of the world.