4. Literature to use:

1. Барановский Л.С., Козикис Д.Д. Страноведение. Великобритания: Учеб. пособие. – Мн.: Выш. шк., 1990. – 343 с.

2. Гапонів А.Б., Возна М.О. Лінгвокраїнознавство. Англомовні країни. Підручник для студентів та викладачів вищих навчальних закладів. – Вінниця: НОВА КНИГА, 2005. – 464 с.

3. The English-speaking world / Упоряд.: М.Россоха. – Тернопіль, 1996. – 161 с.

4. National British Icons // http://cultureonline.gov.uk/projects/icons.asp

Material to use for the seminar

What is a keyword? A keyword in the sense the term acquired in the fields of Library Science and Internet search engines, is, as the key metaphor suggests, a means of access to digitally stored information. Apparently, keywords can be used so because they are in some sense representative of a whole body of knowledge to which they are associated. Likewise, the notion of cultural keywords, which introduces a further layer of metaphor, suggests the, admittedly vague, idea of words that are particularly revealing of a culture that can give access to the inner workings of a culture as a whole, to its fundamental beliefs, values, institutions and customs. In short, to explain a culture.

Key Words and Concepts. When studying cultural artefacts, media, and institutions, it is important to discern the key words and concepts that characterize the particular artefacts/media/institutions in question. In other words, what are the main issues at stake?

A keyword is a word or concept with special significance, in particular any word used as the key to a code or used in a reference work to link to other words or other information.

1. Keyword (computer programming), an identifier in a computer language that indicates a specific command

2. Keyword (linguistics), a word that occurs with unexpected frequency in a text

3. Keyword (Internet search), a word used to find useful results in internet searches

4. Smart keyword, shortcut for bookmarks in Firefox

Non-computer sense:

1. Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society - a 1976 book discussing English words and their cultural use

2. List of Magic: The Gathering keywords

Cultural keywords

It is common today to find the notion of keyword used in various research domains and for different purposes, from computer science to cultural studies, linguistic anthropology and argumentation. This use is so widespread that the notion itself is often taken for granted, also because it is easily understood at an intuitive level. Nonetheless it seems important to try to define the notion of keyword and give some criteria for the discovery of keywords in texts.

Keywords will be looked at from a cultural point of view, reconstructing three main research perspectives on the subject. In these studies keywords are used as tools that can give insights into cultures, societies or historical periods. A review of these studies will enable us to retrace a general definition of cultural keywords, to find some indications as to how they can be recovered and analysed in texts, and to outline some further lines of research.

Cultural keywords (i.e. words that are particularly revealing of the values of a culture).

Britain, as a contested cultural phenomenon. Writing on, or about Britain essentially means constructing an image of Britain. An image, or representation stands for something; it portrays, depicts in a specific way. It symbolises. At a deeper, analytical level we can speak of representation in the same way as we can talk about the term discourse: as a structured domain of language-use that is unified by common assumptions.

T.S. Eliot’s conservative cultural notes focus on a people engaged in a range of cultural practices, including Derby Day, the Henley Regatta, the Twelfth of August, a Cup Final, nineteenth-centu8ry Gothic Churches and the Music of Elgar. This list can be expanded and modernised to include the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Notting Hill Carnival, St. Patrick’s Day, the Eisteddfod and the Muslim festival of Eid. Modern, multicultural Britain, then, is more than Shakespeare, roast beef, warm beer, bangers-and-mash, and the pub. New Britannia consists of more than what Orwell called a nation of flower lovers, stamp-collectors, crossword-puzzle fans, do-it-yourself fanatics and television addicts. Although modern Britain is still the land of the Royal family, Cream teas, British breakfast and landladies, but it is also the land of Balti curry, of Danish lager, American jeans and Korean trainers