The Semantic Potential of Language and the Meaning of Intercultural Communication

The paper is devoted to the study of intercultural communication in the light of sematic potential of language. Being a semiotic form of reflecting the objective reality, language manifests itself as a means of expressing human subjectivity. The authors rely on interdisciplinary methodological strategy, combining philosophical reflection and linguistic approaches to the study of the linguistic structures' semantic functions. The research is based on the concepts by W. Humbolt, G. Shpet, K. Marx, M. Foucault, F. de Saussure, with particular attention given to the analysis of 'the sphere of inexpressible', introduced by M. Polanyi. Language is claimed to be the means of shaping subjective time. Attempts to comprehend the temporality are reflected in 'time metaphors', namely, the geometric time-metaphor, a time-flow metaphor, a circular-time metaphor. The article invokes the linguistic analysis of the functions of tense-aspect verbal forms in the English language. The authors justify the non-existence of universal language.