Cultural Linguistics in Dialogue

The untimely departure of Farzad Sharifian marks a potential turning point for Cultural Linguistics (CL). Will the framework be able to develop and inspire scholars without the personal involvement of its founder? A claim is made in this contribution that it stands a good chance of doing so, under the condition that its key notions be further operationalized. Therefore, CL must enter into dialogue with other frameworks. This chapter shows how Sharifian’s inventory of cultural conceptualizations (cultural categories, cultural schemas, and cultural metaphors) can be enhanced by incorporating the now well-recognized notion of cultural model, as well as the notions of cultural mindset and, especially, personal world, proposed by James Underhill. The analysis deals with the eco-conscious discourses of three individuals (Severn Cullis-Suzuki, Greta Thunberg, and George Monbiot). In terms of the content and message, their discourses are found to be largely overlapping, to the extent of being calibrated as a narrative, even discursive, cultural model. It is hypothesized that that model may also be translatable into other languages, as a cultural mindset (a cross-cultural Weltanschauung). At the same time, the three discourses are shown to be highly individualized at the level of metaphorical, metonymic, and metaphtonymic patterns, i.e., at the level of personal worlds. A skillful incorporation of these solutions into the inventory of cultural conceptualizations proposed in CL can enhance that framework in terms of precision and descriptive power.