MODELLING AS A METHOD OF COGNITION IN THE HUMANITIESMODELLING AS A METHOD OF COGNITION IN THE HUMANITIES
Authors:   Dnipro University of Technology, Ukraine, Boiko Yana 
Published: May 2022

Modelling of physical objects, processes, and phenomena, i.e. their study by creating their copies (models), which reproduce their characteristic properties, is a powerful tool used by researchers while studying the systems of different nature. The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the genesis of modelling as an effective method of cognition in the framework of the anthropocentric paradigm of research. The solution of such research problems determines the logic of the presentation of the studied material in the paper: systematisation of achievements in the theory and practice of modelling as a universal tool of human thinking and a means of research; development of taxonomy of models in research; theoretical substantiation of modelling in the context of heuristic possibilities of the linguistic paradigm. Methodology of the study is based on general research methods of analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, observation and abstraction, which are used to systematise achievements in the theory and practice of modelling systems of different nature in the humanities and, in particular, in linguistics. Results of the survey showed that modelling in the humanities has been actively used during the last decade of the 20th century. The model in the humanities is understood as a tool that schematically represents objects, phenomena, and processes that are inaccessible to direct observation, and thus provides an idea of them. The development of taxonomy of models in research is carried out according to various criteria. In this study, models are classified according to the following parameters: object for modelling, classes of signs used in the model, the relationship of models with real objects or processes, the way of representation. Regardless of the type of model, the modelling process consists of four categories of activities, namely construction, study, verification, and use, referred to as the iteration process. In linguistics, the widespread use of the modelling method is associated with the emergence of mathematical linguistics in the 1950s and 1960s, although the term “model” was introduced by Z. Harris in 1944. Linguistic modelling has its own specific features. A linguistic model is both an artificially created construct that reproduces the properties of the phenomenon under study and a scheme that has the property of reproducibility. Practical implications. The construction of a linguistic model is not only one of the means of reflecting linguistic phenomena, but also an objective criterion for verifying the truth of language knowledge. Value/originality. The effectiveness of the modelling method, which creates opportunities for deeper knowledge of the studied objects, phenomena, and processes, encourages linguists to develop a variety of linguistic models that could solve practical problems of linguistics, namely, information retrieval, machine translation, natural language comprehension, extraction and localization of knowledge from the text, etc.