COGNITIVE DIMENSION OF THE INTERCULTURAL SOMATIC SYMBOL (BASED ON FRENCH, ENGLISH, ITALIAN AND ROMANIAN LANGUAGES)

Summary. Contemporary linguistics coincides with the science that approaches the object ofstudy from a cognitive perspective, a fact that generates the conceptual reconsideration of linguisticnotions through different fields of knowledge and determines interest among researchers and scholarswith cognitive predilection.The necessity for this study is motivated by the interest in knowing the semantic-functional specificity of the intercultural somatic symbol, as well as the complex nature of the symbolic phenomenon that involves a multidimensional exegesis being the center of scientific interests common to different disciplines like psychology, philosophy, sociolinguistics, ethnolinguistics, pragmasemantics.The topicality of this investigation is set by the need to identify, distinguish and clarify the cognitive dimension of the somatic symbol, that influences its valence and weight including an analiticalstudy, in which interact: structural framework, situational segment, disciplinary shape, functionalaspect, componential configuration, cultural dimension, intercultural segment, cognitive-pragmaticsubdivision, and intensity frame of the somatic symbol.Key words: cognitive dimension, somatic symbol, pragmatic perspectives, contrastive analysis,semantic-functional aspects, sociocultural imagery.