PSYCHOLINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF ASSOCIATIVE FIELDS OF WORD-STIMULUS ДРУГ (FRIEND) ACCORDING TO THE DATA OF DIRECTED ASSOCIATIVE EXPERIMENTS

Abstract

Introduction The associative approach to the study of the meaning of the word is not
a new one in psycholinguistics, however, having received a positive assessment of leading scientists,
it still remains in the priority areas of semantics research next to the parametric, feature, prototype
and situational approaches. Scientists use it both for revealing the ethnocultural specificity of
the image of the world of representatives of various ethnoses, and for a comprehensive analysis
of the meaning of the word of a certain language. We used both perspectives of research in our
previous scientific studies. In this article we present the results of directed associative experiments,
that were held at the beginning of the XXI century in Ukraine. Purpose. The purpose of
the study is to reveal the structure of the associative value by the example of the associative fields
of the stimulus FRIEND in the Ukrainian language. Methods. The main methods of research
are descriptive, structural (component analysis), associative experiment (directed), “associative
gestalt”. Results. The psycholinguistic analysis demonstrates the structure of associative field
of the stimulus FRIEND, obtained as a result of conducting of the directed associative experiments
as for the selection of definitions and comparisons. The placement of zones and their filling show
the main association strategies that we consider as specific components leading in determining
of the associative meaning of the word, in the formation of images of the linguistic consciousness
of Ukrainian respondents. Conclusion The study of the meaning of the word on the material
of lexicographic sources and a number of associative experiments that were applied to a specific
word-stimulus is justified and necessary for the comprehensive identification of semantics.