The functioning of the Atomkraft nominative field vocabulary in German-language media against the background of nuclear power phase-out

Abstract

Statement of the problem. The semantic-cognitive method of language analysis as a means of studying concepts is of interest, because it allows one to identify the cognitive attributes of the concept on a wide and representative material. In the present study, the claimed method is presented in part regarding the analysis of lexicographic data and the cognitive interpretation of the contexts of the use of Atomkraftnominative field lexemes in German. The purpose of the article is to establish the cognitive features of the Atomkraft nominative field lexemes, codified in dictionaries and revealed during the analysis of the text corpus of publications in the media and blogs from 1980 to 2014, for the subsequent construction of a field model of the concept. Of particular interest is the effect of technological disasters in the nuclear energy sector that occurred during this period on the frequency of use and semantics of designated lexical units. Results. Based on the analysis of vocabulary entries, as well as the involvement of a representative text corpus, it is established that the dominant cognitive feature of the concept is “rejection of nuclear energy”, the most widely represented by the tokenAtomenergie. The general field structure of the concept, taking into account all nominative units, is as follows: the core is a sign of “abandonment of nuclear energy” (31%); the near periphery – “political aspects” and “dangers of nuclear power” (31%); the far periphery – “environmental issues” and “the future of nuclear power” (17%); the outer periphery – “nuclear power as one of the problems of our time” and “peaceful use of nuclear energy” (9%). Conclusion. The question of whether there is a correlation between the frequency of use of the lexical units of the field in question and the technological disasters occurring in the world continues to remain debatable. In the framework of the presented study, no reliable evidence of such a relationship was revealed. In the course of the work, it was found that the peak of the use of lexical units of the nominative field occurred in 2008–2009, when preparations for and pre-election campaigns were held in Germany, which suggests the greater influence of the political situation on the semantic content of the concept. This problem, however, requires further research on an expanded corpus of texts.