The Linguistic Representation of the Concept of PATRIOTISM in the Modern Russian Language Consciousness (on the Basis of Data from an Associative Chain Experiment)

ABSTRACT The article presents the procedure and results of a linguistic experimental study of the cognitive characteristics underlying basic ideas about patriotism in the modern Russian language consciousness as identified by the author from previous studies of the semantic content of the concept of PATRIOTISM in accordance with language data. The purpose of the study is to verify the data that was obtained as a result of an analysis of language and textual material as well as to clarify the specific features of how the concept of PATRIOTISM is embodied in the consciousness of modern Russian speakers. The study is based on language data obtained from an associative chain experiment (associations of the word stimulus “patriotism”) that was conducted by the author and involved a sample of 100 respondents. The methodological basis of the study consists of the theoretical foundations and principles for analyzing the “language of national culture” that have been developed by modern Russian sociolinguistics within the framework of the cognitive-oriented anthropocentric paradigm proposed by the modern humanities. The study borrows methods from modern conceptual analysis as well as methods that are used to conduct associative chain experiments. As a result, we were able to verify and clarify the current semantic content of the concept of PATRIOTISM, including 17 cognitive characteristics, within the national conceptual space. The main results of the study can be used when drafting teaching and classroom guidelines and lesson plans as well as in the practice of teaching Russian as a foreign language. They can also be applied in compiling new types of dictionaries, including dictionaries of concepts and thesauri of sociolinguistics.