Associative Way from Perception to Understanding: Associative Field vs Lexical-Semantic Field

Abstract: Nearly 1000 associative connections between words-stimuli of the economic area (capital, businessman, dumping etc.) and reactions to them obtained through the free associative experiment have been comprehensively analyzed in the article. Basic types of reactions have been characterized, their frequency ratios have been defined and the core-periphery relationship has been established. Associative fields and associative value of stimuli have been simulated. In the paper there was introduced the concept of lexical-semantic field by the author and the comparison of the lexical-semantic field and the associative field have been made. According to this procedure the similarities and differences between the linguistic picture of the world fixed in the dictionaries and the known concepts perception by modern native speakers have been delineated in this paper. In this way the dynamics of semantic changes has been revealed, i.e., the character of the linguistic picture transformation according to extra linguistic conditions. The methods of this work were manifold (free associative experiment, simulation, analysis of lexicographical definitions, elements of component analysis, comparative method and descriptive techniques such as continuous sampling, linguistic observation, generalization) which ensures the reliability of conclusions. Key words: associative experiment, stimulus, reaction, associative field, lexical-semantic field, linguistic world picture of the native speaker