Associative connections in the linguistic consciousness of ukrainians and poles: the world after 24.02.2022

The war causes a lot of reflection, often unsaid, and leaves great injuries in the heart of Ukrainians. Everyone experiences war has different physical, mental, and emotional experiences. A person in such conditions becomes particularly vulnerable to words, fuzzy boundaries of word meanings can cause misunderstandings. How war changes consciousness, what key concepts are included in the picture of the world of both peoples – Ukrainians and Poles, what is common has become the object of our research. In this study, the Polish picture of the world is revealed through the prism of the Ukrainian one, since the words-incentives proposed for the survey are key realities for the Ukrainian reality in its fight against the Russian aggressor. The aim of the study is to analyze the associative fields of words-stimuli of Ukrainians and Poles, which are the core of associative fields. The research methodology and the choice of concepts for conducting a free associative experiment were formed on the basis of content analysis and a pilot survey of a group of students. This made it possible to conclude a stimulus list containing 50 concepts. Among them are such words as: SECURITY, DONATE, PEACE, LANGUAGE, AIR ALERT, PEACE, SHELTER, FREEDOM, etc. Since the data of the associative experiment are formed on the basis of a mass free associative experiment, it can be considered as a reliable source of linguistic, sociological and cultural information. Analysis of the associative fields of two groups of respondents showed that out of 50 associative fields, 13 have a common core for such words-stimuli as: 24.04, SUITCASE (reaction trip), WAR (death), VOLUNTEER (help), GAS (heat), DONATE (help), SAVING (money), THREAT, INFORMATION, СALM (peace), SIREN, FRONT, SHELTER (security). The сore reaction fear is caused by such words-stimuli as THREAT, MOBILIZATION, OCCUPATION, CAPTIVITY in the Ukrainian group of respondents and in the Polish group to the words-stimuli THREAT and AIR ALERT. War as the core of the associative meaning is for the stimuli FRONT and FEBRUARY 24 for Ukrainians and for the words-stimuli "CLOSE THE SKY", OCCUPATION, FLAG OF UKRAINE, FRONT and FEBRUARY 24 for Poles.