Associative Field and the Processes of Its Analysis (On the Example of the Stimulus Word “Oila” [“Family”])

Abstract

This article examines in detail the “associative field”, one of the key concepts of associative linguistics, together with the ways in which it is formed and the problems of its linguistic analysis, using the stimulus “oila” (“family”) as an example. In determining the associative field, the methods of the associative experiment and of practical analysis are used, and the influence of the participants’ individual and collective characteristics, gender and age factors, and socio-cultural processes on the formation of associative units is analyzed. The study shows the place of the associative field within the system of the semantic, grammatical, pragmatic, connotative and national-cultural features of a lexical unit. It also demonstrates the significance of the associative field for studying the relationship between language and thought and its role in the formation and expression of particular concepts in the human mind.