Language and culture as regional identity indicators

The article studies regional discourse specifics in terms of reflecting the interaction between language and culture. This paper aims to study the regional identity of Crimean people, which, with all the ethnic diversity and cultural richness of the region, can be presented as a holistic, cohesive social unity. The aim is by using linguistics modelling to construct and analyze the meaning of image-frame, sequence-frame, background-frame as stable cognitive structures, and characterize language units of the associative fields «Language» and «Culture», obtained as the result of a free associative experiment. The relevance of the study is determined not only by the need to broaden the knowledge about people living on the Crimean Peninsula and identifying themselves as a linguacultural community, but also to determine factors that influence the formation of regional discourse. The research material is represented by the data of the free associative experiment, correlated with the data obtained from lexicographic sources. The novelty of the research is the study vector, aimed at systematizing knowledge on regional identity characteristic of a particular territory, namely, Crimea, and also in the integrated methodological approach that combines comparative, cultural and linguistical aspects. The results obtained show the specificity of cognitive experience of different members of the Crimean society. Taking into consideration that regional identity is a particular resource, which determines the successful development of a certain territory, the results of the study are valuable contribution to understanding the ideological diversity, social and cultural activities of Crimean people.