Linguistic and Cultural Analysis of the Concept “People” in the Russian and English Language World Maps

The article is devoted to the study of the concept “people” on the material of Russian and English languages. The concept “people” as one of the most important phenomena of national consciousness occupies a special place in the language world map. The phenomenon “people” receives multiple and variable designation in the Russian and English language world maps, but this issue is not sufficiently considered in the linguistic literature. Russian and English language world maps have both universal and specific features. To study the linguistic means of expressing the concept “people”, the continuous sampling method, the method of dictionary definitions, and component analysis are used. As a result of the analysis, the concept “people”, characteristic of the Russian language world map, confirms the presence of more signs of commonality observed in language, manners, culture, economic relations, citizenship or subjection to the state, while in the English-language concept the criterion of commonality is limited only by a territorial feature.