The image of the world through the prism of evaluative vocabulary: a trend studyThe image of the world through the prism of evaluative vocabulary: a trend study

The article describes the subjective semantics of the associative fields of two axiological stimuli and their role in the formation of the image of the world of Russian speakers of different ages in the trend mode. The associative fields “good” and “bad” are explored in the aspect of sociocultural changes in the axiological part of the image of the world among students of four generations. The research material was taken from the corresponding associative fields of the Dictionary of Associative Norms of the Russian Language ed. by A.A. Leontyev 1977), Russian Associative Dictionary ed. by Yu.N. Karaulov (2002), Russian regional associative base (Siberia and the Far East) ed. by I.V. Shaposhnikova 2008–2023), as well as the results of free associative experiments conducted by the authors in 2023. The purpose of the article is to analyze the associative fields of the stimuli good and bad in the indicated dictionaries and in the free associative experiment (2023); to identify common and different perceptions of these stimuli by native speakers of the Russian language from the point of view of time (the line of generational changes); determine the features of the subjective semantics of the vocabulary under study taking into account stable / dynamic components and the specifics of reflecting changes in the image of the world (the general line of trend research in semantics). The use of a trend approach to establish zones of constant response and possible reasons for changes in the subjective semantics of stimuli made it possible to consider the “associative profile” of images of consciousness that is “specific” to a given culture and language (N.V. Ufimtseva), to identify the sociocultural differences of respondents that influenced their image of the world, connect with changes in life and the historical situation in Russia, the expansion of civil liberties and freedom of speech, the transformation of interests, value guidelines, attitudes towards work and education, the active introduction of foreign cultural values, the spread of borrowed and slang vocabulary. It was found that some of these differences can be traced in dynamics from generation to generation and show in which direction the axiological part of the image of the world is changing.