Associative experiment as a means of cognition of the mental organization of the aromatic subframe

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the results of a free associative experiment conducted with English native speakers, which highlighted the structure of the aromatonymic associative field. The purpose of the article is to understand the essence of the structure of the aromatonymic associative field. English aromatonyms serve as the object of the study, their associative fields are the subject of the study. The material of the study was the results of a survey of 57 informants, the total number of responses provided- 842. In this study, a free associative experiment was used, where the informants respond using any verbal reaction to words- stimuli. To conduct the associative experiment, fifteen aromatonyms-stimuli were selected with the help of the method of representative and homogeneous sampling from various sources, which accurately simulate both the qualitative and quantitative properties of the linguistic phenomena studied. The source database included promotional materials devoted to perfumes, trade catalogs, analytical sites, ratings, etc. We tried to cover various classes of aromatonyms: those that are popular now and in the old days, niche perfumes, creolized aromatonyms, simple, complex and composite aromatonyms with different word-building structures. The results of the free associative experiment made it possible to compose an associative dictionary of aromatonyms, thanks to which it was possible to find out the organization of concepts that correspond to a certain class of names in the mental lexicon of English native speakers. Each dictionary entry contains the associations presented by informants according to their frequency, with full preservation of their exponents in the author's form. Proprietary lemmas, that is, different forms of the same onym, or appellative lemmas were taken into account in establishing the semantic gestalts of the corresponding stimuli.