Concept ‘Father’ In Linguistic Consciousness Of Russian, Kazakh And English People

Abstract

This research is sequel to the earlier research of universal basic concepts as exemplified in association experiment. Association experiment as a psycholinguistic method makes it possible to consider the concept constituents in multi-structural languages, to describe the field structure thereof and to bring light to the most cognitive attributes relevant to the modern consciousness and thereby to broaden knowledge about peculiarities of ethnic mentality. This paper presents the ‘father’ concept in Russian/Kazakh/English languages that is one of the most significant concepts. Goal of this article consists in the study of said concept content in linguistic consciousness of the Russians, Kazakhs and Englishmen. The tasks set to achieve this goal are as follows: conduct the association experiment on the given stimulus word, identify core and peripheral criteria of the concept, collate the fragments of linguistic consciousness core and describe the macro-component structure of the concept. In the popular mind, the ‘father’ concept is associated with the kinship, procreation, parenting process, and the model for father dominance in a family as well. It is traditional to attribute to a man the role of a family head, a breadwinner who provides his wife and children with everything necessary. In modern society, the great attention is paid to the father’s role in family because a father is the personality who should be an ideal of conduct and without whom the full-fledged parenting is impossible.