DESCRIPTION OF THE CONCEPT “OLDNESS” FROM THE CULTURAL LINGUISTICS’ POINT OF VIEW IN SPANISH AND RUSSIAN (BASED ON LEXICOGRAPHICAL SOURCES)

Abstract

Due to the increased attention of modern science to a man as a representative of culture, conceptual linguistics turned out to be one of the most promising directions in linguistics. The concept is a kind of semantic nest that covers a significant part of the language vocabulary. In this paper, the concept of old age in Spanish and Russian languages was studied on the basis of lexicographic sources. However, lexicographic sources are only an attempt to order a language integrated into the syncretic consciousness of a person for research purposes. The concepts are implemented in a language using semantic fields. The field theory is based on the idea of regularities and semantic links existence between linguistic units. The linguistic-cultural concept as a conventional unit can only be considered in cooperation with other concepts. The concept of old age was described in connection with the concepts of wisdom, stupidity, respect, neglect, death, life, fear, poverty and wealth.In both languages old age is understood as the phenomenon of predominantly negative nature, but with a higher percentage of units with improvement evaluation in Spanish. The obtained data will be tested in speech by the means of a free associative experiment. The research has an applied value in such related sciences as pedagogy, gerontology and sociology.