THE REPRESENTATION OF THE SEMANTIC FIELD ‘AGGRESSION’

Abstract

The paper is dedicated to the definition of the semantic content of the lexeme ‘aggression’ on the basis of the comparative study of its dictionary definitions, the associative field and the discourse in the network. The purpose of the research is to determine the semantic content of the lexeme ‘aggression’ on the basis of the comparative analysis of its dictionary definitions and associative field. The main tasks specified: 1) to form the lexical-semantic field of the lexeme ‘aggression’ on the basis of the dictionary definitions; 2) to develop the associative field of the lexeme-stimulus ‘aggression’ based on the based on the results of the associative experiment; 3) to expand the developed field structure according to the comparative analysis of the formed fields; 4) to clarify the structure of the lexical-semantic field ‘aggression’ using the material of the social media texts. The object of the research is the semantic content of the lexeme ‘aggression’, and the subject is the lexico-semantic and associative fields of the said lexeme. Lexicographic sources, the associative experiment and the Ukrainian-speaking segment of the social network Facebook as of 2021 serve as the main source base of the study. At the first stage, the lexicographic sources were analyzed, and it was discovered that the interpretation of aggression as an armed attack of one state towards another is primary. However, modern dictionaries extend the meaning of this lexeme to the area of human relationships and the environment. It was established that the physical component of the concept of aggression prevails in the dictionaries of synonyms, while the lexeme-stimulus ‘aggression’ isn’t present in the associative dictionaries. Taking this into account, the core and the periphery of the lexical-semantic field ‘aggression’ were defined. At the second stage, a linguistic associative experiment was carried out. The experiment involved 90 people, a total of 90 responses to the stimulus ‘aggression’ were obtained, 44 of which were unique. Based on those, the core and the periphery of the associative field ‘aggression’ were developed, taking into account the criteria of non-random association. At the third stage, the lexical-semantic and the associative fields were compared, and it was discovered that the dictionary definitions of the lexeme ‘aggression’ only partially correlate with the resulting associates. At the final stage, the discourse in the social networks was analyzed. Based on the comparative analysis of the vocabulary definitions, the associative experiment and the analysis of the social media texts, seven main lexical-semantic groups were identified, forming the lexical-semantic field of ‘aggression’: "Feelings", "Manifestation of feelings", "State of hostility", "Violent act", "Object of aggression", "Aggressor", "Colors". The proposed structure is subjective, therefore the improvement of the given lexical-semantic field is considered the next top priority.