Correlation of the semantic relations in the semantic and associative fields (based on the material of the english language)

Abstract

The article presents a comparative analysis of diverse semantic relations fixed in the associative and semantic fields of “bakery items” in English. The associative field was modeled on the basis of 5,000 reactions obtained by the author from English native speakers during a free associative experiment. The semantic field was built on the basis of lexicographic data by explicating the components of meanings of the reference group of widely used names of bakery items and isolating the corresponding lexical units from the dictionary. In the semantic field, three types of relations were identified: syntagmatic (51.2 %), paradigmatic (43.1 %) and thematic relations (5.7 %). It was established that the associative field differs in the number of relations (quote (8 %), phonetic (0.5 %) and derivational (0.5 %) relations have been fixed) and in their hierarchy. According to the frequency criterion, the thematic type of relations (extralinguistic in its essence) was recorded in the first place (40 %). It is followed by syntagmatic (26 %), paradigmatic (25 %) and quote (8 %) relations. The degree of correlation of associative relations between lexical units present in linguistic consciousness with systemic relations allocated in the lexical sphere as a fragment of the dictionary has been revealed and described. It has been established that as a result of modeling the semantic field it is possible to determine the structural framework of the associative model, while the construction and analysis of the associative field makes it possible to detect semantic relations relevant in the minds of language speakers and thus build an appropriate hierarchy.