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28Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences 11 (2011 4) 1526-1542
УДК 008:001.8
The Concept "State" in Local Culture of Krasnoyarsk: the Results of an Associative Experiment Based on the Method
"Series of Thematic Associations»
Alexandra A. Semyonova*
Siberian Federal University 79 Svobodny, Krasnoyarsk, 660041 Russia 1
Received 7.03.2011, received in revised form 15.06.2011, accepted 4.10.2011
The article presents the results of the investigation of the concept "State" in Russian culture of the XXIth century. The article is based on the terms of scientific research, according to which investigation of the concept is a multi-level process that includes elaboration of etymological material, history of the name of the concept in the national culture, content-analysis of significant texts that defined the development of the concept in the national culture, as well as applied research. The applied research of the concept may use the methods of psychological and social sciences - focus groups, in-depth interviews, experiments and other methods. This article presents the results of the last phase of the analysis of the concept of "State" in Russian culture. In this case the psycholinguistic method - an associative experiment - was used as applied techniques for the study of the concept. In 2009, in an experiment for understanding of the concept of "State" in modern Russian culture there were interviewed more than 200 students of Siberian Federal University, studying at humanitarian specialties: "Arts", "cultural studies", "jurisprudence", "philosophy", "Psychology", "foreign languages", "advertising". The article also describes the results of an experiment with the wordstimulus "State" ("gosudarstvo" in Russian) that were received in 1994 by the authors of the "Russian associative dictionary", which allows us to state the changes in the conceptual views on the State in the Russian mentality that have occurred within the fifteen-year period.
Moreover, in the text there were identified constants in the understanding of the "State" in Russian national culture and actual historic changes. For the analysis of the concept of "State" in Old Russian culture there was previously conducted etymological analysis ofthe name of the concept that appeared in Russian culture in the 14th century, as well as the study of letters of Tsar Joann Vasilyevich the Terrible to Prince Andrei Vasilyevich Kurbsky.
Keywords: methodology of cultural research, applied research in culture study, associative experiment, " series of thematic associations", concept, the concept of "State", the concept of "State" in Russian culture of the early 21st century, the concept of "State" in the culture of the Krasnoyarsk students.
The work is carried out with the financial support of the federal purpose oriented program «Scientific and scientific-pedagogic staff in innovative Russia for 2009-2013».
* Corresponding author E-mail address: sem_dobrianka@mail.ru
1 © Siberian Federal University. All rights reserved
Associative experiment as method
of investigation of cultural concepts
An associative experiment is one of the earliest methods of psychology in the late 19th century that first appeared in W. Wundt's psychological school of awareness. The main proposition of this school was that internal mental processes need to be manifested externally through a psychological experiment. School of psychology of consciousness was soon enough criticized by psychologists, and currently it is investigated only as an initial stage of development in the history of psychology, but an associative experiment proposed by the school as a method for studying the structures of human thinking is still relevant and even arouses growing interest of researchers, though the essence of the experiment in modern psychology is interpreted differently. An associative experiment is an actual psychological method used in both Western and Russian studies, applied in different fields of knowledge - Psycholinguistics, Sociology, even in the sphere of education for testing. Quite famous is the Word Association Test used in American education, where instead of selecting the right or wrong answers students are encouraged to write associations to the thematic words from the topic under study that have been formed in educational process. The facts are referred to by A. Nazarov and R. Sokolov in the article "Association and the Associative experiment: different fortunes", printed in the magazine "Questions of Psychology".1
The authors also provide a meaningful definition of the association that helps to understand why an associative experiment can be used in conceptual studies: "... the association is not original and is not the only mechanism of forming and functioning of psychic phenomena, but one of the final or intermediate forms of their existence that was formed as part of the practical activities of the individual. (...) ... the
association is a consequence and not the cause of education".2
"If the association is the result of acquired individual experience, then just like one can judge the reason by its consequence, we understand the opportunity, through at least some properties of the association to penetrate at least partly, in the properties of the inner experience that cannot be found in any other way, including the seemingly all-powerful genetic method ". It should be noted that this definition of the association by A.I. Nazarov and R.V, Sokolov corresponds to the definition of the concept proposed by L.A. Mikeshina, namely to the part where the concept is understood as "... a form in which subjective experience is processed by summing it up under certain categories and classes." It does not mean that the associations and the concepts are identical or similar notions, but it states that the association and the concepts overlap in the contents of the parameter of the accumulated human experience. Psychological methods to study the concepts as they are have not yet been formed, but in psychology and psycholinguistics there is the traditional method of studying associations. Therefore, by conducting the associative experiment it is possible to investigate the gained and actual human experience, reflecting the current situation of the existence of the concept.
Let us dwell on how to conduct an associative experiment, to which the book by the mentioned above authors A.I. Nazarov and R.V. Sokolov is devoted, as well as the textbook "Associative experiment in psychology" by T.V. Popova.
The basic structure of the associative experiment is the study ofthe most common for the society word-reactions (word-R) to a given wordstimulus (word-S). Psychologists have developed a number of different ways to get word-reactions (associations) and the directions of interpreting the results. There are a few observations on
the conduct of the associative experiment that increase its validity. Most valid are the word-reactions that occur within a short period of time in response to the word-stimulus. True, as shown by recent studies, which will be discussed later, the long response to the word- stimulus may be considered not only as a doubtful response, but also as an association less relevant for the person at the time of the experiment, from which you can also make valid inferences, provided the time during the experiment was recorded.
Initially we focus on the method of the associative experiment described by T. Popova, who distinguishes two types of experiment - the direct and indirect.
The direct associative experiment involves tasks that require the subject's linguistic knowledge, reliance on such notions as lexical meaning, synonyms, antonyms, sentence, etc. Another name for this experiment is a directed experiment. These methods include the following types of tasks: define the following concepts; continue the sentence, write the antonyms to the given words. The directed associative experiment allows us to evaluate the linguistic competence and the level of thinking of the individual through the analysis of his/her linguistic abilities. Direct methods also include various types of analytical tasks: to find the main parts of the sentence, to translate the sentence, answer the questions, ask questions, summarize the content of the text in one sentence.
Indirect methods of the associative experiment, as opposed to the direct ones, do not require at all or much less require conscious reactions. Among indirect methods there are distinguished groups of psycho-physiological, associative, game methods and techniques of the semantic differential. The undirected associative experiment is usually performed as an offer of a set of word-stimuli to which the subjects are asked to find spontaneous associations. In this case, the
most significant part of the work is the processing, classification and interpretation of the
associations, since the drafting of the frequency range of the associations is not sufficient to study the cultural concept. These features of the association experiment are recorded by T.V. Popova in the special section of the book "Associative experiment and linguistic consciousness of Russian native speakers": "One way to analyze the content of linguistic consciousness, which is the basis of human verbal activity, the human speech is a direct associative experiment, which allows you to identify the associative verbal network (AVN), the characteristic of the average Russian language speaker. The concept of AVN was proposed and actively developed by Y.N. Karaulov. In his view, AVN is a substrate of human language ability -a set of formal and conceptual relationships of a semantic character (idioms, words, proverbs, morphemes, etc.), existing in human consciousness. The elementary unit of the AVN is a pair of "stimulus-response." On the basis of the free associative experiment it is possible, comparing the answers-responses of subjects, to find the most frequent general reactions, which will allow the construction of the associative field of any language, including Russian. (...) The analysis of associations reveals concepts and stereotypes inherent in different nations. "5
It is noteworthy that the construction of associative fields of the Russian language was conducted by researchers Y.N. Karaulov, Y.A. Sorokin, E.F. Tarasov, N.V. Ufimtseva, G.A. Cherkasova, who compiled "Russian associative dictionary."6 With respect to the dictionary the following aspects of the associative studies should be noted:
1. "The subjects in the associative experiment were students of the I-IV courses from various universities (aged from 17 to 25) for whom Russian is the native tongue. (...) The bases for this
choice were two considerations. The first was the importance of higher education, and the second -predictions of the evolution of consciousness of the Russians, who in the next thirty years will determine the linguistic, spiritual and material life of society." 7 It can be concluded that for the associative experiment a selection of students is really suitable (note that associative experiments are generally characterized by a focus on students, which is also consistent with studies of some Western scholars who define students as an ideal sample group for cultural studies). Further, it is noteworthy that the associative experiments for the dictionary were carried out in the period from 1980 to 1990 in order to predict the future. This approach to the associative experiment suggests that the associations change over time. Thus, an associative experiment in the present situation will show the change in the understanding of words, since during the associative experiment conducted by the group of authors the associations had largely been formed by experience and reality of the Soviet era, while the current generation of students form their own associations based on a completely different historical experience.
2. The group of authors determined the number of persons needed to conduct a valid experiment - 100 people, as well as a sufficient number of stimuli-responses to produce an associative field - 100 of reactions (increase in the number of stimuli-responses results in too many personal associations of the subjects that are deliberately not taken into account while constructing national collective associative fields of language, as cultural research is focused on general knowledge, not individual). This information, obtained during the work on compiling the dictionary, was reported in the article by A.D. Palkin "Associative experiment as a way of cross-cultural study of images of consciousness."8 The group of authors continues to develop methods of interpretation
of the results of the associative experiment, in particular, its application to the analysis of national culture. Thus, it is clear that not even all of the 100 stimuli-responses can reveal some essential characteristics of national concepts, Y.N. Karaulov9 offers to stop at 7 + (-) 2 stable (most frequent) associations to the word, in which lies the important information about the cultural concept, and which together constitute the "semantic gestalt" (complete semantic image) of the concept. Ways of classifying the vast number of associations derived from the associative experiment are also described in the article by Kapitonova A.V. "Free associative experiment as a method of studying language awareness in psycholinguistics."10
There is another type of associative experiment based on a heterochrony feature, described in detail in the aforementioned article by A.I. Nazarov and R.V. Sokolov - technique "Serial thematic associations" (STA). In this type of associative experiment subjects are asked to indicate more than one word-reaction to the word-stimulus, a chain of reactions to the wordstimulus (the topic), and subjects are not limited in time. The authors draw attention to the need to record time intervals between the appearances of reactions to the word-stimulus. The authors justify the concept that a person has two levels of expert knowledge - active and passive. It is assumed that during such an experiment, an active knowledge will manifest itself in the short term, while long-term thinking of the reaction will show a passive experiential knowledge of the subject. Thus, this technique of the associative experiment is less direct (combines the subconscious and conscious ways of the manifestation of associations -the expert knowledge), and claimed to exhaust the associative series of the subject completely. The paper also proposed and obtained a fairly general classification of associations: 1) associates that are directly relevant to the topic or characterizing its
structural composition, and 2) associates that also have direct relevance to the topic and describe its properties, and 3) associates that are indirectly but closely related to the topic, i.e., the relation between them can be easily traced with the help of one or two additional implicit links, and 4) indirect, but far from the topic associates; the degree of mediation here is higher than in the previous category; 5) associates functionally related to the topic, the topic is not characterized as it is, but from those of its properties that it acquires in interaction with the environment in which there is a marked content of the topic, 6) irrelevant associations -those that are either not relevant to the subject and appear randomly, or indirectly associated with it from the events of personal life.11 Associates of the first two categories are closest to the formal collective experience.
So, there is a spectrum of psychological research methods and experiments that can be applied to the study of culture. Among the psychological techniques that can be used for the analysis of cultural concepts, the method of associative experiment is particularly significant, as a result of proximity of some properties of the association and the concept. The associative experiment allows forming a «semantic gestalt» of the concept - identifying those words and their meanings, which are satellites of the concept in the national language. Interpretation of related meanings will help more fully understand the specifics of the existence of the cultural concept. Psychological research methods are significant for understanding the specifics of the existence of the concept in modern times. It makes sense to conduct a comparative analysis of the original (etymological, historically conditioned) content of the concept and its meaning in the situation of today. The result of comparative analysis serves to answer the question, what is genetically determined in the existence of the concept, and what is variable in its existence.
Results of associative experiment conducted to investigate the concept 'state' among Krasnoyarsk students, 2009
This article presents the results and interpretation of the associative experiment, conducted by the method "series of thematic associations" on the topic "state" ("gosudarstvo" in Russian) among 204 students of Siberian Federal University, the I-IV courses (degree and specialities - "Arts", "Law", "Public relations", "Cultural Studies", "Social work", "Philosophy", "Psychology","Foreignlanguages","Advertising"). The author has developed a methodological model for studying the cultural concept, which involves, on the one hand, the study of the origins and history of the concept in national culture, and, on the other hand, the current contents of the concept. The associative experiment is one of the key methods of research of modern contents of the concept "state" and the last stage in the study of this concept in the context of Russian culture.
The principle of sampling is conformable to the principle of the associative experiment conducted by the authors of "Russian associative dictionary", who relied on the surveys of students to produce their own four-volume edition. As indicated by these scholars, the students are the future creators of culture, so understanding their perceptions of culture is the key to forecasting the future development of culture in thirty years.
It is also necessary to explain the choice of the type of the associative experiment - "A series of thematic associations." The most traditional type of associative experiment is offering a word-stimulus to which respondents have to give a word-response (or a few words of immediately encountered reactions) in a short period of time. In the context of this study, this type of associative experiment seemed unsatisfactory for deep and thorough knowledge of the concept "state". Indeed, as shown by the experiment, the first
words of reaction are related to the most common, persistent, educational associations - such data are certainly useful, but do not exhaust the common conceptual representations of the state. "A series of thematic associations" on "state" can deepen the understanding of the concept of "state" and fix all the spheres of knowledge, which involves the experience of the state common for most carriers of conceptual representations. In addition, the benefits of "a series of thematic associations" is that this type of experiment allows to fix the results of an associative survey with a traditional single-word response (the first word of the association, proposed in the questionnaire) and in-depth knowledge of the conceptual ideas. The experiment reveals not only a series of abstract word associations to the concept 'state', but also the types of emotional experience of the conceptual content.
It is necessary to explain the reasons why it is not enough to benefit from the associative experiment, proposed in the "Russian associative dictionary," 1994. Here are the following associations to the word "state": "country (34), our (22), socialist (19), and right, the Soviet (18), a large, legal (16), power (15), the USSR (14) and the revolution, a revolution (13), I (12), border, powerful, power, kingdom (5), the government, native, Russian, free, of the Soviets, totalitarian, I (4), Africa, poor, of fools, the map, The Kremlin, the personality, the car, we, the people, party, perestroika, Motherland, Russia, strong, territory, jail, it's us (3). "12 As you know, the concept has a characteristic of temporality, which means its variability over time. In this case, many existing associative data of the dictionary are defined by the era in which the experiment was carried out - the 1990s. The determination of associations by historical time is evident in the annex to the word "state": the data presented the most common associations to the word - socialist (19), soviet (18), the USSR (14). In the meantime,
in the associative experiment with Krasnoyarsk students these associations emerge only 4 times, despite the fact that the method permitted a longer list of associations.
It is necessary to designate the problem of the relation between the culture of Krasnoyarsk students and Russian culture as a whole, the problemofhow indicative ofcontemporary Russian culture in general the responses of Krasnoyarsk students are. It is known that many cultural studies permit an extrapolation of the experimental results obtained in a certain narrow (compared to the number of speakers of Russian culture) group of respondents on the national culture as a whole and, thus, really significant findings are made. On the other hand, the theoretical program of contemporary cultural studies is focused on precise and accurate representation of the results, the avoidance of mistakes, which was highlighted by L.D. Surmanidze who followed D. Matsumoto in this: "Among the problems of methodological aspect, one cannot but mention the widespread among researchers vicious practices related to the representativeness of research samples - culture is identified with a country, but the actual data are collected on the basis of a sample of the urban population (culture, identified with the country, is represented by one or two cities); then, based on these data, an extrapolation is made on the entire culture;... "13. According to the warnings, in the context of this study the following is stated: the current content of the concept "state" was studied in Krasnoyarsk culture - the experimental data can characterize contemporary Russian culture in general, but to confirm the assumptions it is necessary to conduct the experiment in all major regions of Russia.
Now we turn to the results of the associative experiment on the topic "State" and the method of processing the results of the experiment. In processing the experimental results it was demonstrated that the most important are three
types of presenting the results: 1. The spectrum of the most common words-reactions to the word 'state', arranged in descending order of prevalence in the respondents' answers. 2. The spectrum of spheres of consciousness, belonging with, included in the concept of "State", according to the concept based in the article by A.I. Nazarov and R.V. Sokolov: "Remember that the amount of consciousness, especially that part which forms the focus of consciousness (W. Wundt) is huge, so the image which initially arose cannot capture all the known content of the topic. However, under its control there is performed the spacetime scanning of the executive action - naming the associates ... The performance itself gradually depletes the image, resulting in the focus of consciousness entering another relevant content. When this happens, a new image appears, and the cycle is repeated. So this will occur up to the moment when any effort of consciousness cannot retrieve a new relevant content from the memory."14 The task of the experimenter in this case is to divide a huge amount of word-reactions into the specific semantic group, where the human mind can shift when thinking of the proposed word. 3. The most common estimates of the
concept 'state', a common emotional experience of the given concept.
The spectrum of the most common word-reactions to the word "state" is shown below.
The diagram (Fig. 1) displays the basic, most common reactions of respondents to the word «state», which are represented in the form of a text with the extension for associations prevailing in the answers of the questionnaires of at least 10 respondents: President (121) - 59.3 %15, authority (104) - 50.9 %; laws (93) - 45.5 %; politics (84) - 41.1 %; country (77) - 37.7 %; rights (73) - 35.7 % ; nation (ethnos) (62) - 30.3 %; Government (62) - 30.3 %; constitution of the Russian Federation (61) - 29.9 %; territory (58) -28.4 %; flag (54) - 26.4 %; frontier (51) - 25 %; Army (51) - 25 %; National Emblem (49) - 24 %; Russia (47) - 23 %, the State Duma (46) - 22.5 %; wars (42) - 20.5 %; Anthem (41) - 20 %; Society (41) - 20 %; Economy (36) - 17.6 %; Motherland (36) - 17.6 %; sovereignty (35) - 17.1 % ; people (34) - 16.6 %; history (34) - 16.6 %; money (32) -
15.6 %; population (31) - 15.1 %; Parliament (30) - 14.7 % ; Putin (30) - 14.7 %; citizens (30) -
14.7 %, the tsar (30) - 14.7 %; taxes (29) - 14.2 %; power (28) - 13.7 % ; elections (25) - 12.2 %;
Fig. 1
democracy (25) - 12.2 %; management (24) -11.7 %; cities (22) - 10.7 %; crisis (22) - 10.7 % ; monarchy (21) - 10.2 %; the capital (21) - 10.2 %; the State (20) - 9.8 %; courts (20) - 9.8 %; deputies (19) - 9.3 % ; revolutions (19) - 9.3 %; Kremlin (19) - 9.3 %; the official language (19) - 9.3 %; Medvedev (18) - 8.8 %; patriotism (18) - 8.8 %; protection (18) - 8.8 %; citizenship (18) - 8.8 %; education (17) - 8.3 %; Sovereign (17) - 8.3 %; religion (17) - 8.3 %; nation (15) - 7.5 %; Moscow (15) - 7.3 %; Federation (15) - 7.3 %; officials (15) - 7.3 %; Culture (15) - 7.3 %; constraint (15) - 7.3 %; corruption (15) - 7.3 %; apparatus (15) - 7.3 %; ruler (14) - 6.8 %; Republic (14) -6.8 %; responsibility (14) - 6.8 %; unity (14) -6.8 %; family (14) - 6.8 %; Parties (13) - 6.3 %; Liberty (13) - 6.3 %; bureaucracy (13) - 6.3 %; budget (13) - 6.3 %; forest (13) - 6.3 %; judiciary (12) - 5.8 %; state treasury (12) - 5 , 8 %, the system (12) - 5.8 %; traditions (12) - 5.8 %, the order (12) - 5.8 %; life (12) - 5.8 %; legislation (12) - 5 , 8 %; Church (11) - 5.3 %; legislature (11) - 5.3 %; land (11) - 5.3 %; police (11) - 5.3 %; Empire (11) - 5.3 %; nationality (11) - 5.3 % Independence (11) - 5.3 %; executive power (10) - 4.9 %; government agencies (10) - 4.9 %; political regime (10) - 4.9 %; rivers (10) - 4.9 %; Victory Day (10) - 4.9 %.
These associations, in fact, represent the very same spheres of consciousness, where the idea moves while contemplating the phenomenon of "state". We now turn to a detailed description ofthe semantic areas, which allow better understanding of the concept "State", understanding which of the areas is most relevant and meaningful for the bearer of the concept " State". As the application of the associative experiment in the study of cultural concepts involves identifying the common word-reactions for each semantic group, there will be allocated a number of relevant general reactions and provided quantitative data on the whole, showing the frequency of the recipients'
plunging into this sphere of consciousness. When calculating, the individual associations for the word "state" were not considered. Neither were associations, which connection with the wordstimulus cannot be explained when processing the experimental results (e.g. biochemistry, shopping, bald, concierge, etc., total - about 170 words). Thus, when processing the results of the study, there were highlighted the following semantic groups, revealing the contents of the concept "State":16
Authority and powers ofthe state (492/418): rights (73), wars (42), freedom (35), control (24), protection (18), coercion (15), responsibility (14), judiciary (12 ), the legislative branch (11), the executive (10), norm (9), reform (9), peace (8), system (8), control (7), justice (7), structure (6), the board (6), rules (6), regulation (5), violence (4), guarantees (4), organization (4), hierarchy (4), division of powers (3), decree (3). dictatorship (3), help (3), support (3), construction (2), union (2), planning (2), strategy (2), conquest (2), legitimacy (2), program (2), the complex structure (2), pluralism (2), authority (2), form (2), legal liability (2), ban (2), submission (2), liabilities (2), security (2), leadership (2), protection of rights (2), justice (2), maintenance (2), repression (2), brain (2), unequal rights (2), equality (2), inequality (2), the public power (2), social security (2).
Russian Government (374/317): Constitution of the Russian Federation (61), Russia (47), Motherland (36), Putin (30), Kremlin (19), Medvedev (18), Moscow (15), Victory Day (10), the Russian Federation (7), Peter I (7) Ivan the Terrible (7), two-headed eagle (7), Lenin (7), Stalin (6), Red Square (6), Yeltsin (5), the Russian State (4), Zhirinovsky (3), cap of Monomakh (3), Siberia (3), birch (3), May 9 (3), vodka (3), St. Petersburg (2), Sochi (2), the Russian (2), history of Russia (2), ruble (2), MSU (2).
Residents of the state (328/251): ethnos (62), society (41), people (34), population (31),
citizens (30), civil society (7), Man (4), the crowd (4), and the oligarchs (4), the hero (3) veterans (3), homeless (3), personality (3), mass (2), students
(2), retired (2), scientists (2), happy people (2), lawyers (2), elite (2), individual (2), societas (2), we (2), community (2).
Personal nature of state power (315/289): president (121), tsar (30), Putin (30), Medvedev (18), sovereign (17), governor (14), Ivan the Terrible (7) Peter I (7), Lenin (7), monarch (6), Stalin (6), Yeltsin (5), king (5), head (4), leader
(3), emperor (3), Queen of England (2 ), the head of state (2), queen (2).
The state apparatus (290/249): Government (62), the State Duma (46), parliament (30) Courts (20), the state apparatus (15), parties (13), public organs (10), ministers (6), legislature (6), the Federal Assembly (5), assemblies (5), political parties (5), control (4), administration (3), meeting (3), authorities (2), governmental organizations (2), Senate (2), ministry (2), the municipality (2), the Camber (2), presidium (2), the Federation Council (2).
The state as an economic establishment (240/211): economy (36), money (32), taxes (29), crisis (22), State budget (13), the state treasury (12), pension (7), wealth (6 ), trade (5), oil (5), currency (5), bank (4), monopoly (4), salary (4), subsidies (3), finance (2), the gold reserve (2), ruble (2), low salary (2), property (2), private property (2), economic relations (2), banknotes
(2) resources (2), loans (2), ruble (2), benefits (2).
State Symbols (219/198): flag (54), emblem (49), anthem (41), Kremlin (19), national symbols (8), two-headed eagle (7), Red Square (6), White House (5), cap of Monomakh (3), the throne (3), crown (3).
Public Documents (209/195): laws (93), constitution (61), bureaucracy (13), documents (7), passport (5), orders (4), statutes (3), Code
(3), the regulatory acts (2), a set of laws (2), regulations (2).
The protective function of government (191/172): army (51), power (28), protection (18), order (12), militia (11), castle (8), nuclear weapons (5), defense (4), security (4), law and order (3), tanks (3), navy (3), armed forces (2), armament (2), MIA (2), the border guard (2), soldiers (2), rockets (2 ), police (2), arms (2), cops (2), weapon (2), law enforcement (2).
Spheres of life, perceived as belonging to the state and infrastructure (178/126): education (17), life (12), jail (8), work (7), science (5), University (5), health (5), health care (4), hospital (4), school (4), enterprises (4), manufacturing
(4), plants (3), SFU (3), shops (3), agriculture (3), markets (3) , educational institutions (2), MSU (2), cathedrals (2), system of housing and utilities (2), economy (2), football (2), institutes (2), canteens (2), Museum (2), City Hall (2), monuments (2), advocacy (2), industry (2), new technologies and development (2), labor (2) fate (2).
Synonyms to the word "State" (176/174): Country (77), Motherland (36), power (20), nation (15), land (11), home (8), Fatherland (4), civilization (3).
The fundamental properties of the state (176/168): sovereignty (35), the national language (19), unity (14), system (12), independence (11), unity (8), strength (7), community (7), reliability
(5), stability (5), integrity (4), order (4), power (4), security (4), status (4), autonomy (4), sovereignty of state (4), law (3), self-dependency (3), self-government (3), greatness (2), necessity (2), supremacy (2), basis (2).
The political organization of States (171/129): democracy (28) monarchy (27), the federation (17), republic (15), empire (11), totalitarianism (6), anarchy (5), Unitary (4), capitalism (2), dictatorship (2), kingdom (2), tribe (2), authoritarian (2), absolutism (2), theocracy (2), tyranny (2).
The state as a geographical location and territorial unit (155/142): area (58), frontier
(51), a large area (5), Globe (4), geography (4), a common territory (3), map of the world (3) , localities (2), size (2), administrative units (2), a territory (2), scale (2), map (2), atlas (2).
The state as a historically-national and spiritual community (132/110): history (34), culture (15), tradition (12), nationality (11), ideology (9), morality (9), mentality (6), customs (4), idea (2), soul (2), continuity (2), nationalism (2), outlook (2).
States of the World (109/73): Russia (47), the Russian Federation (7), the Roman state (5), Russian (4), America (3), the USA (3), the Russian (2), China (2).
The State as administrative units (100/85): cities (22), capital (21), Moscow (15), villages (5), Districts (5), regions (3), Krasnoyarsk (2), St. Petersburg (2). subjects (2), colony (2), Sochi (2), Krai (2), administrative units (2).
The state as a subject of international relations (99/60): international relations (7), relations (6), negotiations (6), diplomacy (5), UN
(4), immigrants (4), neighbors (3), the international arena (3), Embassy (3), foreign policy (3), globalization (2), communwealth (2), abroad (2), the international community (2), foreign countries (2), mobilization (2), international treaties (2), enemies (2).
State as a particular landscape (89/70): forests (13), rivers (10), seas (6), fields (5), roads
(5), the sun (5), the sky (5), lakes (5), mountains (4), nature (4), birches (3), ocean (3), wind (2).
Public employees (84/73): deputies (19), officials (15), civil servants (7), Prime Minister
(6), ministers (6), mayor (5), statesmen (4), Zhirinovsky (3 ), politicians (2), secretary (2) governor (2), judges (2).
Sources of knowledge of the state (65/56): Theory of State and Law (12), Plato (9) news (8), Aristotle (7), mass media (6), Locke (3) PR (3), Machiavelli "The Emperor "(2), Russo (2), TV (2), Marx (2).
Opposition to state power (60/46):
revolutions (19), struggle (6), treason (4), coup d'etat (3) struggle for power (3), meetings (3), rebellion (2), redistribution (2 ), opposition (2), crime (2).
The family as a metaphor of State (53/34):
family (14), children (7), childhood (3), dad (2), mom (2), close relatives (2), I (2), parents (2).
The state as religion (39/30): religion (17), church (11), Orthodoxy (2).
Public Holidays (31/24): Victory Day (10), holidays (4), parade (3), May 9 (3), national holidays (2), days off (2).
Spheres, in which there appear only unique associations, are listed below.
Stages of the State (25): decline (4), development (4), prosperity (2), disintegration (2), destruction (2), recovery (2), existence (2), collapse, regression, decay, stagnation, dawn, disappearance, all over again.
State as future, predictions and wishes for the future (18): future (5); a common state on the planet; the cosmos as a state; the state must be governed by philosophers; the future is in their hands; happy future; government officials' confidence in the future; World War III; the desire and will to change for the better; hope for a brighter future of the country; Russia, forward!; state, be different!; the state will change; the state will remain the same.
Phraseological units associated with the state (6): Far Away kingdom (2); the fish rots from the head; and who is not with us is below us, in a certain kingdom, in some state (here we give English equivalents or word-by-word translation).
The negative experience of state power (245/115): corruption (15), coercion (15) injustice (7), the song "I love my country and hate the state" by the group "Lumen" (7), deception (6), hunger (6), violence (4), suppression (4), unemployment (4), poverty (3), terror (3), tyranny
500-, 4001
Fig. 2
(3), distrust (3), "Big Brother is watching you" (3), the system of coercion (2), exploitation (2), hate (2), strike (2), problems (22), pain (2), surveillance (2), "I love Motherland, but I hate the state" - a quotation from M. Zadornov's monologue (2), lies (2!), Zamyatin "We" (2), bod t2), lawlessness
(2), alienation (2), intrigue (2), demagoguery (2), ignorance (2).
The potitive expeoience of state pawer (122/79): patriotism (18), faith (8), peace (7), love (2), pride(5), patriots (5), reliability (4), opportunities (3), debt (3), confidence (3), joy
(3), courage (2), honor (2), trust (2), dignity (2), happiness (2), shelter (2),hope (2),
The diegram (Fig. 2) displays the actual spheres of knowledge oat torm the enncept of "state" in the minds of students of Krasnoyarsk: During the processing of the results of the associative experiment conducted b° the method «Series of thematic associations» there were recorded additional observations that were not directly relevant to the objectives of the experiment, but which may be mentioned in the study:
• In the process of generating associations to a topic, many of the respondents came
to the stage of reflection on their own associations - a generalization of their own series of essociations: for example, "stream of consciousness", " everything connected with Russie is associated with tire state," or "I do not know anything about it ", they also offered definitions based on the emerging association. On this basis, wy can assume that the pmoeedure of the aosocietive experiment has a high educytional potential - similar to an individual "brainstorming" - provided it is used correctly for educational purposes.
• In generat, rhe observation was made that the associetions to the word «state» are ranged from general, abstract, distant from life, to the individual and emotional experience o° hire; coecept «State».
Resume
Thus, based on the data received during the experiment, the following conclusions about the cultural concept "State" in the circles of Krasnoyarsk students may be drawn.
First and foremost it is noteworthy that the concept "State" is extremely broad. The concept "State" includes both the political, economic, national, historical and cultural aspects of life, and native landscape, holidays, thoughts about the future, human destiny and life. It is likely to indicate the absence of a clear idea of what is really the state at present. It turns out that using the word "state", the Russian people (Krasnoyarsk students) can mean any sort of these aspects of life, although in most cases the use of the word "state" will relate to the political and economic name of the country.
The concept of "state" exists in the minds of students of Krasnoyarsk, not as an abstract philosophical concept, but as a representation of the Russian state. Associations to the word "state", in fact, represent the associations to the concept of "the Russian state," that is the concept of "state" does not exist as an abstract phenomenon, but it carries itself through the example of the native national state. This thesis is based on the obvious observation that in the process of associating on "state" there is almost always a shift of consciousness towards the facts and realities that are related to politics, history, nature, personalities, etc. directly connected with the Russian state.
The concept of "state" means first and foremost the existence of the power structure that organizes the lives of people of the state, and includes an understanding of the objectives and nature of this power. State power ensures the rights and freedoms of persons within the state, wages wars with other states, forcing certain actions, takes responsibility for the use of authority. There exists a clear notion about state power divided into the judicial, executive and legislative branches.
The concept "State" is directly related to the notion of the personal nature of state power, and in contemporary culture it is the president.
In the minds of carriers of the concept "State" it is represented by various structures of state power - the apparatus of state power - the government, the State Council and the Parliament as the central authoritative organs. And it is important to note that the state apparatus is conceptually represented by a wide variety of government agencies. An analysis of the semantic group shows that the concept "State" in contemporary culture implies not only the personal embodiment of public power, power and authority of the personality of the ruler, but a number of public bodies with powers of government. The conceptual content of the word "State" reports that in contemporary culture, to some extent a personal nature of state power has been decentralized.
The concept "State" includes a community of people living in a certain area. The concept of "state" has a dual nature: on the one hand, this is a system of power in a certain area, headed by the President, on the other hand, it's the people who inhabit this territory. In this case in modern culture the state serves as a cultural phenomenon, which organizes the relations between rulers and the ruled.
The concept of "state" includes the notion of territorial and national division of the world.
In modern culture the concept "State" in the first place implies that it is a territorial unit, where there lives a somehow organized community of people, the integrity of the inhabitants; the territory, which has sovereignty and independence, as well as the territory with a single common national language.
The concept of "state" implies the existence of a specific economic sector. In the semantic group, associated with the state as an economic organization of life, there was manifested an urgent problem of contemporary reality -the economic recession. On the one hand, it is the phenomenon of private nature, on the
otherhand, this indicates that the most common word-response obtained in the course of the experiment, is most relevant to modern life. From that point of view, especially interesting are word-responses reflecting the reality of today's political regime, where the democratic form of government (28 mentions) in the state equals monarchical form of government (27 mentions).
The concept "State" is associated with the perception of the presence of certain symbolic signs of statehood - in the first place, flag, anthem and state emblem.
The concept "State" in contemporary culture of Krasnoyarsk practically does not include the notion of a religious community of people. As already indicated, the state is seen through the prism of the respondents of Russian identity, and if earlier - presumably until the 1920s - an idea of the Russian state was associated with Orthodoxy, the Orthodox Church in modern culture is interfaced with the idea of the state apparatus only in few cases. It is especially interesting to note in connection with attempts to update the Orthodox religion in today's Russia (in particular, the introduction of orthodox literacy in the education system) since the results of this associative experiment suggest either complete separation of state and religious spheres or the fact that traditional religious systems for people of modern culture are no longer relevant.
A family can be considered as the prototype of the conceptual representations of the state for a person, because in the minds of some recipients these areas are interconnected.
Allocation of such parameters as negative and positive experience of the concept "State" would make the following conclusions possible: in the modern culture the state is perceived as necessary to the essence of human existence in the modern world, but it is experienced mainly negatively. A number of stable negative reactions
to the Russian state as a cultural phenomenon may be reported: in the first place, this division often manifests itself: one has an extremely positive attitude towards Russia as a territory in which he/she was born - motherland, and at the same time a negative attitude towards the state as the power structure. Hence, we can fix the phenomenon of opposition within the concept "State": on the one hand, the state is a country area with a specific nature, and so on, which is loved, on the otherhand, the "state" is an apparatus of power that a person does not accept and rejects . This trend is manifested both in the concrete associations and in the number of word- reactions that have negative overtones.
Among the adverse reactions to the word "state" there has been assigned a reference to the ideas of anti-utopia of the XXth century. In general, only five word-reactions refer to antiutopia, but presumably the idea of these works can be viewed as a source of negative perceptions of government.
Especially interesting is the category of responses, which indicate the source of knowledge about the state. Naturally, the students gain knowledge about the state from the curriculum: lawyers - from the course "Theory of State and Law", philosophers - from the writings by Plato, Aristotle, modern philosophy, etc. In addition, a significant source of information about the state is the mass media, that supply people with facts, and the response to these facts forms their own attitudes to the phenomenon of "state".
Cultural and comparative analysis of the concept "State" in ancient
Russian culture and modern culture of Krasnoyarsk
In the ancient culture the word "state"("gosudarstvo") was not widespread, it was understood as a specific phenomenon - the authority to judge in the country, sent by the
Orthodox God to the ruler of Russia, the governor, head of the body. In this case, the identity of the
namely the tsar, was treated as an earthly deputy king was substituted by the personality of the
of God, and, above all, he was the deputy with president.
judicial functions of God, the prototype of Assume also that the opposition of the
which was the idea of God on Judgment Day, educated public to the state authority (on the
in the country. In the present situation, this basis of a large number of adverse reactions to
view has exhausted itself, and the word "state", the word "state") is also largely predetermined
remaining in the political, informational, and by history: the progressive people of the state
everyday discourse, has become blurred, with did not agree with the concept of power in
indefinite boundaries, resulting in the concept ancient Russia. This ideological position of
of "state" taking in almost all spheres of social the intelligentsia and educated people continue
life. It happened over time when the state became to exist since the establishment of the ancient
more powerful, and in certain historical periods, Russian state. This thesis is not clearly disclosed
human life ceased being conceived in isolation in the context of this study: most likely, this
from the state. requires carrying out of comparative studies,
The study of the concept "state" in modern which will show whether the discontent of the
times has shown that in the minds of Russian national public with the state authority is a pre-
people (Krasnoyarsk), there is still a close coupling defined national phenomenon or a phenomenon
between the concept " State" and the person at the common for all countries.
Nazarov, A.I., Sokolov R.V. The association and the associative experiment: different fates / Nazarov A.I., Sokolov R.V. / / Questions of psychology. - 2007, № 4. - pp. 125 - 138. Ibid. p.126. Ibid. p.127.
Popova, T. V. Associative experiment in psychology: textbook / T.V. Popova. - M. Flinta: MPSI, 2006. - 70 p. Popova, T. V. Associative experiment in psychology: textbook / T.V. Popova. - M. Flinta: MPSI, 2006. - P. 36
Russian associative dictionary. Associative thesaurus of modern Russian Language / J.N. Karaulov, Y. Sorokin, E.F. Tara-sov, N.V.Ufimtseva. - Moscow: IRL RAS, 1994. -Book 1. Direct vocabulary: from stimulus to response. Part I. - Moscow: Pomovsky and Partners, 1994. - 223 p., Book 2. Reverse Dictionary: from reaction to the stimulus. Part I. - 1994. - 358 p., Book 3. Direct vocabulary: from stimulus to response. Part II. - 1996. - 212 p., Book 4. Reverse Dictionary: from reaction to the stimulus. Part II. - 1996. - 324 p. Ibid. Book. 1. - P. 5.
Palkin, A.D. Associative experiment as a way of cross-cultural study of images of consciousness / A.D. Palkin / / Questions of psychology. - 2008, № 4. - p. 81 - 89.
Karaulov, J.N. Indicator of the national mentality in verbal associative-network / J.N. Karaulov / / Linguistic awareness and image of the world: Col. Articles / Exec. Ed. N.V. Ufimtseva. - M., 2000. - p. 191 - 206.
Kapitonova, A.V. Free associative experiment as a method of studying language awareness in psycholinguistics / A.V. Kapitonova / / Language. Communication. Culture: Trends in the XXI century: proceedings of an international conference devoted to the 60th anniversary of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, October, 5 - 6, 2006 - Krasnoyarsk KSPU, 2007. - p. 156 - 161.
Nazarov, A.I., Sokolov R.V. The association and the associative experiment: different fates / Nazarov A.I., Sokolov R.V. / / Questions of psychology. - 2007, № 4. - p. 136.
Russian associative dictionary. Book. 1. Direct vocabulary fromstimulus to response. Associative thesaurus of the Russian language. Part I / JN Guards, Y. Sorokin, EF Tarasov, NVUfimtseva, GA Cherkasov. - Moscow: Pomovsky and Partners, 1994. - S. 38.
Surmanidze, L.D. Culture: contemporary empirical researchtrends / / Man: the ratio national and universal. Proceedings of International Symposium (Zugdidi, Georgia, May 19-20, 2004), Issue 2 / Ed. V.V. Partsvaniya. SPb.: St. Petersburg Philosophical Society, 2004. - S.225-238. - http://anthropology.ru/ru/texts/surmanidze/mannt_24.html Nazarov, A.I., Sokolov R.V. The association and the associative experiment: different fates / Nazarov A.I., Sokolov R.V. / / Questions of psychology. - 2007, № 4. - p. 134.
In brackets there is given the number of questionnaires which contain the association, through a dash there is provided information on the prevalence of the association in 204 questionnaires as a percentage.
The results are as follows: name of the group (the total number of associates in the group / number of associates in this group that match more than two questionnaires): word-response (the number of matches in the questionnaires), etc. Ex- 1539 -
10
11
12
13
14
15
ample: the personality of the head of state - President (121), tsar (30), Putin (30), Medvedev (18), sovereign (17), governor (14), Ivan the Terrible (7), Peter I (7), Lenin (7), monarch (6 ), Stalin (6), Yeltsin (5), king (5), head (4), Queen of England (2), chief (3), emperor (3), the head of state (2), queen (2), Emperor Nicholas I, Monomakh, Vsevolod the Big Nest, the rulers of ancient Russia, Ivan Kalita and his bag of coins, Vladimir the Red Sun, the king-father, Barack Obama, Stalin the Rebel, King the Sun, Your Majesty, Khrushchev, the tsaritsa, Catherine I, Bush , Rurik, Oleg, dictator, the Emperor of All Russia (Ancient Russ'), the Romanovs, Mao, Hitler, George III, lord, head, leader. When processing is obtained: Personal nature of state power (315/289): president (121), tsar (30), Putin (30), Medvedev (18), sovereign (17), governor (14), Ivan the Terrible (7) Peter I (7), Lenin (7), monarch (6), Stalin (6), Yeltsin (5), king (5), head (4), leader (3), emperor (3), Queen of England (2 ), the head of state (2), queen (2).
References
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Концепт «государство» в красноярской культуре: результаты ассоциативного эксперимента по методике «Серия тематических ассоциаций»
А.А. Семенова
Сибирский федеральный университет Россия 660041, Красноярск, пр. Свободный, 79
В настоящей статье представлены результаты исследования концепта «государство» в российской культуре XXI века. Статья базируется на положениях научного исследования, согласно которому исследование концепта является многоуровневым процессом, включающим
- 1541 -
в себя проработку этимологического материала, историю существования имени концепта в национальной культуре, контент-анализ значимых текстов, определивших становление определенного концепта в национальной культуре, а также прикладное исследование. В качестве прикладного исследования концепта могут быть применены методы психологических и социальных наук - фокус-группы, глубинные интервью, эксперименты и другие методы. В настоящей статье представлены результаты последнего этапа анализа концепта «государство» в российской культуре. В данном случае в качестве прикладной методики для исследования концепта выступил психолингвистический метод - ассоциативный эксперимент.
В 2009 году в эксперименте на понимание содержания концепта «государство» в современной российской культуре приняло участие более 200 студентов Сибирского федерального университета, обучающихся на гуманитарных специальностях: «искусствоведение», «культурология», «юриспруденция», «философия», «психология», «иностранный язык», «реклама». Также в статье приведены результаты ассоциативного эксперимента со словом-стимулом «государство», которые были получены в 1994 году авторами «Русского ассоциативного словаря», что позволяет зафиксировать изменения в концептуальных представлениях о государстве в российском менталитете, произошедшие за пятнадцатилетнюю эпоху.
Кроме того, в тексте выявлены константы в понимании «государство» в российской национальной культуре и свершившиеся актуально-исторические изменения. Для анализа концепта «государство» в древнерусской культуре ранее был привлечен этимологический анализ имени концепта, возникшего в русской культуре в XIV веке, а также исследование писем царя Иоанна Васильевича Грозного к князю Андрею Курбскому.
Ключевые слова: методология культурных исследований, прикладные исследования в культурологии, ассоциативный эксперимент, «серия тематических ассоциаций», концепт, концепт «государство», концепт «государство» в российской культуре начала XXI века, концепт «государство» в культуре красноярского студенчества.
Работа выполнена при финансовой поддержке федеральной целевой программы "Научные и научно-педагогические кадры инновационной России на 2009-2013 гг."
