Unofficial toponyms in the language consciousness of Yaroslavl residents (on the example of the toponym Bragino)

Abstract

The article presents a psycholinguistic description of unofficial toponyms of Yaroslavl on the example of one of them. Based on the data of a free associative experiment, the associative fields of the unofficial toponym Bragino were formed in two age groups of subjects: from 18 to 30 years and from 30 to 80 years. When comparing the obtained associative fields, their core and periphery, and semantic groups, the peculiarities of understanding this lexeme by different age groups were revealed. It is shown that the psycholinguistic description of the analyzed lexeme differs in two groups of subjects: the core of the field partially coincides, semantic groups of associative fields overlap, but most of them are different in volume, small semantic groups are relevant only in one group of subjects. As a part of the obtained associative fields, evaluation reactions were identified, both positive and negative. It is shown that evaluative reactions are more common in the youth sphere, but negative-evaluative reactions are superior to positive-evaluative ones in both groups of subjects. In general, the study allows us to draw conclusions about the development of the unofficial toponym by Yaroslavl residents and the similarity and differentiation of associative fields in different age groups.