Potentially Conflictogenic Zones in the Language Consciousness of Bilinguals

Abstract

The article is devoted to the identification, fixation, and analysis of the conflictogenic zones in the content of the associative (psychological) meaning of words in the language consciousness of speakers of the Russian, Kazakh, and Yakut languages / cultures in modern multiethnic society. Comparative studies reveal quantitative and qualitative discrepancies in the structure of the associative meaning of equivalent words in different languages. These discrepancies are potentially conflictogenic in the situations of interlanguage (intercultural) interaction and manifest themselves both on a conscious and unconscious level. The research method of the article is the free associative experiment. It was conducted in the native language of the informants (i.e., Yakut or Kazakh), and Russian. The informants were national-Russian bilinguals (Yakuts and Kazakhs), and Russians — students of various universities, aged 17 to 25, with at least 100 people being in each sample (men and women in equal numbers). The lexemes of the semantic field “family” were chosen as the stimulus words. The experimental material was analyzed using the modified method of semantic gestalt by Yu.N. Karaulov. The results obtained made it possible to identify the existing differences in the content of the language consciousness of the speakers of the Russian, Kazakh, and Yakut languages / cultures and to answer the question of how the content of the language consciousness of bilinguals is affected by their native language and culture. The results of the research can be used to optimize intercultural communication and prevent communicative and other conflicts.