Modelling Associative-Semantic Content as Regards the Logic-of-Semantics Dimension of the Adolescents’ Speech

Abstract

Objective. The article deals with the analysis of the trends in the logic of the semantic organization of the speech and mental activity of adolescents as regards the dimension of the available semantic environment and that of the speech competences of an individual. It is stated that information about the world is systematized by human consciousness in the form of an associative-verbal field, whose producing and modelling is one of the ways of representing the speech competence of an individual shaping his/her destiny. Materials & Methods. In view of the above, an empirical research of the distinctive features of expanding semantic content of the adolescents' speech consciousness as regards the dimension of the logic-of-semantics organization of the mental and speech activity was performed using the diagnostic potential of a free associative experiment. A system of relevant ways of construction and associative expansion of meanings in the semantic field of the speech consciousness of adolescents was chosen as the subject of the research. Results. Drawing on the results of the frequency analysis of the use of typical associative patterns for organizing the semantic field of speech, it was stated that the most represented among adolescents is a semantic way of reasoning based on the identification signs of the general contour of the trigger word at the level of its meaning. It was proved that the greatest changes in the logic of expanding associative semantic content are observed among older adolescents, which is interpreted as the result of fundamental changes in the strategies for cognitive processing of information flows. Conclusions. A conclusion was drawn about the stable tendency towards the standardization and unification of speech in adolescents during their transition to adulthood, and the reduction in the heuristic resource of the intellectual activity of older adolescent pupils was noted. In this context, the purposeful formation of speech and mental competences of an individual, the acquisition by adolescents of efficient methods of the logic-of-semantics organization of the associative semantic content of speech is defined as a necessary prerequisite for the personality development, as well as that for the speech and mental development of an individual.