ASSOCIATION AS LINGUISTIC PHENOMENON

Abstract

The article deals with the notion of association in linguistics. Various researchers looked for connections between thinking and language, conducting linguistic experiments and researches in the field of psycholinguistics, linguistics and, namely, associative groups. Research of associations is mainly aimed at the conceptual and semantic structure of human memory. Study of associations has a long scientific tradition, for centuries they have been the object of study of philosophers, psychologists, linguists. Associative experiment is a technique aimed at identifying associations existing in an individual based on his previous experience. To analyze associations it is necessary to know and understand connections between words, therefore, explore the sphere of human consciousness and cognitive perception. The article looks into history of associations studies, analyzing the main achievements and key points in the research of links between words and images, connections and relations between semantic field and groups. Also, attention is paid to external and internal associative links and their analysis. The other essential part of the study is focused on the insight into the nature of synonymy, antonymy and paronymy, the paradigms and their classifications. Understanding of associative and thematic groups helps us to conduct researches necessary for the understanding of the mechanism of interaction that exists between different lexical– semantic groups.