Social power as one of the segments in the structure of the concept STRENGTH in the modern English language

The idea of the reconstruction of cognitive structures on the basis of exterior language form is basic in the modern cognitive approach to the language. The notion of a conceptual structure attracts cognitiv-ists' special attention. The article deals with structural peculiarities and contents of the concept STRENGTH in the modern English language. The results of the analysis of explanatory dictionaries data, encyclopedias data and the examples taken from fiction and newspapers let us refer the concept STRENGTH to segmental concepts which include image component, encyclopedia field and interpretation field. The image component includes a number of conceptual metaphors found out with the help of the analysis of metaphorical combination of lexeme-representatives of the concept STRENGTH. Around the image component there are four segments which form the encyclopedia field of the concept: "Physical Strength", "Mental Power", "Vital Force" and "Social Power". In every segment there are some discrete elements which are called conceptual features. The periphery of the concept is presented by the interpretation field - a set of conceptual features which interpret the image component and the encyclopedia field. The article deals with the analysis of the segment "Social Strength" which is a component part of the encyclopaedia field of the concept under investigation. In this segment strength is presented as an ability of a person to influence another person. We call it Social Strength because it manifests itself only in a society and has the forms of management, organization, control and domination as well as its own methods: authority, right, violation, persuasion, manipulation. Such interpretation of strength correlates with the concept of power. The lexeme-representatives of this segment are power, powerful, strength, force, forceful, influence, domination. Each of them has an integral semantic marker "power" in its semantic structure. The analysis shows that the lexeme "power" dominates all the above-mentioned lexemes because it includes all their definitions. The contextual analysis adds to the definition analysis. The segment "Social Power", which is a component part of the encyclopedia field, includes a set of conceptual features found out on the basis of the analysis of non-metaphorical combination of words which reflects real, logical relations. These conceptual features are: • Moral influence, authority • High social status, influence, wealth • Management, control • Domination, rule, suppression, compulsion • Rights, authorities • Strength of word It should be noted that the structure and inner organization of a concept is a hypothetic model even if experimental methods of research and verification were used, because any concept belongs to the mind and a researcher builds a concept on the basis of some indirect signs of its manifestation.

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