The strategies of word semantization and the factors that determine their choice

The objective of this article was to describe the strategies of word semantizationby common native speakers and factors that determine speakers choice. Semantization of lexical meaning was carried out within a linguisticexperiment, in which 50 students of Kemerovo State University, aged from 18 to 22, took part. 60 words of the Russian languagereferring to denotative vocabulary were analysed. These words were from two thematic classes: Nature facts (wormwood, flood, crow)and Artefacts (church, table, dinner jacket). This research was aimed at proving experimentally that word semantization had variationcharacter, determined, on the one hand, by the type of lexical meaning, on the other hand, by the type of the preferred strategy of interpretation,speakers individual speech experience. The complex experimental research of denotation lexical meaning interpretationshowed the following: 1. Ordinary word semantization was a special kind of mental activity, which focused on language. The result ofthis semantization was the acquired knowledge verbalized by linguistic means. The process of word semantization by common nativespeakers was considered as some objective reality, due to which we could speak about multiple-aspect functioning of meta-language consciousness.2. During the process of lexical meaning interpretation the speaker chose a definite language strategy of word semantics perception.On the one hand, the potential strategy spectrum of word meaning perception was determined by the type of lexical meaning, on theother hand, by the type of mental action specific for every person. The research showed that some people had typical strategies of wordmeaning perception that reflected their individuality. It was also ascertained that some people chose different interpretation strategies of oneword while the others used the same ones. The choice similarity and the domination of this or that particular strategy could be explained bythe similarity of cognition, unanimity of psychical function of language sign perception for every member of this language society. But atthe same time this mental mechanism provided a speaker with the choice of strategy of word meaning perception.

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