Associative-verbal network of lexical innovations in the mental lexicon: results of an empirical study

Abstract

Conscious human activity in relation to language is the most important social factor affecting the preservation of the language as a whole. Modern world linguistic science suggests using a new methodology and methods at the intersection of sciences, moving away from the traditional structural and typological approach to the consideration of linguistic units for in-depth study of changes occurring in the evolution of any language. Thus, in recent years, the use of interdisciplinary empirical methods and their results has been undertaken to describe the profound internal changes observed in the language. The assessment of the state of lexical innovations arising at the present stage of development in the Kazakh literary language and in their functioning in the speech of native speakers is relevant. The results of the associative experiment prove that the place of lexical innovations in the language system, oral and written communication is not the same. The associative experiment is an empirical method that allows, in accordance with the integration directions of linguistics, with the help of which it is possible to conduct a comprehensive analysis of linguistic units with cultural, national, cognitive content in the consciousness of the individual and the community as a whole. The results of the associative research allow us to assess the potential of the Kazakh language in creating lexical innovations, to identify the possibilities of each word-formation approach. The results of the study show that the quantitative and qualitative content of the associative-verbal network in the mental lexicon of each lexical innovation is differently influenced by intra- and extralinguistic factors. The article examines the role of the associative experiment in the implementation of interdisciplinary research and analyzes the results of the associative experiment carried out to describe the self-organization of the studied lexical innovations in the mental lexicon of native speakers.