Distance experiment in cognitive linguistics

Alekseeva Victoria

The article describes the structure of a distance experiment in cognitive linguistics, conditions for remote users interaction and the sequence of distance experiment running. The method of remote experiment combines the principles of associative experiment and free definitions (to give a free description of sovietisms or ideologemes), as well as the method of deep introspection of the researcher, which restores all the chains of reactions to sovietisms or ideologemes in the responses of testees. The platforms for conducting the experiment were ZOOM, Skype, and Facebook (video conferences and chats). The purity of the experiment was ensured by the fact that 15 representatives of the UK and 6 representatives of the US took part in the study, the age of the respondents was 18-77 years. The study showed that in most cases, foreigners in one way or another have difficulties in interpreting a particular unit of the Soviet period. It is explained by the fact that they rely on a personal system of meanings. However, in order to facilitate the understanding of these units, it is necessary to rely on the language values. They can be passed by using calculated variants, borrowings, definitions, analogs, and generic substitutions.

Keywords:distance experiment, associations, sovietisms, ideologemes, stimulus words.