SEMANTICS OF POLITICAL LEXEMES ВЛАСТЬ (RUS-POWER) AND 権力 (JP-POWER) IN THE NAIVE PERCEPTION OF RUSSIANS AND JAPANESE

Zhdanova Y.

The article is dedicated to analyzing the naive perception of the meaning of the lexemes POWER and 権力 (Japanese [kenryoku] «power») by native speakers of the Russian and Japanese languages. The material used for the present study consists of Russian and Japanese lexicographical sources as well as the results of an association experiment. The sample of informants (102 persons) was balanced according to the social factors «gender», «age», and «nationality». The total volume of the analyzed material amounted to 469 associations grouped into six thematic groups. The analysis of the dictionary definitions showed a sufficiently close semantic content of the lexemes POWER and 権力 in the official scientific aspect. Comparing the associations obtained as a result of the experiment from native speakers of Russian and Japanese makes it possible to understand the political picture of the world of both cultures. The research showed that despite the lack of significant differences in the semantics of the analyzed lexemes in lexicographical sources, the perception of the lexemes POWER and 権力 differs in the naive perception of the Russian and Japanese informants.

Keywords:political vocabulary, semantics, political vocabulary in Japan, thematic group, associative field, political picture of the world