Conception of a human in Chinese and Russian students’ linguistic world-image

The paper deals with conception of a human in Chinese’s mental lexicon. Conception is a structure which a brain uses in order to denote a class of things. Mental lexicon is a complicated system of interactive fields that contain information regarding a word meaning. The basic part of mental lexicon is actual lexicon that is defined as the most frequently used vocabulary. The material under research is a Chinese word list compiled as a result of an experiment with Chinese students from Nanchang University (China, Jiangxi province) and representing their actual lexicon. Russian actual lexicon described in some articles by linguist E. Erofeeva is used for comparative analysis. The conception of a human in Chinese mental lexicon differs from the one in Russian mental lexicon. In Chinese culture a person is a part of a complicated system of interpersonal relationships. According to the research, concept of a human in Chinese society can be presented in several theses, which describe a social status, appearance and conditions for success. Firstly, a person has to be a member of a society to build relationships with another people. Secondly, a person has to be externally successful. Finally, it is very important to be good-looking and able to achieve success in career.