Cultural and geographical image of Siberia in the language consciousness of Russian students: diachronic aspect

Statement of the problem. This article traces the dynamics of the stereotypical component of the cultural and geographical image of Siberia in the linguistic consciousness of different generations of Russian students, which is conducted by benchmarking the data of free-associative experiments. The purpose of the article is to reconstruct the cultural and geographical image of Siberia in the linguistic consciousness of Russian students in order to reveal its possible dynamics. Methodology (materials and methods). Reconstruction of the cultural and geographical image of Siberia is conducted with the support of the free-associative experiment method with the utilization of three dictionaries of associative norms and data of the in-house experiment. Research results. Comparison of the associative fields’ main zones of the stimulus “Siberia” demonstrated a presence of not only certain concurrences but also significant changes in the content of association directions as well as their presence/absence in the linguistic consciousness of different generations of students. Conclusions. With the consistency of merely geographical perceptions of Siberia revealed among different generations of students, a notable dynamic of their culturological knowledge and phycological perception enclosed in the comprehensive cultural and geographical image of Siberia was distinguished. Authors’ contribution. The concept of the article, its theoretical comprehension and experimental implementation belongs to the authors of the article.