Lexicosemantic Model of Aggressive Act Perceptual Image: Thematic Dictionary Construction Experience

The paper explores the process of constructing a thematic explanatory dictionary Verbal Structure of Communicative Act of Aggression that reveals the perceptual image of an act of aggression. Two volumes of the dictionary represent a semantic cross-section of native Russian speakers' ideas about the structure and dynamics of an act of aggression, as fixed in the language norm (on the basis of "dictionary" associates) and usage (on the basis of "text" associates). The language material was obtained using a modified associative experiment with the involvement of a group of Russian-speaking subjects; data were collected from Russian-language dictionaries of various profiles for the first volume of the dictionary, and from institutional media texts for the second volume. The analysis and generalization of the resulting vocabulary charts made it possible to group the associates into lexicosemantic categories, which in sum represent the subjects' ideas about the structure and dynamics of an act of aggression. The resulting lexicosemantic model indicates a quantitative predominance of the category "nominations of types and forms of aggression" in the verbalized image of an act of aggression. In the perceptual image of an act of aggression based on "dictionary" associates, a significant role is also given to the categories "individual- personal qualities of an aggressive subject" and "aggression as an emotional state." The process of associating based on institutional media texts also enabled identification of categories "third party involved in an act of aggression" and "instruments for implementing and regulating aggression." The research revealed a significant predominance of vocabulary with destructive connotations; given that in scientific and methodological literature aggression is considered an ambivalent phenomenon.