Field approach as one of the tools of cognitive linguistics

The article deals with the field approach as one of the most effective ways of description and representation of lexical-semantic structure of language. It is being noted that any language can be considered as a combination of lexical-semantic fields. Apart from this, the topicality of the approach is being stressed out; it is caused by the fact that lexical-semantic field is not artificial but natural method (in terms of organization and functioning of language) of representation of related information. For this reason, lexical-semantic field can be used for solving a variety of theoretical and practical issues. In other words, representation of lexis as a field possesses enormous applicative potential, and not only in linguistics and related disciplines. It is being noted that the field approach shows its highest efficiency when applied to specialized lexical-semantic fields, i.e. terminological fields, regardless of subject field they belong to. The article analyses a number of definitions provided for the ‘lexical-semantic field' notion in order to figure out the one which is the most relevant for today's research. Basic types of semantic relations between lexical units making up a field (such as synonymy, meronymy etc.) are also analyzed in the article. These relations show the similarity between the field approach and the method of thesaurus modelling. It is also being noted that no method of representation of lexical-semantic structure of language is universal - its choice depends on a particular goal a researcher wants to achieve. In general, the field approach is considered as an instrument for modelling the structure of lexical-semantic fields for applicative purposes such as development of common-language and specialized thesauruses.