Field principle for describing the meanings of toponyms (illustrated by the toponym Karelia)

The aim of this article is to create a model for describing the meaning of a toponym as close as possible to the consciousness of native speakers. The interaction and integration of the data obtained by different methods makes it possible to form such a meaning of a toponym. The author uses the method of communicative and semantic analysis of the material selected from the corpus of the Russian language, the method of semantic interpretation of experimentally obtained data, as well as the field principle of integrated meaning organization. Such an integrated approach to identifying the meaning of a toponym, as well as an attempt to create a model for presenting its meaning to a foreign audience determine the relevance of the research. The novelty of the work lies in the development of the criteria that enable, on the basis of the field organization of meaning, to distribute its semantic components according to the frequency rate and use it for teaching Russian at different levels of language proficiency. The practical significance of the work lies in the fact that the proposed principle of describing and presenting the meaning of toponyms in the process of teaching Russian as a foreign language can be used to describe other types of proper names as well. The meaning of the toponym Karelia analyzed as an example substantiates the chosen approach.