Psychologically relevant content of the basic value of charity / charit'e in Russian and French linguocultures

The article presents a comparative analysis of the associative-verbal field of the concept "Charity", recorded as a result of a free associative experiment. The basic value of charity is chosen as the object of research. The aim of the proposed research is to establish the psychologically relevant content of the basic value of charity in the Russian linguistic culture and to identify its correspondences in the French language consciousness, as well as to establish the possible dynamics of the studied basic value. Russian-speaking and French-speaking informants were asked to write all sorts of associations for the word-incentive "charity/charité". The experiment was conducted in 2019-2020 in Paris, Tours, Marseille, Saint-Brieuc (France). It was attended by 130 respondents. The total number of associations was 733 reactions. The quantitative analysis of the material obtained as a result of the free associative experiment made it possible to form an associative-verbal field by analogy with the dictionary entry of associative dictionaries. In order to clarify the psycholinguistic meaning of the concept, the resulting associations were divided into semantic modules. The experiment revealed the presence of a common component "help", which determines the content of most reactions-ideas and testifies to a common goal and awareness of charity as an active selfless action, which indicates a great common understanding of this value by Russian and French respondents. The comparison of the data of etymological, explanatory and phraseological dictionaries with the data of the free associative experiment demonstrates their partial coincidence, which indicates the stable content of the basic value of Charity. However, the appearance in the associative field of the concept of a new feature - "commercialization" indicates the dynamics of the meaning of the word mercy, and therefore the process of changing the basic value.