Structure of the semantic field "human" in the mental lexicon of Russian native speakers

The structure of the semantic field "Human" in the Russian language is considered in the article. The analysis is based on investigation of the native speakers' lexical responses received as a result of the questionnaire aimed at revealing the content of mental lexicon as contrary to formal vocabulary. Classification of the responses in terms of their lexical-semantic attributes demonstrates complexity and hierarchical organization of the field's structure. The most important component of the concept "Human" in the mental lexicon of the Russian native speakers is its affective evaluation: the words of this subgroup present almost one third of the lexicon. The core of the field "Human" includes external, gender/age-specific and basic social (occupation, family, nationality) characteristics of the man. The dynamics of the field structure is determined by the words entering different lexical-semantic groups and subgroups.