Perceptual Portrait of Belovezhskaya Pushcha in Regional Linguistic Consciousness

Abstract

The article presents the results of an experimental study on the perceptual embodiment of the BELOVEZHSKAYA PUSHCHA concept as a fragment of regional worldview. The research aimed to characterize the way this concept is expressed in the linguistic consciousness of residents of the Brest region by modelling and analysing its perceptual component. The main research method applied in the paper is the anthropometric method, combined with statistical and contextual analysis techniques. The material consists of associative reactions to the stimulus phrase Belovezhskaya Pushcha, obtained by processing 300 respondent questionnaires. All the participants in the experiment are residents of the Brest region and represent three age groups: schoolchildren, students, and the working population. The perceptual features are arranged from the most to the least frequent. As a result of quantitative processing of the reactions, the following images of the concept were identified: chromatological, auditory, and olfactory. In each of these images, dominant and peripheral units were recorded. The analysis established that the boundaries between the modes are unclear. In a number of cases, to describe Belovezhskaya Pushcha respondents used a symbiosis of several modes, based on which tactile-visual, gustatory-olfactory, and visual-auditory images were recorded. The phenomenon of synaesthesia serves as a means of conveying one’s emotions and impressions in connection with the visit to Belovezhskaya Pushcha. The analysis of the data obtained showed that the BELOVEZHSKAYA PUSHCHA concept is communicatively relevant in the perception of residents of the Brest region: in the regional worldview, not only the conceptual component is updated, but also a multi-level perceptual image filled with unique connotations is modelled.