Associative Plume of Cultural Artifacts

Abstract

The article focuses on the analysis of the associative perception of proper names. The purpose of the article is to analyze the associative plume of proper names that mark the naming of cultural artifacts of the onymic landscape. Onyms belonging to pop culture were chosen as the object of research, and their associative plume was the subject. The material of the research was 97 reactions of 30 respondents, which were submitted to three stimuli: Mona Lisa, Star Wars, Eurovision. The research methodology consists of conducting a free associative experiment with selected onyms-stimuli and analyzing the results of the experiment using the semantic gestalt of the associative field method. Reactions to the stimulus are naturally grouped around certain fragments of the conceptual picture of the world, which are reflected in this associative gestalt. Each stimulus formed a two-fold core of a semantic associative gestalt. The isomorphism of the core structure of associative gestalts does not deprive them of their originality, which is manifested in the potential of the dominant gestalt, which we associate with the fact that each cultural artifact has a multi-component structure that cannot be reflected only in a single associative plane. The distribution of onymic reactions also has a certain isomorphism: in all associative fields, anthroponymic reactions that nominate both real and virtual denotates prevail, which can be interpreted as a manifestation of the culture of participation, because in the picture of the world, the main initiator and participant of events is a person. In this way, the concept of anthropocentrism is actualized in modern Ukrainian society, which at the same time realizes and identifies itself through the prism of cultural artifacts, proper names, and a complex of memes. The respondents of the experiment were the representatives of the new generation, and their cultural picture of the world and its onymic part demonstrate commitment to tradition and, at the same time, the realization of their new understanding. All this allows us to assert that with the help of a free associative experiment it is possible to record cultural evolutionary progress.