Linguoaxiology of emotions: linguocultural value of ZLOST’ in Russian linguistic consciousness

Abstract

The article explores the linguocultural value of ZLOST’ in the Russian linguistic consciousness. It is based on the notion that the value of an emotion is culturally specific, not fully accessible to direct observation, yet can be discovered and measured using psycholinguistic methods. An experiment was conducted to identify the linguocultural value of the emotion ZLOST’ in the Russian linguistic consciousness. The scaling method was used for the experiment: in the first phase, seven-point bipolar scales were compiled based on the characteristics of the emotion ZLOST’ provided by the respondents. In the second phase, the participants rated the emotion ZLOST’ on these scales, and the results were processed and interpreted. It was found that ZLOST’ is most often rated as emotional and anxious, as well as strong, angry, stirring, and destructive (these scales showed the fewest zero ratings). The image of ZLOST’ as anxious, angry, destructive, and fast is almost unambiguously formed in the collective consciousness (these scales showed the least variance in ratings). The characteristics of the emotion ZLOST’ were arranged in descending order of the intensity of quality (characterized by the absolute value of the rating), and the numerical indicators were verbally interpreted: ZLOST’ is very emotional, very angry, very destructive, very anxious, dangerous, terrible, vivid, sad, impulsive, bad, quite sincere, quite stirring, quite fast, quite absorbing, quite large, quite strong, quite unconscious, quite hot, quite loud. The obtained results demonstrate the feasibility of using the applied methodology for studying the linguocultural value of emotions in the Russian linguistic consciousness, as well as in comparative studies.

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