LEXICAL AND ASSOCIATIVE GROUPS OF NOMINATIVE SPHERE «WEATHER» IN THE SEMANTIC SPACE OF ONLINE NARRATIVE (BASED ON BRITISH ONLINE NEWSPAPERS)

Abstract

In terms of everyday life, every person is able to perceive the world through associations that are an integral part of the brain processes. In linguistics, the notion of association is primarily related to the realization of associative relations within language units, e.g. the emergence of one or another reaction to the word-stimulus. The basis of the association is an associative relation between semantically close words, the strength of which depends on the frequency of formation of series of representations. In our research, the associations are the relations among the elements of the lexical structure of the weather news story and the related phenomena of reality in the mind of the reader, which promotes the development of the text value of words, enriches the thematic layer, and specifies the text narrative, thereby actualizing its semantic space. In addition, associations in the online narrative are a means of representation of the individual mind of the author (in this case, the journalist), where only certain words (special for him) receive a semantic advantage. The article deals with the lexical and associative groups of the nominative sphere «WEATHER» in organizing the semantic space of online narrative in weather news stories. The article also presents a comprehensive study of theoretical backgrounds of associations. Main classifications of associations are also provided. Based on the analysis, dominant lexical and associative groups and subgroups in the lexical structure of the weather news stories are singled out. Associative enrichment of the lexical and semantic, as well as lexical and thematic groups is revealed in the following lexical and associative groups: «Seasons» (subgroups: «Winter», «Spring», «Autumn», «Summer»), «Personification of weather phenomena», «Metaphorical representation of weather phenomena», «Expressive and stylistic enhancement of weather phenomena», «Capital names» (subgroups: «Places», «Quotations», «People»). The role of associative relations in the narrative contiguity and coherence in weather news stories is also determined.