The transformation of the concept БОГ (GOD) in the Russian linguistic consciousness
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The study aims to identify the patterns underlying the transformation of the concept БОГ (GOD) in the linguistic consciousness of respondents with different types of religious socialization through a comparative analysis of associative fields obtained in a free association experiment. The article examines the associative field of the stimulus word “Бог”, elicited through a free verbal association experiment conducted among students at secular and religiously affiliated higher education institutions. Within a cognitive-discursive framework, five vectors of conceptual transformation are identified and analyzed: “Canon”, “Depersonalization”, “Sacralization of the Immanent”, “Subjectivization”, and “Desacralization of Form”. The scientific novelty lies in the first description and quantitative measurement, based on associative-experiment data, of the transformation indices of the concept БОГ depending on respondents’ type of religious socialization. The study establishes that, among respondents with institutional religious socialization, the concept retains a monocentric canonical structure. In the linguistic consciousness of respondents who do not consider themselves religious, it acquires a polycentric and fragmented character, with markers of formal desacralization and internal hybridization of discursive codes prevailing.
Source: Philology Theory & Practice
Author: Evgeniya Sergeevna Sukhareva
Institution: Moscow City University
Language: English
Topic: Language and Culture
Subfield: Linguistics and Language
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7225392293