CONSTITUENTS OF THE CONCEPT “SCIENCE” (NAUKA) IN THE LIGHT OF SOCIAL AND CULTURAL PECULIARITIES OF ENGLISH / RUSSIAN ACADEMIC ECONOMIC DISCOURSE

The research is devoted to the concept “Science”, which is understood, in accord with its etymology, as knowledge acquired by a person and having an outcome. The subject of the study is a rather narrow branch of science, i.e. economics. The empirical material were scientific texts of Springer journal for 2010-2022, analyzed using the continuous sampling method, while lexemes of academic discourse, verbalizing the concept “Science” were the object of the research. This research attempts to define the nucleus of the concept by a psycholinguistic method through a survey conducted among postgraduate students of economics whose level of English equals B2-C1. The author decided to take such an approach with a practical aim — to find possible zones of discrepancy between social cultural guidelines of students who are mastering a language and authentic empirical material as well as to identify high frequency lexis that is compulsory for academic language studies. The lexical units identified at the stage of the students’ survey were found in English-language texts on their specialty by the method of continuous sampling, the frequency of the units representing the concept was revealed. The empirical data allowed for correlation between predicted and real constituents of the lexical semantic field “Science” in economic academic discourse. The nucleus of the concept and its close and distant circumference were determined. The linguistic material also made it possible to categorize the semes and divide them into three groups: (1) properties of an individual helping to carry out scientific activity; (2) the result of scientific activity; (3) the manner or process of carrying out this activity. The contexts of lexical units’ usage were analyzed. Disproportions in the frequency of lexical units in students’ speech and in the texts of articles were analyzed for language interference and deficiencies of previous levels of English language teaching and practical conclusions applicable to academic English language teaching were made.

psycholinguistic methods, lexicographic analy- sis, text corpus, seme, lexeme, contextual analysis, lexical and sematic fields, concept, statistical calculations, frequency, lan- guage interference, educational project activities

Shirokikh A Yu. Constituents of the concept “Science” (Nauka) in the light of social and cultural peculiarities of English / Russian academic economic discourse. Biznes. Obrazovanie. Pravo = Business. Education. Law. 2025;1(70):351—361. DOI: 10.25683/VOLBI.2025.70.1196.