Psychosemantic Content of the Concept of Sexuality in the Language Consciousness of Adults

Abstract

Introduction. The article presents the results of psycho-linguistic study of the representation in the linguistic consciousness, psychosemantic and psychological content of the relative neologism “sexuality” formed in the conditions of natural transcultural semiosis. Herein the author’s own definition of the phenomenon of sexuality was formulated. The aim of the study is to research the semantic content of the concept of “sexuality”, to analyze the existing definitions, to accentuate the concept of sexuality. On the basis of the results of psycho-linguistic and psychosemantic studies to formulate author’s own definition. Research Methods & Techniques. The psycho-linguistic methods were used: (a) extended word association experiment; (b) modified semantic differential method; (c) modified incomplete sentence method. Results. The extended word association experiment has shown that in the linguistic consciousness of the student’s youth (20–22 years), in the understanding of sexuality, most often there exist semantic associates to “sexy” (28,27%) calqued from the American English. In the associative field of persons the age of early adulthood, who have grown up in the conditions of natural linguistic semiosis, where there was no meaning of “sexy”, other verbal reactions prevail, namely trust, openness, safety, reason, a man. The modified unfinished sentence method revealed that the psychosemantic understanding of sexuality in men and women has both common and distinct features. Conclusions. The living word represents the cognitive-discursive activity of the individual and the society. Sexuality as a product of natural linguistic semiosis and as a psychological phenomenon is not reduced to sexual physicality. Being the part of a holistic self-concept and a meaningful identity, the concept of sexuality reaches the mental-spiritual level and is actively present in the linguistic consciousness of the adult. Therefore, sexuality functions on the physical, psycho-emotional and mental-spiritual levels and is considered in at least biological, psychological (psycholinguistic) and cultural aspects.

Keywords

• linguistic consciousness, associative fields, semantic space, associative experiment, psychosemantics of sexuality, sexuality.