THE GENDER ASPECT OF THE CONCEPT OF ВІДПУСТКА / VACATION

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of gender peculiarities of the content of the concept ВІДПУСТКА / VACATION in Ukrainian and American linguocultures. To identify the conceptual features of the studied concept, a free association experiment was conducted in January–February 2024, which made it possible to obtain spontaneous and unbiased reactions of respondents, which are key to studying the way of thinking of native speakers. The experiment involved 100 respondents (50 Ukrainians and 50 Americans) who were offered a survey in Google Forms. Respondents indicated their gender, age, and associations to the stimulus word. We received 249 associations for the word stimulus відпустка and 248 associations for the stimulus vacation. By analyzing the frequency of the obtained reactions, the units that form the core, base layer, near periphery, and far periphery of the concept ВІДПУСТКА / VACATION were identified. In a comparative analysis of the reactions received from women and men, the authors did not find significant gender differences in the perception of the concept ВІДПУСТКА / VACATION. Respondents of different genders often gave the same response words. However, the latter differed in frequency, which meant a different degree of their significance for women and men. The experiment showed that in the minds of Ukrainian women, the central conceptual features of the studied concept are ‘rest’ and ‘sea’; men identified one main feature – ‘rest’. The most frequent association for American women was relaxation, which formed the core of the concept. In the experiment with American men, the most frequent reactions were relaxation and travel. The authors have shown that a free association experiment makes it possible to distinguish and compare the features of the studied concept in the minds of representatives of different linguocultures. It was proved that the concept ВІДПУСТКА / VACATION is relevant for both Ukrainians and Americans. The core of the concept is formed by the feature ‘відпочинок/ relaxation’.