Linguoculturological potential of the lexeme Rozhdestvo ('Christmas') in the contemporary youth's linguistic consciousness (based on findings of an associative verbal experiment)

The paper focuses on associative verbal potential of the lexeme 'Rozhdestvo' ('Christmas') in contemporary Russian youth's linguistic worldview. The research is based on findings of an associative linguistic experiment. The experiment allowed explicating culture codes unconsciously reproduced by respondents, and produced easily calculable results. Each of the respondents had to write down five linguistic units associated with the stimulus word 'Rozhdestvo' ('Christmas'). Linguocul-turological approach is used to interpret the obtained data as it allows analysing how cultural phenomena are represented in linguistic consciousness. The authors discover certain mobility of the linguistic means that verbalise Christmas semantics, as well as certain heterogeneity of people's conceptions of the feast. The study reveals contemporary cultural context and discourses significant for the youth environment. The experiment's primary result can be considered our visualisation of the cultural syncretism reflected in the perception of the lexeme Rozhdestvo. The findings can help when developing projects in education, communications, advertising that exploit cultural images and/or elements of cultural context, and serve as basis for further studies.