Psycholinguistic and cultural implications of German stimulus words humour and lachen in association test

Размещено на http://www.Allbest.Ru/

Lesya Ukrainka Volyn national university, Ukraine

Psycholinguistic and cultural implications of German stimulus words humour and lachen in association test

O. Zubach

Abstract

The article is focused on the psycholinguistic and cultural study of individual associative responses to German stimulus words 'Humor' and 'Lachen'. The goal is to determine individual cognitive activity features in the target' culture of popular laughter' (Bakhtin, 1965). The research involved a free word association test aimed at examining the German learners' perception of the stimulus words. Sixty undergraduate students aged 20-22 of the educational programmes "Language and Literature (German). Translation" at Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University, Ukraine, participated in the word association test. Quantitative analysis of response words, typical and individual responses allowed building semantic gestalt and productive semantic zones that represent the linguistic culture identification features. Nouns, adjectives, and verbs represented productive associations. The analysis of associative fields allowed modelling the interaction of psycholinguistic and lingo-cultural factors for the emergence of responses to the stimulus words 'Lachen' and 'Humor'. The obtained response words determined communicative, pragmatic, and cognitive productive profiles. Nuclear zones in each associative field tended towards a unified expression of positive emotions. Respondents produced a wide range of semantic potential of stimulus words and frequency of reverse reactions. The expressive spectrum of productivity of individual associations by the respondents is interpretive and results from their cognition of the culture of popular laughter.

Keywords: word association test, German language, Lachen, Humor, culture of popular laughter, semantic gestalt, psycholinguistics.

Анотація

Зубач О. Психолінгвістичні та лінгвокультурні аспекти асоціативних реакцій на німецькі слова-стимули Humor та Lachen

Мета статті - виявлення специфіки німецьких слів-стимулів Humor та Lachen на засадах лінгвокультурологічного та психолінгвістичного аналізів з метою визначення особливостей когнітивної діяльності особистості у сміховому просторі цільової лінгвокультури. У дослідженні застосовано метод вільного асоціативного експерименту, в якому досліджено особливості сприйняття слів-стимулів Humor та Lachen у сучасному соціумі, з'ясовано типові та індивідуальні реакції.

В експерименті взяло участь 60 студентів бакалаврату віком 20-22 років освітньо-професійної програми «Мова та література (німецька). Переклад» Волинського національного університету імені Лесі Українки (Україна). На основі кількісного аналізу слів-асоціацій та методу семантичного гештальта виокремлено продуктивні семантичні зони та реакції щодо кожного зі слів-стимулів, які представляють специфіку ідентифікації лінгвокультури. Продуктивними реакціями виокремлено іменникові, прикметникові та дієслівні.

Аналіз асоціативних полів дав змогу змоделювати взаємодію психолінгвістичних та лінгвокультурологічних засад для виникнення реакцій на слова-стимули Lachen та Humor. До продуктивних профілів реакцій належать комунікативний, прагматичний та когнітивний. Ядерні зони в кожному асоціативному полі виявили тенденцію до однотипності вираження позитивних емоцій. Респонденти репрезентували широкий обсяг семантичного потенціалу слів-стимулів та частотності обернених реакцій.

Виразний спектр продуктивності індивідуальних асоціатів запропонований респондентами має інтерпретаційний характер та є результатом ментальної та вербальної когніції сміхової культури.

Ключові слова: слова-стимули, асоціативний експеримент, семантичний гештальт, німецька мова, лінгвокультурологічний аналіз, психолінгвістика.

Introduction

As a part of cognitive science (Stillings et al., 1995, p. 3), psycholinguistics focuses on the mental and cognitive mechanisms that make it possible for people to use language (Garnham, 1985, p. 1). The cognitive approach considers a wide range of issues related to the interaction of mental/cognitive processes of individual speech activity. It promotes access to information about the structures (mechanisms) of human perception and understanding of the world in general (Edgar & Sedgwick, 2007). A psycholinguistic analysis aims to reveal the essence of the semantic organization of mental vocabulary and its connection with the mental aspects of language and speech.

Laughter as a combination of mental and cognitive mechanisms of individual emotional state identification may be accompanied by typical (expressions of joy, social satisfaction or well-being) and conflicting emotions (emotions of sadness, dissatisfaction, hysteria, depression, and the like). On the other hand, laughter is a "part of normal human behaviour" (Savage et al. 2017), evidence of a loss of sense of reality or kinship with the situation (culturally conditioned) that caused it. According to Ginzburg et al. (2020, p. 29), laughter is associated with the pleasure experienced by the laugher and, potentially, by other interlocutors. The interdependence of acts of social and interpersonal communication is simultaneously declared by the mental signs of laughter and humour, as "laughter and humour often go together, although humour does not necessarily entail laughter (Charaudeau, 2006, p. 20) and "both what seems wrong and what seems OK depend on people's physiological vulnerabilities, desired identity traits, values, cultural background, language, and understanding of logic" (McGraw, 2014, p. 76). Humour is a functionally systemic sign engraved not only positive or fun but also a carnival and absurd. The pragmatic specificity of humour (Attardo, 2003; Takovski, 2021) contributes to categorizing the principles of mental and cognitive processes to identify individual, ethnospecific features of the speech activity of the individual in a particular linguistic and cultural space.

In psycholinguistics, humour is defined as an indicator or point of reference for the manifestation of emotional state recognition point (O'Donnel -Trujillo & Adams, 1983; Podilchak, 1992) and a socially desirable phenomenon facilitating the establishment of contact between communicants (Cann & Matson, 2014), which influences many aspects of human well-being due to its positive effects on body physiology, immunity status, and psychological behaviour (Piemonte, 2015; Riesch,

2015) . Humour both exposes and disrupts the usual ways of using language. It also disrupts the rigidity of conventional ways of thinking, for it plays only with the rules of language but also with the rules of logic. However, humour clearly has a logic of its own (Lopez & Vaid, 2017).

The association test, or word association test (Terekhova, 2014; Shono et al., is popular among psycholinguists due to the possibility of studying the semantic organization of individual mental lexicon. The free association test is considered a tool for finding differential mental characteristics of the individual and a means of identifying productive linguistic and cultural stereotypical / cliched traits for modelling typological images of representatives of certain linguistic cultures. The application of the method focuses on identifying the linguistic and cultural specifics of language consciousness, conceptual semantic fields, and various elements of the linguistic world-image (Hui, 2011; Namei, 2004; Seguin, 2015). Recently, special attention has been paid to the study of linguistically marked stimulus words, as such words reveal the specifics of both cognitive and linguistic and cultural categorization of linguistic and cultural world images. Moreover, the analysis of linguistically marked words makes it possible to identify typical and specific meanings that demonstrate the peculiarities of the speakers' mentality of a certain linguistic culture.

Methods. Associative thinking differs at the interpersonal level due to social, cultural, age, gender and other factors. This is a basis for studying the typicality and specificity of linguistic and cultural features of verbalisation and the uniqueness of their perception at the intercultural level.

The WAT results showed that associative fields were created based on each stimulus word, which materialises at different levels of language. The analysis of stimulus words revealed traces of repetitive and individual reactions. For example, seven repetitive reactions were received to the Lachen stimulus word, where the stimulus word is categorised as a way of expressing positive emotions, emotional state or human reaction to something funny/humorous. The responses included nonverbal means of expressing mental state, e.g.: eine ausdruckende Mimik, bei der der Mund in die Breite gezogen wird und die Zahne sichtbar werden. 53 individual responses to the word-stimulus Lachen outlined its understanding as a manifestation of various human reactions to a comic / funny situation: eine Reaktion eines Menschen auf Komische oder erheiternde Situationen; preference / capture: auf etwas, das sie mag oder geniefit; postreaction to the experienced danger: eine Entlastungsreaktion nach uberwundenen Gefahren); echo of sounds or noises in the expression of joy: Gerausche, wenn man Freude ausdru; an innate means of expressing a person's emotional state: eines der wichtigsten angeborenen emotionalen Ausdrucksverhalten des Menschen; method of confrontation with conflict situations and means of socialization: a method for advocating for conflicts and for social assistance; a protective mechanism against unexpected danger or fear: ein Abwehrmechanismus gegen spontane Angstzustande.

Repetitive reactions to the word-stimulus Humor were recorded in 22 cases. This stimulus word was defined as a positive reaction to certain things (auf bestimmte Dinge heiter und gelassen zu reagieren). Thirty-seven individual reactions to the word-stimulus Humor indicated the (intellectual) ability to joke (die Fahigkeit einer Person, Witze zu machen); ability to resist everyday difficulties, failures (the movement of a man, the indifference of the world and the people, the allencompassing triumphs and misfortunes with the help of the voice to escape); talent to make someone laugh (ein Talent, andere zum Lachen zu bringen); the ability to see something fun in objects and objects (in Objekten das Lacherliche zu sehen / in Gegenstanden lustig zu sehen); a therapeutic/curative or therapeutic agent against sadness, depression, etc. Noteworthy is the individual reaction to the word-stimulus Humor, which records the specifics of perception of the individual in the particular language culture and mastery of verbal/nonverbal mechanisms of modelling or provoking laughter (eine korperliche oder verbale Handlung, die Sie zum Lachen bringen soll, die Kunst sich selbst und die Umstande nicht so ernst nehmen). Associative deviations include zero reaction (1) represented by verbal and nonverbal cues: no interest, no associations (nicht mein Ding, weil ich es nicht verstehe).

The nominative field of the stimulus words Lachen and Humor is mainly formed at the lexical level and consists of a set of one-word associations (noun, adjective and verb). Nounal reactions (137) outline constants, elements or product of laughter culture: der Witz (11), die Anekdote (10), der Komiker (10), die Satire (8), der Scherz (8), der Humor (7), the comedy (6), the laughter (6), the love (6), the parody (6), the spaghetti (6), the joke (5), the frivolity (4), the irony (4), the creativity (3), the optimism (3), the streak (3), the poetry (3), the text (3), the lightness (3), the comics (2), the clown (2), the words (2) ), der Lachanfall (2), die Ubertreibung (2), die Offenheit (2), der Krimi (2), das Genre (2), der Funke (2), die Intelligenz (2), das Temperament (2).

Adjectival reactions (118) are most clearly reflected at the pragmatic level of language, where they mark the interaction of individual mental, cognitive, and linguistic-cultural modes of perceiving the stimuli. This interaction enriches the associative row by indicating the originality of thinking.

Connotative meaning - lustig (13), komisch (7), witzig (6), frohlich (4), zynisch (4), sarkastisch (4), lacherlich (2), subtil (3), unterhaltsam (3), ironisch (3), satirisch (2), gelaunt (3), geistreich (3), bizarr (3), amusant (2), geistreich (2), spielerisch (2), liebenswert (2), eigentumlich (2), liebenswurdig (2), poetisch (2) , spotty (2), original (2), good (2).

Significative meaning - bissig (4), derb (2), humorlos (2), hysterisch (2), albern (2), boshaft (2), irrsinnig (2), absurd (2), verachtlich (2).

Contextual meaning - laconic (1), black (1).

Lingo-cultural meaning - volkstumlich (1), urkomisch (1).

Verb reactions (67) are associated with nominative fields that reveal the activity code of a person in the laughter space of a certain linguistic culture and categorize its activity: joke (scherzen (8), erheitern (5), schwatzen (1), plankeln (1), erzahlen (1)), to laugh (lachen (6), belacheln (1), gluksen (1), gackern (1)); to have fun (susmuren (4), uberspielen (2), sich unterhalten (2), sich erlustigen (1), aufmuntern (1), sich entspannen (1), sich ablenken (1), erfrischen (1), sich freuen (1)). The stimulus words Lachen and Humor in the associative series of the nominative group of verb reactions determine the level of laughter gradation at the communicative level of language - lacheln (9), kichern (4), auslachen (4), grinsen (2), schmunzeln (2), glimmlachen (2), totlachen (2), feixen (1), meckern (1).

The associative row at the syntactic level takes into account the syntactic categorical relations of creating predicative constructions at the levels of phrases and sentences. The peculiarity of the associative production of reactions to stimulus words outlines only the prerequisites for modeling the projection of the laughter culture specifics: purpose (Fre man Freude aufiert und seine Zahne dann sichtbar sind / die Atmosphare verwassern muss / die Leute aufmuntern will); condition (...man anekode gehort oder erzahlt hat / etwas Lustiges gesehen, gehort, gedacht oder gefuhlt wird/ einen guten Witz oder eine witzige Situation sieht oder hort); receptions (...man lustig scherzt / etwas lustig findet oder nervos ist / einen lustigen Witz erzahlt / lacherlich ist).

It should be noted that the detection of reactions at the phrase level was not due to the experiment. Representation by 4 respondents of associative adjectives (2 respondents) (...kindlichen / herzlichen / lauten / lustigen / bitteren Lachens) and verbs (2 respondents) (Spafi machen, Witze machen, einen Lachanfall / Lachkrampf bekommen, ein Gelchenmen about jmd. or etw. Witze machen / erzahlen, sich uber etwas lustig machen, vor Lachen weinen) reactions-phrases are evidence of a deeper awareness of the semantic volume of words-stimuli at the intercultural level.

The linguistic and cultural specifics of creating an associative series are categorised through national and cultural values of perception of the world of language and the world of culture, which are engraved in a certain linguistic and intercultural space. The specificity of the associative field in 99 proverbs is actualised at the morphological level of language. It is realised in word-forming categorical relations between reactions and stimulus words (das Lachen, das Lacheln, Gelachter, lachelnd, lustig, lachen), humor (der Humor). The spectrum of the associative field of the stimulus word Lachen (78) is higher than that of the stimulus word Humor (21). The intercultural level of the associative field is reflected in the responses of two participants:

Humor ist eines der besten Kleidungsstucke, die man in Gesellschaft tragen kann. William Shakespeare. Lachen ist eine korperliche Ubung, von grobtem Wert fur die Gesundheit. Aristoteles. Here the stimulus words are part of idioms.

Semantically opaque reactions to these stimulus words are few and their motivation is not always clear, probably due to a clear individualisation similarity or similarity association.

The analysis of associative fields allowed us to identify productive responses to the stimulus words Lachen and Humor (see Table 1).

Table 1

Productive responses to the stimulus words Lachen and Humor

The analysis of associative fields allowed us to identify productive response profiles to the stimulus words Lachen and Humor (see Table 2).

Table 2