Basic Value Content Freiheit / Freedom in German Linguoculture

   The aim of the article is to establish the content of the basic value Freiheit / freedom in the modern German linguistic culture.

   The main research method is a free associative experiment conducted by the author in 2019 and 2021 with speakers of the German linguistic culture aged 17 to 23 years.

   The respondents are students living in Vechta, Berlin, Freiburg, Baden-Baden, Potsdam. The conditions for the associative experiment are standard. The theoretical and methodological basis of the research is Leontiev’s theory of speech activity, which considers the ratio of stimulus and response as a speech action, based on the act of psychological predication. In order to establish the meaningful dynamics of the basic value Freiheit / freedom in the German linguoculture, the following analysis was conducted: 1) analysis of lexicographic sources, 2) analysis of lexical compatibility as a basis for determining the conceptual core of the lexeme denoting the value being investigated, 3) analysis of data from free and inverse associative experiments. As a result, it was found that the sign ‘freedom as a value’ was revealed most clearly in three experiments. In three experiments the attribute ‘nature’ was also highlighted, the naturalness of freedom, freedom from restrictions and conventions was emphasized. The sign ‘symbols of freedom’ is also significant, in which the traditional symbols associated by the respondents with free are combined. Such symbols are generally accepted national ones and are associated with German culture and testify to the personal assimilation of the value of freedom, to its embeddedness in the value system. The selection of reactions with a positive connotation in an associative experiment indicates a personal perception of basic values and their assimilation. It was revealed that the associative fields of values intersect with each other, some values allow the realization of other values, they influence each other and are undoubtedly connected with each other. It should be noted that the respondents deeply understand the value of freedom and rank it as basic.

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