A comprehensive analysis of the value JUSTICE: a psycholinguistic aspect

The article is devoted to the psycholinguistic analysis of the value JUSTICE. This phenomenon is considered to be an element of the public consciousness of the Russian The article is devoted to the psycholinguistic analysis of the value JUSTICE. This phenomenon is considered to be an element of the public consciousness of the Russian language picture, as well as a part of the individual worldview in the form of its personal meanings. Using component analysis, a fragment of the Russian language picture of the world has been revealed. It was found out that the lexeme justice in Russian dictionaries of different years of publishing has three semantic nodes, which in the form of integral hypersemes and differential hyposemes are present in all dictionary definitions: the essence of the phenomenon, orientation and object. Most definitions explain the desired lexeme as an attitude, property, or action directed either at a person or society. The object is a person or an attitude/action towards someone or something. Based on the analysis of associative dictionaries and a free associative experiment held on a large sample of respondents of the Russian Federation, the content of the value JUSTICE was revealed consisting of nuclear and peripheral elements. The nuclear elements show generally accepted associations, the peripheral ones show individual and personal reactions. The nuclear elements highlighted in associative dictionaries did not fully manifest themselves and their sequence as different compared to the free associative experiment, which indicates the dynamics of the respondents’ understanding of this value over time. The results of the free associative experiment of the value JUSTICE were studied using a quantitative method of data mining in order to determine the optimal number of concepts that define the structure of the desired value, based on their frequency and place of reaction to the stimulus in the chain of associations of respondents. The value JUSTICE is associated with many other values, such as honesty, decency, equality and others, which are combined in the worldview into a system of complex concepts that determine the emotions and behavior of a person, which ultimately contribute to the formation of a certain state ideology.