Indian Journal of Science and Technology

Abstract

Background: The present paper aims to reveal some peculiarities of drinks representation in the picture of the world of Russian 13–15-years-old teenagers. Methods: Open questionnaire survey, free associative experiment, method of free classification, and method of semantic differential were used to reveal relevant denominations and subcategories of drinks, proverbial sayings concerning drinks, associations, attitudes and stereotypes in respect of drinks. Findings: Ten subcategories of drinks relevant for respondents of both sexes (“soda”, “juice”, “water”, “tea”, “coffee”, “milk drinks”, “cocktails”, “spirits”, “wine”, “beer”) were found out. The associative field of the stimulus ‘drinks’ shows complex multimode structure with the quantitative dominance of drink names associations. Russian respondents are prone to give generic names of drinks of different hierarchical ranks up to denominations of “naïve” classification subcategories in their answers. Proverbial fund concerning drinks is rather poor among Russian teenagers. Female respondents tend to reproduce didactic proverbs, while male respondents are mostly disposed to mention precedential phrases and anti-proverbs. The sample showed stable negative attitude towards alcoholic drinks (like vodka and beer) and generally positive one towards nonalcoholic drinks of everyday consumption (except Coca-cola considered ambivalently). Vodka is considered unanimously the typically Russian drink nevertheless. In general the sample shows little gender difference. Applications/ Improvements: The presented multi aspect empirical approach contributes to the better identification of both linguistic and psychological aspects of functioning of a concept in a group’s picture of the world.

Keywords: Categorization, Denomination, Drink, Picture of the World, Russian, Teenager