The concepts of "Family" and "Marriage" in the world picture of children of different ages

The study aims to analyse the structure and content of the concepts of "Marriage" and "Family" in the world picture of children, teenagers, male and female adolescents aged 3 to 18. The study is conducted within the framework of cognitive linguistics. It corresponds to the modern context of developmental psycholinguistics (ontolinguistics) and explains what is behind the lexemes reflecting notions/concepts in native speakers’ minds. The main research method is a chain association experiment. The study participants divided into three age groups (3–7, 10–13, and 15–18 years old) were asked to respond to the stimulus words family and marriage with five associations. The complex structure-frame of the concepts "Marriage" and "Family" is divided into thematic sections-slots. The concept of "Family" evolves during the period of growing up. For preschool children, the family is its members (the most frequent responses are mum and dad). Children aged 5–7 name kinship terms; 3-year-olds respond with the names of brothers and sisters. In children aged 10–13, the concept acquires a more abstract content: the responses love, help, and support become frequent. For the oldest age group participants, the responses of the emotions and values slot prevail over the others. In their picture of the world, the family is depicted as an ideal model where love, trust, and understanding reign. The concept of "Marriage" is practically not represented in preschool children’s picture of the world. In the group of participants aged 10–13 and 15–18, all the slots identified in the structure of the concept "Family" are duplicated in the concept of "Marriage". In the oldest group of participants, responses associated with emotions and values predominate. Associations denoting the emotions/values of the being-in-love and idealisation period are much more common for the stimulus words of this slot than for the stimulus word family. The structure of the concept of "Marriage" has new slots such as finances and budget; wedding ceremony and its participants; judicial, legal. For schoolchildren aged 10–13, marriage is closely associated with the beginning of couple life, a holiday (the most frequent response is wedding). However, this aspect of marriage is less important for male and female adolescents.

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