The Problem of Using Experimental Methods in Cognitive Linguistics

The article is devoted to controversial issues of using experimental methods (associative and semantic experiments) in cognitive linguistic research. The aim of the work is to identify differences in the goals, procedure and format of the data obtained in the course of associative and semantic experiments. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that for the first time: 1) a review of the texts of doctoral dissertations over the past 16 years and several scientific and methodological works conducted within the framework of the cognitive direction was carried out to describe the linguo-cognitive methodology; 2) an attempt was made to compare cognitive interpretations of the meanings of the words треск (crack) and хруст (crunch) based on the results of associative and semantic experiments. The results obtained in the study showed that: 1) the variability of the methods of linguo-cognitive research used in the considered works is due to differences in the understanding of the linguo-cognitive method by the authors; in some cases, the problem of a detailed description of the linguo-cognitive methodology in relation to the tasks of the study is difficult to solve; 2) the composition and formulation of features included in the cognitive interpretation of the meanings of the words треск (crack) and хруст (crunch) according to the results of associative and semantic experiments are different; 3) when conducting experiments, there are errors associated with the subjectivity of the data obtained; additional experimental procedures make it possible to reduce these errors to a minimum and thereby increase the objectivity of the experimental data.