EVOLUTION OF THE LINGUO-CULTURAL CONCEPT OF ‘MARRIAGE’ IN AMERICAN ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLDVIEW

Abstract

As a result of ongoing social, political and economic changes the issue of behavioral changes, especially pertaining to family and marriage, come increasingly into view. One of the ways of looking into the essence of these changes is linguistic analysis of a key concept of this sphere – “marriage’. The article presents results of a free association experiment conducted in 2020, in which 95 respondents aged 21 – 70, all native speakers of American English took part. The findings of the study indicate that the concept of marriage has indeed evolved. A growing number of liberal as opposed to traditional associations demonstrates the fact that a greater importance is now attached to the idea of a personal choice in marriage. Comparing the results of the study to the results of a similar one demonstrates the potential of longitudinal analysis of the concept.