Image of Motherland in Russian and Japanese Linguocultures

Abstract

The images of motherland in Russian and Japanese linguocultures are juxtaposed on the basis of association experiments. Russian culture is analyzed along two samplings – that of the early 1990s and that of the early 21st century. In order to compare their data, relevant associative fields were first split into four major semantic components, namely: logical perception, moral and ethic perception, bodily perception, and emotional perception. It was demonstrated that in both linguocultures the image of motherland was perceived in large part positively. It was evidenced once again that Russians of both periods tended to epitomize individualism, while the Japanese were obviously collectivist. Predictably, the worldviews of Russian respondents of both time periods saw much more congruence than the worldviews of Russians (from both samplings) and the Japanese. Meanwhile, post-perestroika Russians weren’t inclined to reflect over the image of their motherland or critisize it which is most noticeably evidenced by the percent-age of data pertaining to components of the associative fields under study related to bodily perception. The reason for such a reflection fatigue lay highly likely in the cultural shock provoked by the collapse of the Soviet Union and ac-companied by the discredit of its public ideology. Such an attitude was not registered in 21st century Russians and the Japanese. Love for the wild nature of their respective countries is a characteristic feature mostly of the 1990s Russians and the Japanese, but not salient in the 21st century Russians who expressed it to a lesser extent.