SEMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS IN THE THESAURUS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TERMS: WHAT DO DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS REVEAL TO A COGNITIVE LINGUIST?

SEMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS IN THE THESAURUS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TERMS: WHAT DO DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS REVEAL TO A COGNITIVE LINGUIST?

Author:  Glinskaya N. P.

Abstract: 
The semantics of the subject area of psychology in English has been compiled in the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms of American Psychological Association since 1974. The use of cognitive semantics methods for the analysis of cognitive structures of more than 190 dictionary entries and about 2000 English terms of two conceptual domains in the thesaurus under study has included 1) the identification of the main types of semantic relationships (hierarchy, differentiation, relatedness, similarity) in the terms’ entries of the thesaurus, 2) a comparative analysis of the distribution of these relationships. Descriptive statistics reveal statistically significant patterns of distribution of certain types of semantic relationships within such sections of the thesaurus, as “cognitive psychology” and “educational psychology”.

Keywords:  English psychological terminology  ◆  semantic relationships  ◆  thesaurus  ◆  cognitive semantics  ◆  cognitive terminology study  ◆  descriptive statistics