Representations of Time: A Psychosemantic Approach

Abstract

Relevance: time is an obligatory attribute of both objective and subjective reality and plays an important role in the structural and functional organization of an individual. In this regard, it becomes relevant to study the semantic field representing the category of "time" in subjective space of an individual. Strengthening digitalization, a subsequent acceleration of human life, requires restructuring the processes of self-organization of an individual in the conditions of their new reality. Problem statement: time is a methodological interdisciplinary problem. Conceptual metaphors in the content of the thesaurus reflect the current state of society's attitude to time, its accounting, evaluation, use, structuring in activity. The study of ideas and the allocation of conceptual metaphors in relation to time through ideas can become a way to better understand people's treatment of time in their current life. Goal: analysis of adult's representations about time. Methods: associative experiment (in the format of limiting choices). Instructions for subjects to suggest three associations in the form of verbs, adjectives, nouns (9 association words in total) for the word "time". Results: the most frequent semantic categories of associations related to time are the categories of movement and speed, which are internally interconnected. The next most frequent category is "units of time measurement". The prevalence of time measurement in hours in the associative semantic field, as a reflection of the content of everyday consciousness of adults, was revealed. The next most frequently mentioned categories are "lifetime", "value of time", "activity time" and "waiting time". The least frequent category is "infinity of time". Statistically significant differences were obtained between the categories based on frequency. Conclusion: The core components of time concepts are the categories "movement of time", "units of time measurement" and "speed of time". The peripheral component of time concepts is the category "infinity of time". Thus, subjectively significant features of the concept "time" in adults were identified. In the middle zone of significance of the associative semantic field there are enlarged semantic categories "lifetime", "time value", "activity time", "waiting time". They reflect the course of human life in its normative version. © 2025 Tomsk State University. All rights reserved.