CONVENTIONAL CYCLE STRUCTURES IN THE PRESENT_DAY RUSSIAN LEXICON

The article presents the results of a study of conventional temporal lexical cycles in Russian – names of days of the week cycle and months of the year tightly tied by sequence and recurrence relationships. The lexicographic and psycholinguistic analyses lead to the conclusion that on a par with equivalence based on the ontological properties of the cycles analyzed their language representations share a set of semantic features of the type «Time period», «Order», «Activity», etc., which form in their entirety a cognitive matrix. Its members differ in their significance: relevant for the week cycle is the parameter of «Activity» whereas for the year cycle –«Nature and Weather», «Activity». Selectivity of semantic features actualized in the meanings of individual units determines differentiation of relations in the conventional lexical cycles and salience of some members of the sets (воскресеньеin the week cycle, майin the year cycle, etc.).