Maria Mikhailovna Afonina
The subject of the study is the conceptual characteristics that make up the content of the frame, the nominal of which is the Belgian lexeme "kot" (a type of student housing, student room). The purpose of the article is to investigate the conceptual content of this frame as an element of the linguistic picture of the world (LPW) of Belgians who use the national variant of the French language. The relevance of the topic is determined by the necessity to study the LPW in the aspect of territorial variability. Culture-specific words present in the national variants of the French language are of particular interest in the context of the LPW, due to their high degree of ethno-specificity. This is because the denotation of such lexemes exists in the culture of the speakers of the national variant while being absent in the culture of other French-speaking countries, which causes the cognitive structures describing the denotation of such lexemes to have unique content specific only to the LPW of the speakers of that language variant. Research methods include analysis of dictionary definitions, derivational analysis, and frame analysis. The research material consisted of data from French language dictionaries, articles from student blogs, and articles from informational websites, totaling 40 texts analyzed. The results contain a description of the main conceptual features of the phenomenon of the student room, as well as the field organization of the "kot" frame, highlighting core and peripheral features. The obtained data indicate that the ethno-specific nature of the "kot" frame and its lexeme-nominal manifests linguistically in the formation of derivates of this lexeme, reflecting the core and features in the near periphery of the frame; a number of these lexemes are characterized by hyper-hyponymic relationships with the lexeme "kot." At the cognitive level, the ethno-specificity of the frame is manifested not only in its content but also in its potential for frame formation: the subframe "project kot," derived from a simpler frame, differs in both the complexity and branching of its structure, as well as in the unique nature of this Belgian phenomenon, enabling speakers of the language to perceive the student room not only as housing but also in terms of the characteristic of "center of social activity." The results obtained can be used in lexicographic and translation practices, as well as in the practice of teaching the French language. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that for the first time, the Belgianism-reality "kot" which has no direct equivalents in French-speaking countries is analyzed in terms of its cognitive content.