The Meaning as a Subject of Interdisciplinary Studies

Abstract

The paper discusses the interdisciplinary studies of the meaning. Being a difficult object to analyze, the meaning could be considered as an «intermediate» between the micro-level of individual consciousness and the macro-level of social institu­tions. The paper shows the possibilities of sociological and psychological para­digms in the analysis of the meaning as a unit of language consciousness. Thus represented, the meaning is a traditional subject of psycholinguistics. The mean­ings changeable in time are captured in the results of mass associative experi­ments. The paper studies the special properties of the meaning, such as «open­ness» at the same time to the individual minds and to social institutions; external conditionality of consistency; bimodality, or autopoiesis, which is the ability to si­multaneously be an element and a principle of system organization. Due to these properties of the meaning it is possible to combine psycholinguistic methods with approaches from other sciences, as well as to use an integrative methodology. The paper demonstrates the possibilities of interdisciplinary approach from the perspective of the sources of the meanings, including social actors, social in­stitutions or individuals.