Abstract
The article is devoted to the study of the perceptual-imaginative concept, which gives an idea of positive and negative moral qualities of a person and the ethical evaluation of them. The conceptual space of this concept, which includes perceptual-verbal, figurative, ethical, evaluative, and nominative aspects, is considered. The aim of the article is to study the perceptual-imaginative concept, to identify and describe verbalized perceptual units in the process of sensual and artistic perceptions, and to find out the correlation of figurative meanings of taste vocabulary with the character of a person and his evaluation with the help of empirical methods. A complex method including a questionnaire survey, sociolinguistic survey, associative experiment, frame modeling, observation, statistical methods, and correlation analysis was used in the process of research. The following scientific results were obtained: the stages of ethical concept formation were revealed, its conceptual space was defined, and its components were analyzed: perceptual-verbal (which gives an idea about neurolinguistic mechanisms of taste, signifying the result of taste perception with the help of perceptual units); figurative (the formation of the figurative meaning of the perceptual concept with the help of metaphors is considered, and its anthropomorphic model is presented); evaluative (using empirical methods and correlation analysis). The results of the questionnaire and sociolinguistic survey are calculated using statistical methods. The novelty of the work consists in describing the formation of a multilevel perceptual concept, detailing its components, finding out the way of forming the figurative meaning of the concept, and describing the correlation of this meaning with the qualities of a person’s character and the ethical assessment given to him.