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Currently, one of the important concerns in linguistics is the study of human linguistic consciousness, the tradition of studying goes back to the ideas of Wilhelm von Humboldt and his followers about the relation between language and spirit of the people, the inner form of language and so on. Among the research methods of linguistic consciousness one stands out the association experiment which is a survey of informants, united by a certain community (language, occupation, area of residence, etc.) in order to identify their associations to a particular stimulus. The paper used the following methods of linguistic analysis: generalization and systematization, analytical method, descriptive, comparative method of association experiment, etc. The association experiments including the stimulus word "Vatan" (Motherland) have been carried out, with 500 students of Kazan - the native speakers of the Tatar language. The results have been compared with the materials of the "Slavic Dictionary of Associations". Both common components of associative fields of the lexemes "Homeland" in Russian and "Vatan" in Tatar (patriotism, love for country, willingness to defend) and specific features have been elicited. The analysis of the reactions of the respondents indicated incompatibility of volume of the studied lexemes: the Russian word "Homeland" corresponds to two linguistic units in Tatar (Tugan il, Vatan), and the lexeme "Vatan" has a literary colouring. Thus, the association experiment reveals systemacy of the content of consciousness image standing for a word in different languages, and confirms the uniqueness and originality of the image of the world of each culture. The study has practical significance, because the obtained results represent a valuable and rather reliable material for the study of certain fragments of language consciousness, national-specific phenomena, knowledge, values, etc.

© Journal of Language and Literature. This article presents historical and lexical research and lexicographic description of written records materials of the Kazan region of the XVI century. The article shows the process of formation and development of Russian historical lexicography; analyzes classifications of historical dictionaries, formed on different basis; determines historical and lexicological informational content of written records of the Kazan region of the XVI century. It also considers methods and technics of studying written records of the Russian language: examined documents, related to the Kazan region of the XVI century, differ in their variety of genres and represent written business records showing administrative and managerial activity of the government, its local and central institutions and regulating legal relations among society members. Analyzed written records are of great value as a source of toponymy; their materials help to retrieve history of villages of the region, establish the fact of existence of certain toponyms and follow their connection with modern geographical names.