Lingua-cultural practices and their associative field

The object of research in this paper is "rite". It is characterised not only as a traditional stereotype, but also as lingua- cultureme, including linguistic and extralinguistic background knowledge. In this connection, the topic of the work is formulated as «lingua- cultureme ‘rite’ and its associative field». The research objective is to consider "rite" as lingua- cultureme, to reveal its lingua- cultural field.
The basic methods applied in paper are linguo- cultural and conceptual analyses, a comparative method, and modelling. In the course of conducted research the following scientific results are received: It is proved that the rite represents as a lingua- cultureme as it hands over from generation to generation the cultural information in copy -ritual and verbal forms, acts as the unity of the linguistic and cultural knowledge; its signs are difined as lingua- culturemes; types of the national and background knowledge containing in structure of a rite (subject, spiritual, cultural-mental, national) are revealed; symbolic and magic functions, and also the associations arising at commitment of any rite is found out; "sacrifice" is described as a lingua- cultural field of a rite; the cognitive scenarios of the rite is considered in the comparative aspect; The rite is a lingua- cultureme, representing dialectic unity linguistic (value), cultural (transmission of the cultural information), cognitive (knowledge) of components.