[Psycholinguistic study of a special vocabulary used by alcoholics]

Twenty-five patients suffering from stage II alcoholism and 20 normal persons were subjected to a psycholinguistic study. The examined were asked to put down words associated with a booze situation. Out of 608 associated words thus derived, only 63 words (10%) turned out to be used by patients and normal persons whereas only 23% of the patients' words were entries of the dictionary of the Russian language. It is concluded that the alcoholic vocabulary of patients may be regarded as a specialized language with a specific contents. It is dominated by the so-called operational words associated with the process of purchasing alcoholic drinks, with the site and amount of booze as well as by the words synonymous to the word to 'knock back'. The alcoholic vocabulary of normal persons was dominated by the words relating to the drinking and companionable themes. The psycholinguistic experiment makes it possible to differentiate between patients and normal persons not only at the group but also at the individual level.