I. YAKOVLEV CHUVASH STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY BULLETIN

synonymic potential, componential analysis, archiseme, differential seme, international/national constants, binary opposition, anthropocentrism.

The research of the synonymic potential of lexical units included into the lexical-semantic field «evil spirit» makes it possible to determine the structural-semantic organization of the target field. The key criterion in determining the nuclear and periphery of the field is the proportion of the synonyms with reference to every lexical unit of the field. When studying the semantics of the synonyms, the key criteria are the composition of archisemes, variation of differential semes, semantic constants and oppositions.