THE PHENOMENON OF THE MODALITY OF MEANING PRODUCT

Abstract

We define the modality of meaning product as the cognitive positioning of the subject in relation to prior information. Modality reveals the characteristics of cognitive connections between meaning constructs. We distinguish three modalities: neutral, supportive, and contrastive. Neutral modality reflects the autonomy of individual thinking, characterized by its sequential and non-evaluative nature. Supportive modality reflects the synergistic character of thinking, which aims to expand previous thoughts through elaboration, clarification, and thesis alignment. Contrastive modality reflects the dialectical and critical nature of thought: it involves the limitation or restriction of the prior meaning construct. The empirical study was conducted using the «Text Gaps Method» (n = 289). The results of the empirical study reveal an inverse correlation between meaning product modality and verbal activity, logical-semantic connections, and particularly syntactic sentence complexity (r = -0.332, p < 0.001). The regression model explains 24% of the variance in meaning product modality at a statistically significant level (R² = 0.239, p < 0.001). The strongest predictors of contrastive meaning product modality are high syntactic sentence complexity (β = -0.826) and, at a moderate level, semantic logicality and semantic ephasiveness (β = -0.293); conversely, increased verbal activity leads to the formation of supportive thinking modality (β = 0.668). The discrepancies between correlation and regression coefficients are explained by the suppression effect.