Abstract
<jats:p>The research aims to reconstruct the understanding of the borrowing “инвестиция” (investment) in the minds of speakers of Russian linguoculture in a diachronic aspect. The paper identifies the spheres of use of the borrowing “инвестиция” and its figurative-value characteristics in each of them, establishes connections acquired with the concepts of Russian linguoculture, collocability features, and metaphorical representations. The research is novel in that it is the first one, based on a comprehensive linguoculturological study, to identify the features of the conceptual adaptation of the borrowing “инвестиция” and the methods of its cognitive-linguistic regulation in Russian linguoculture. This made it possible to clarify the specifics of the mechanisms of conceptualization in the Russian national worldview and in the system of its value dominants. The research findings showed the significance of this borrowing in Russian linguoculture. It was found that the borrowing “инвестиция” actualized its presence in Russian linguoculture in the 1990s as a term of economic discourse, translating the values of a market economy. At the initial stage of conceptualization, distancing strategies were used, associated with the unfamiliarity of the new phenomenon and the incomprehensibility of the concept behind it, as well as the emerging negative associative field. Over the course of evolution, as a result of cognitive-linguistic regulation, the borrowing underwent a process of de-terminologization, began to be used in various spheres of public life, expanded its scope of use through metaphorical transfers, entered into collocability patterns, and acquired connections with the concepts of “honesty and honor”, “conscience”, and “charity”.</jats:p>