This paper explores the correlation between spatial forms of experience and their expression in speech. The subject of this investigation is the phenomenon of place, revealed in spontaneous utterances by a lexeme of the same name. The lexeme place, as shown in this work, expresses spatial experience, thematising its constitutives such as place itself, activity, thing, time, etc. This experience, depending on the situation, reflects in different ways the personal and social aspects of human life. The main role here is played by a physical factor which underlies spatiality and is a key area of reference for the lexeme under study. In all cases of its use, the lexeme place refers to the reality where the body is located and/or acts, because the place is constituted by the body and the action. The body appears as an operator enabling different possibilities. On the one hand, it becomes an instrument and object of social construction, and on the other hand, it becomes an instrument of personal identification with place and as a result of self-fulfillment. This paper is based on materials from field research conducted in 2000s–2010s in a northern Russian village, as well as data from dialect dictionaries.

В работе исследуется взаимосвязь пространственных форм опыта и их выражения в речи. Предметом исследования является феномен места, раскрываемый в спонтанных высказываниях посредством одноименной лексемы. Лексема место, как показано в работе, эксплицирует пространственный опыт, тематизируя такие его конститутивы, как собственно место, деятельность, вещь, время и др. Основополагающую роль здесь играет телесный фактор, лежащий в основе пространственности жизнедеятельности и служащий ключевой областью референции для исследуемой лексемы. Статья основана на материалах современных фольклорно-антропологических экспедиций на Русский Север, а также на данных диалектных словарей.