Concept man in the russian and english linguistic pictures

The article presents study of the concept man in the Russian and English linguistic pictures of the world. The study is based on semantic and conceptual analysis of the synonymic sets with the dominant lexeme man in English and Russian. The semantic analysis shows that the traditional classification of semantic components has to be adapted to the specific features of the lexemes and it should include integrative, distinguishing, opposing, relevant and implicit components. The new approach enables us to do comparative research of the semantic changes within each synonymic set as a result of shifts in the structure of the underlying concept