The implementation of the conception of friendship and enmity on the basis of structural and semantic analysis of Lak proverbs

Abstract

The article analyzes proverbs constituting the concept ‘friendship-enmity’. The research was based on the semantic analysis, syntactic analysis, cognitive analysis and the descriptive method. Lak proverbs served as material for the study. Lexical and semantic analysis revealed the following lexemes representing the concept ‘friendship-enmity’: dus ‘friend’, dushivu ‘friendship’, hala-hurttushivu ‘friendship’, dushman ‘enemy’. The most representative lexeme in this row is dus while the least represented is hala-hurttushivu. The proverbs were subdivided into the following lexico-semantic layers: (1) friendship is a blessing; (2) a friend is known in hardship; (3) a bad friend is an evil; (4) a friend and an enemy are antipodes; (5) friendship with people equal in status; (6) a man is in need of a friend. According to the Lak worldview, friendship is one of the greatest blessings in a person’s life. A true friend is sincere and reliable, unlike the enemy that does not lose an opportunity to do harm. Syntactic analysis has revealed the presence of proverbs with asyndetic structure within which there have been established comparative, adversative and concessive relations, as well as of proverbs with copulative and conditional conjunctions. The most widely represented are the proverbs with the copulative conjunction -gu. Some proverbs have a figurative meaning. There have also been singled out proverbs with zoomorphic code of culture in which positive and negative characteristics of a person are actualized, where bigger animals symbolize a person of high social status, while smaller ones symbolize a man standing at the bottom of the social ladder. Some of the proverbs are based on the principle of metaphoric transference. Certain proverbs are based on the principle of alogism stemming from a semantic conflict. The concept ‘friendship-enmity’ has not been studied earlier in the Lak language which renders this research relevant