The functioning of antonyms in the Even epic

This article examines the functioning of antonyms in Even epic tales. The relevance of this work stems from the insufficient research into the language of Even folklore, the expressive means used, and antonyms in Even studies. The novelty of this study lies in the fact that it is the first time an analysis of the functioning of Even antonyms within an epic text has been conducted. The aim of this work is to study antonyms in Even epic poetry. To achieve this, the following objectives were set: identifying antonyms, determining their characteristics, and defining their functions in Even epic folklore. The primary method is descriptive, employing observation, generalization, and interpretation. Even epic tales from published sources are used as material. The work examines the part-of-speech characteristics of the identified antonyms and reveals the functioning of antonyms of nouns, adjectives, verbs, participles, and adverbs. Frequent antonymic pairs have been identified: ai-keneli ʻgood-badʼ and their derivatives aich-kenelich ʻgood-badʼ; ineӈ-dolba ʻday-nightʼ, etc. It has been established that in the Even epic, a significant number of antonymic pairs are formed by words denoting various positions in space. The function of antonyms in Even tales lies in conveying profound images by contrasting opposing phenomena and concepts. Antonyms are used to create portrait characteristics, spatial and temporal representations, and to describe various actions and emotional states of heroes. Further study of antonymic relationships in Even folklore will significantly contribute to the understanding of the semantic system of the Even language, the characteristics of its reflection in oral folklore, and the mechanisms of folklore image formation. In the long term, identifying and analyzing the full stylistic potential of Even folklore seems relevant.

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