Conceptual Opposition FRIENDSHIP - ENMITY in the Chuvash and Russian Linguocultures

The paper is devoted to the study of the binary opposition FRIENDSHIP - ENMITY in the Chuvash and Russian pictures of the world and the identification of national-cultural features and ways of its representation at the cognitive-discursive level. The purpose of the study is to examine the specifics of the implementation of the concepts under study from the perspective of universal and nationally determined features. The material for the study was proverbs and sayings, selected using a continuous sampling from specialized sources. The following methods were also used in the work: the method of conceptual analysis, the comparative method, the elements of contextual analysis designed to determine the linguistic content of the concepts of FRIENDSHIP - ENMITY. The study revealed that the lexemes “friendship” and “enmity” are part of the main semantic oppositions with a universal code for various languages of the world. The concepts under study have substantial features of the national and international linguistic mentality of peoples, are a reflection of universal human attitudes, and have various angles of verbal characterization. The role of friendship and hostility in people’s lives is defined as socially significant, occupying an important place in the system of cultural values of the Russian and Chuvash peoples.