Category of opposition in Celtic folk-tales

Moscow State Region University, 10a, Radio Street, 105005, Moscow, Russia

^* Corresponding author: natavs@list.ru

Abstract

A folk-tale narrative with its unique composition and deep-laid semantics is an important phenomenon of modern life. It supplements a rational worldview and preserves its priorities, despite the changes that take place in the technical, informational, communicational and other areas of human activity. The folk-tale model of the world is a binary entity characterized by interconnected oppositions. For this reason the structure of the folk-tale and its holistic perception is largely determined by the category of opposition. The article describes a model for representing the category of opposition in Celtic folklore. The author identifies general and specific types of oppositions and describes the language means expressing them. The proposed methodology for the analysis of the language means makes it possible to go beyond the traditional structural description. It gives an insight into a linguistic opposition as a contextually conditioned or a potential phenomenon. Moreover, the oppositional method can be extrapolated to the study of texts which belong to other genres of literature. Such research contributes to the understanding of British ethnic mentality. Establishing what is seen as the opposite in the texts of traditional folk culture helps to identify cultural meanings in language units.