THE EXPRESSION OF THE CONCEPTS OF “FRIEND” AND “ENEMY” IN KARAKALPAK CULTURE

Abstract

This article examines the linguistic and axiological representation of the concepts of “friend” and “enemy” in Karakalpak culture. The study identifies the principal lexical units through which these concepts are verbalized and explains their semantic, evaluative, emotional, and cultural components. Drawing on Karakalpak explanatory dictionaries, selected proverbial expressions, and established theories of linguistic evaluation, the analysis applies descriptive, componential, comparative, and linguocultural methods. The findings show that the concept of friend functions as a positively evaluated cultural value associated with loyalty, trust, mutual assistance, emotional closeness, respect, tolerance, and support. By contrast, the concept of enemy functions as a negatively evaluated anti-value associated with betrayal, distrust, harm, estrangement, envy, confrontation, and hostile intent. The opposition between the two concepts forms a culturally meaningful binary model through which interpersonal behavior and moral expectations are evaluated in Karakalpak linguistic consciousness.