Katsion I. Semantical Features of LIFE and DEATH Concepts Verbalization in Turkish Worldview

The submitted research paper focuses on the study of LIFE and DEATH concepts’ semantic features in the Turkish worldview. A certain amount of the verbalized units is the material of this scientific work. The unverbalized concept part has no scientific development in such kind of researches because of the non-adapted methodological base to the material of other quality. The nominative fields of both concepts have been modeled using the semantical cognitive analysis method. These fields consist of the complex cores. The hayat lexical unit was chosen as a key representative word of the LIFE concept field, which core is presented with twelve lexical units in general. The ölüm, ecel and vefat units form the core center zone of the DEATH concept field. This core is wider and has sixteen units in common. The phraseological, derivational and paremiological subfields widen the concepts’ nominative fields. The interfield items were described separately. The conceptual features hierarchy of each concept was formed through the semantic interpretation of the language objectification items. The cognitive features of the LIFE concept are presented with the following seven notions: life is the main part of the human’s worldview (28%); life is a constant movement (23%); life is a complex of dialectical unities (16 %); life has influence onto person (13%); life changes constantly (10%); life is a complex of humankind values (7%); life is a physiological process (3%). The announced features characterize life as a widely described process. The hierarchy of the DEATH concept cognitive features is presented in the following prompts: death is a complex of dialectical unities (29%); death is a physiological process (21%); death is a symbol of something negative (16%); death is a lifestyle consequence (15%); death has influence onto person (14%); death is a movement (3%); death is a mysterious phenomenon (2%). The death is characterized as a dual, natural fact. The percent rate of semes’ quantity goes after each feature. These figures outline the importance level of every characteristic in the Turkish consciousness. The modeling of the concepts’ cognitive structure is the next stage of the current research. The perceptive, metaphorical and structural constituents as well as the human interaction factor form the LIFE concept model. The DEATH concept model has the same constituents except for the structural one. Because of the LIFE and DEATH concepts ontological nature, the four common features were highlighted: 1) movement; 2) unseparated dialectical units complex; 3) has influence on human; 4) physiological process. The binary type of their relations is shown through the analysis of the concept interpretational fields’ structure: happiness – affliction (its constituent smile – tears); movement – stop; start – finish (its constituent coming – leaving); noise – silence; real – mysterious (its constituents on the surface – underground); day – night (its constituents white – black); activity – peace.