Lexico-Semantic Means of Conceptualizing War and Peace in Ukrainian Folk Songs

Abstract

The relevance of this study is determined by the growing public attention to the concepts of war and peace in national culture and the need to reconsider folklore heritage as an important source for shaping the linguistic picture of the world of the Ukrainian people. The aim of the article is to identify and analyze the lexical-semantic means through which the concepts of war and peace are conceptualized in Ukrainian folk songs and to determine the key semantic models and oppositions that shape folk perceptions of these phenomena. The research material consists of Ukrainian folk songs from different historical periods that reflect motifs of struggle, loss, hope, and revival. The study employs descriptive, lexical-semantic, contextual, and conceptual analysis, which allows tracing semantic relations between linguistic units and their cultural and historical context. The results demonstrate that folk songs, accumulating collective historical experience, reflect not only the factual dimension of war but also deep existential experiences, moral values, and ethical orientations. The concept of war is interpreted as a multidimensional phenomenon associated with separation, death, sacrifice, and moral duty, whereas the concept of peace is linked to home and return, restoration of harmony, life, and hope. It is argued that the opposition “war – peace” functions as a fundamental structural element of the folk song picture of the world, shaping value orientations and collective representations of the historical path of the Ukrainian people. Prospects for further research include expanding the corpus of analyzed texts through modern folk and authorial songs, comparative analysis of regional folklore traditions, and the study of interactions between folklore imagery and contemporary media discourses.