Understanding the System of Social Evaluation through Antonymic Constructions in Language

Abstract

This article examines the role of antonymic constructions in expressing systems of social evaluation in language, using cognitive and corpus-linguistic methods. Through oppositions such as “дўст – душман,” “ифлос – пок,” and “беҳурмат – номусли,” the study reveals how value hierarchies, moral standards, and stereotypes are encoded in discourse. Corpus analysis showed that negatively marked terms display higher genre frequency and activation. Associative testing confirmed their stronger emotional load and faster recall. Frame modeling identified the semantic structure of social judgment and mechanisms of cognitive centrality. The study reveals how antonyms encode the “accepted – excluded” model in language. This approach holds theoretical and practical significance for sociolinguistics and cognitive linguistics.