Language explication of conceptual oppositions as realization way of genre dynamics in spiritual verse “Alexey is a man of God”

Spiritual verses belong to the category of under-explored folklore genre. For ideological reasons during Soviet period, this genre was on the periphery of the researchers’ and readers’ attention. In available records spiritual verses are not studied sufficiently in reference to both their language functioning and to various language aspects. Correlation between the verses’ poetic structure and the speech manner of storytellers has not received due and thorough attention either. The present article studies semantic oppositions as one of the ways to realize genre dynamics of an epic spiritual verse “Alexey is a Man of God”. Archival records of the texts previously unknown to a wide range of researchers are introduced into the scientific circulation. These records were made during the time period from 1910 to 1983 and stored in the Archive of Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The conducted analysis helped to reveal the hierarchy peculiar to the members of oppositions, which is defined by such signs as the language status (common-language / language of the text), the character of axiological assessment (partial estimation / impartial estimation), the assessment motivation (social, emotional and expressive, confessional, deeply moral). The performed analysis of all available materials brings us to a conclusion that semantic oppositions fulfill an important role - the text making function. It happens when one of the members of the assessing opposition, being the very essential element in the ethical picture of the world recreated by the singer, “programs” appearance of his own antipode.