Peace and kinship in Anglo-Saxon language model of world

This article investigates a fragment in the Anglo-Saxon language model of the world which relates to the concept of peace as opposed to war. The aim of this analysis is to reveal a deep semiotic opposition „we - they‟ underlying linguistic categorization of peace as the situation when there is no war. The aim is achieved by reconstructing the motivation for naming this situation with the help of Old English words friþ, griþ and sib(b). The analysis presented in this article adopts diachronic approach and relies on Proto-Indo-European, Proto-Germanic and Old English language sources.