THE LINGUISTIC REPRESENTATION OF THE ISSUE OF FINITE EXISTENCE IN “BOOK OF WORDS” BY ABAI KUNANBAIULY

Abstract

The article focuses on the linguistic representations and interpretations of the concept of finite existence in the literary work “Book of Words” written by Abai Kunanbaiuly. While the main idea of the mentioned collection might be interpreted in various ways, the concept of the finitude of earthly life is mentioned repeatedly and has numerous ways of representation. The article aims to analyze the linguistic means of representing the concept of finite existence and to align the discovered representations so that they form a valid scheme. For this purpose, the methods of contrastive analysis, theoretical analysis, and conceptual analysis are utilized. Several extracts from the “Book of Words” are investigated and contrasted to the excerpts from the folkloric collection “One Thousand and one nights”. It is concluded that the mentioned representations and interpretations are common for various Eastern philosophic schools which acted as a base for Abai Kunanbaiuly’s prominent work. Linguistic elements of the concept of finite existence are identified and closely examined. As a result, the issue of the finitude of life is described as one of the central ideas of the “Book of Words”. The theoretical significance of the article lies in the fact of identifying, describing, and analyzing one of the central issues of the “Book of Words” from a new viewpoint of linguistic representation. The practical significance lies in the possibility of utilizing the results of the investigation for further research or scholarly purposes.