Keyword: «language conflict»

This article examines the phenomenon of linguistic conflict, represented through a system of antonymic relations in Russian aphorisms. An aphorism is understood as a concise, complete statement with significant philosophical or pragmatic potential. Antonymy, being one of the fundamental semantic relations of language, goes beyond simple opposition in the space of aphorism, becoming a tool for explicating the deep contradictions of human existence, thinking and society. The article analyzes the types of antonymic oppositions (contrarian, complementary, converse, vector) used in aphoristics and identifies their specific functions: the creation of an antithesis as a rhetorical device, the actualization of paradox, irony, the formation of value judgments and didactic attitudes. The research material is a corpus of Russian aphorisms and catchphrases of the XVIII–XXI centuries.