NEWS

A presentation of the book "Semantic Comparisons in Kitabi-Dede Korkud. Mytholinguistics." took place.

02 february, 2023

 A presentation of the book "Semantic Comparisons in Kitabi-Dede Qorkud. Mytholinguistics'' by Kamal Abdulla, rector of the Azerbaijan University of languages, people's writer, academician,took place at the Central Scientific Library of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences. The event, organized by the CNS, was attended by the president of ANAS, academician Isa Habibbeyli, scientists and media representatives.

First, a video about the artistic and scientific activities and achievements of Academician Kamal Abdulla was shown.

Addressing the presentation ceremony academician Isa Habibbeyli, President of ANAS, said academician Kamal Abdulla is one of the outstanding representatives of Azerbaijani linguistics and with his important researches he made valuable contribution to the development of this science.

The head of ANAS mentioned that academician Kamal Abdulla, being an outstanding writer and creator of postmodernism literary direction in Azerbaijani literature in the period of independence, is the one who is distinguished for his unique creative work.

He noted that Kamal Abdulla made postmodernism one of the main directions of Azerbaijani literature with his works and continued enriching the postmodernism genre with his works.

Touching upon the writer's activity in the direction of studies of Korkudology, Isa Habibbeyli stressed that our country has a long tradition of studies of Korkudology and Azerbaijan is one of the world's major centers for studies of this science.

Referring to the words of prominent Turkologist Fuad Korprulyu "if we put Azerbaijani Turkic studies on one scale and Turkic world on the other scale Azerbaijani studies will dominate", academician Isa Habibbeyli said underlining that in the last century our great scientists Hamid Arasli and Mammadgussain Tahmasib conducted important studies in this direction and presented to the Azerbaijani society.

The head of ANAS stressed that with his research, academician Kamal Abdulla raised Korkudology to a new level and for the first time conducted a discursive-linguistic analysis of "Kitabi-Dede Korkud".

"Kamal Abdulla is the author of original works on Korkud poetics, a rare study in our Korkudology at the intersection of linguistics and literary studies.

He has defined a new direction by addressing the basic, mythological layer of Dede Korkud. Kamal Abdulla has enriched the world of Turkic studies with unique additions," academician Isa Habibbeyli noted appreciating the works of academician Kamal Abdulla and correspondent member of ANAS Rafig Aliyev, who analyzed epos "Kitabi-Dede Korkud" in terms of theory of fuzzy logic, and called this the beginning of a new direction in Turkic studies.

At the end of his speech the head of ANAS outlined that the book, presented to the Azerbaijani society by academician Kamal Abdulla "Semantic comparisons in Kitabi-Dede Korkud. Mytholinguistics" is one of the main achievements of our modern Korkudology.

 The author of the book, Academician Kamal Abdulla, expressed his gratitude to the President of ANAS, Academician Isa Habibbeyli for sharing his valuable opinion on the publication, and to the General Director of CNS, Professor Mammad Aliyev, for organizing the event, and shared his thoughts on the creation of the book.

The writer-scientist noted that in this book, the semantic juxtapositions in the Dede Korkud dastans are collected in the form of separate essays, in the form of a dictionary. "There were certain concepts in and beyond the dastan that appealed to me from time to time.  Each went from darkness to light and from light to darkness with great speed. Dastan now includes many obvious but obscure points that we need to know about it. We have the opportunity to see and appreciate these moments hidden in the darkness. The desire to grasp and explain these hidden moments is what paved the way for the creation of such a dictionary," the writer noted and expressed his gratitude to the book's editor as well as to the author of the preface, Professor Ahmet B. Erjilasun.

The scholar noted that the second part of the book presented, "Mytholinguistics," is interesting because the topics being studied today in our linguistics are changing their direction.

The scientist confidently noted that mythological linguistics - Mytholinguistics, as a new field, opens up new horizons for our modern linguistics and stressed that he is always ready for joint research in this direction.

Academician Mukhtar Imanov and academician Nizami Jafarov, who addressed the event, talked about the exceptional role of Kamal Abdulla in the field of Korkudology. It was noted that Dede Korkud is the highest degree of special thinking.

Director General of CNS, professor Mammad Aliyev, vice-rector for scientific work of Azerbaijan University of Languages, professor Novruz Mammadov underlined scientist always give importance to "word" and analyze it, and his rich scientific heritage will be valuable source in scientific research work of young scholars.

Academician Mohsun Nagysoilu, NANA corresponding member Ertegin Salamzadeh, and professor Solmaz Tohidi stressed that the writer has a different approach to the topic and that this book will be discussed by textual scholars in the future. Professor Hacettepe Şükrü Haluk Akalin of Turkish University, professor Fatih Keskin of Gazi University and Karima Ustünova of Uludag University in Bursa appreciated the scholar's scientific work through his online presentation and expressed confidence that young Turkologists will enrich their knowledge through the use of his scientific legacy.

At the end of the presentation, participants viewed an exhibition of the writer's books stored in the collections of the CSL.