A structural and semantic analysis of the Ferghana section of the Babrunama (Synonym, antonym, conceptual field, reduplication)

The Baburnama is a memoir written in Chagatai Turkish in the 16th century. It is also known by the names Vekayi or Tüzük-i Bâbürî. The work is considered an autobiographical text in which Babur Shah recounts his life, battles, travels, and observations. The Baburnama not only conveys political events and wars to the reader but also offers cultural, architectural, and artistic data. Additionally, it provides detailed descriptions of the daily life of people in the geography of the period and the natural features of the regions traversed, making it suitable for examination by various academic disciplines. In this study, the Ferghana section of the Baburnama, one of the most significant prose examples in Chagatai Turkish, has been analyzed in terms of its various semantic usages. The work offers rich linguistic material to its readers due to its inclusion of Babur Shah's memoirs, his accounts of wars, campaigns, politics, artists and scholars, internal state affairs, and his mastery of the Turkish language. This study first explains the concepts of semantics, synonymy, antonymy, conceptual fields, and reduplication based on the views of various researchers. Then, the Ferghana section of the Baburnama is scanned for the use of synonymous words, antonyms, expressions sharing common conceptual fields, and reduplications. During the preparation of this study, the facsimile edition of Baburnama prepared by Beveridge and several fundamental dictionaries were used to determine word origins. As a result of the study, it was found that the text is particularly rich in terms of reduplications and conceptual fields. Key Words: Bâbürname, Chagatai Turkish, synonymy, antonym, conceptual field, reduplication.