The article analyzes the existing ideas in linguistics about binary oppositions in mythological and folklore texts. The key characteristics of archetypal thinking that are reflected in such texts (descriptive and narrative) are clarified. A myth embodying an archaic vision of the world is considered as a cognitive system for folklore. The authors compare the scope of the concepts of mythologeme and archetype, which are the basis of mythological culture and folklore. The article systematizes and classifies the basic and particular oppositions that form the basis of the fairy-tale picture of the world. The problems of binarity and oppositionism are traditionally the mainstay of axiology, i.e. the field of human thought that operates with value preferences, and epistemology, which treats them as a methodological tool of reason. This study places the functioning of the binary structure in the sphere of ontology and uses the tools of tender Analytics.