CONCEPTUAL AND LINGUISTIC METAPHORS IN ENGLISH AND UZBEK: A COGNITIVE LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Metaphor has long been regarded as one of the most important phenomena in language and thought. Traditionally, metaphor was viewed as a rhetorical device used to enhance the aesthetic quality of speech and writing. However, the emergence of Cognitive Linguistics in the late twentieth century fundamentally changed the understanding of metaphor. According to Conceptual Metaphor Theory developed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), metaphor is not merely a linguistic ornament but a cognitive mechanism through which people conceptualize abstract experiences in terms of more concrete ones. This perspective distinguishes between conceptual metaphors, which exist in the human mind, and linguistic metaphors, which are their observable manifestations in language. The present article examines the relationship between conceptual and linguistic metaphors in English and Uzbek.