CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR AND THE ELEMENTS OF MENTALITY: A CROSS-LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH AND UZBEK
Keywords:
Conceptual metaphor, metaphorical expression, mentality, cross-linguistic comparison, English, Uzbek, cognitive linguistics, translation equivalence.Abstract
This article examines the relationship between conceptual metaphor and national mentality in two typologically distant languages, English and Uzbek. Drawing on Conceptual Metaphor Theory as formulated by Lakoff and Johnson and later developed by Kövecses, the study argues that while metaphor is a universal mechanism of human cognition, its concrete linguistic realisation is systematically shaped by the mentality of the speech community. The research is based on metaphorical material collected from Betty Smith’s novel “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” and Utkir Hoshimov’s “Dunyoning ishlari”. Metaphorical expressions were separated from the underlying conceptual metaphors, subjected to definitional and etymological analysis, and classified according to the target concepts they encode. The findings show three recurrent patterns: fully shared conceptual metaphors, partially shared metaphors that diverge at the level of linguistic realisation, and language-specific metaphors motivated by a single culture’s mentality. The results confirm the value of treating mentality, rather than culture in general, as an independent variable in comparative metaphorology and have practical applications in the teaching of stylistics, lexicology and translation.
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