CONCEPTUALIZATION AND COGNITIVE INTERPRETATION OF IDIOMATIC AND PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS IN ENGLISH AND UZBEK

Abstract

This article examines the conceptualization and cognitive interpretation of idiomatic and phraseological units in English and Uzbek. The study explores how fixed figurative expressions are motivated not only by lexical convention but also by conceptual structure, image schemas, encyclopedic knowledge, and culturally embedded associations. The purpose of the article is to identify the principal cognitive mechanisms underlying idioms and phraseological units and to compare the ways these mechanisms are realized in English and Uzbek. The research is based on a qualitative, comparative, and interpretive analysis of representative phraseological material discussed in contemporary scholarship on cognitive semantics and English–Uzbek phraseology. The findings suggest that idiomatic meaning is often semantically motivated rather than fully arbitrary, and that the interpretation of phraseological units depends on metaphor, associative knowledge, conceptual categorization, and sociocultural background. The comparison of English and Uzbek shows both shared cognitive tendencies and language-specific patterns shaped by different cultural experiences. The article argues that a cognitive approach offers a more productive model for explaining phraseological meaning than a purely formal or dictionary-based approach, because it reveals how idioms function as conceptual products of collective experience. The results may be useful for comparative linguistics, phraseology, translation studies, and foreign language teaching.