The Notion of Image Schemas in Kurdish Proverbs

Abstract

This study examines the notion of image schemas in selected Kurdish proverbs. As used in Cognitive Semantics, image schemas refer to conceptual structures that represent recurring patterns in our experience of the physical and psychological world. They are abstract concepts consisting of patterns emerging from repeated instances of embodied experience. Examples of image schemas include CONTAINER, PATH, FORCE, SCALE and CYCLE schemas. Applied to Kurdish proverbs, it is argued that image schemas serve as the basis for organizing knowledge and reasoning about the world. They are derived from concrete physical experiences that are projected onto abstract concepts. The aim of the study then is to show how image schemas provide the basis for richly detailed lexical concepts. One interesting finding is that image schemas arise directly from sensory and perceptual experience. They are functions of Kurdish speakers’ everyday interaction with and observation of the world around them.