The PATH Image Schema in English and Uzbek Phraseology: Shared Cognitive Patterns and Culture-Specific Realizations

Abstract

This study examines the PATH image schema in English and Uzbek phraseology through a focused contrastive cognitive-linguistic analysis. A purposive core sample of 16 dictionary-attested conventional expressions (eight English and eight Uzbek) is analysed in terms of the SOURCE-PATH-GOAL structure and the related components of direction, obstacle, deviation, guidance, and destination. The study distinguishes conceptual correspondence from formal phraseological equivalence and classifies the observed relations as shared, partially shared, or language- and culture-specific within the English-Uzbek comparison. The findings show recurrent mappings such as solving a problem is finding a way, opportunity is an open path, difficulty is a blocked path, acceptable behaviour is the right path, and guidance is showing the way. At the same time, the two languages differ in how these mappings are lexicalized and culturally elaborated. English distributes PATH imagery across several lexical items, including way, track, and crossroads, whereas Uzbek concentrates many conventional expressions around a single path-related lexeme and also contains a culturally salient positive-wish formula based on PATH imagery. The results support a shared embodied basis for PATH conceptualization while showing that phraseological realization remains sensitive to linguistic convention and cultural evaluation.