Uzbekistan state world languages university d. U. Ashurova m. R. Galieva

Examples

Features of the character	large-minded, open-handed, free-handed (generous); big nose, butter fingers (carelessness), earthly-minded (practical), hard-fisted, tight-fisted (greedy), foxy, lazybones, green-eyed
Mental abilities	even handed, empty-headed, wooden-headed, goosey, narrow-minded, cabbage-head, hairy ape,
Manners and behavior	slow-coach, ringleader, play the monkey, hang-dog look, agree like cats and dogs, fish in the air, act the ass, play the bear, busy as a bee, a wet blanket, yes-man, blood-sucker
Profession	air-hostess, housewife, ale-wife, lord of the soil, weatherman, newsdealer, sandwich man, Jack Ketch
Social status	big fish, small fish, a new broom, big bug, small potato, white-collar, blue-collar, back-bencher, red-neck, chairman, blue blood, rough-neck
Financial status	moneybag, the golden calf, to be in the red, church mouse, skin flint, flat broke, down and out
Appearance	rosy, piggy, tubby, bag of bones, lily-like, angelic, cherubic, snow-white, moon-faced

The examples given in the table prove that image-bearing means describing the person from different angles (appearance, features of the character, mental abilities, manners, behavior, social and financial status) are mainly presented by the following linguistic units: derivatives, compound words, phraseological units, zoonyms. It is by no means accidental since these lexical groups are characterized by divisibility, motivation and predicativity, which provide basis for two-term, two-domain structures based on the principle of analogy, thus creating image-schemas.

Special attention should be attached to the images expressed by zoonyms because, firstly, such images are very widely spread and secondly, they are characterized by national specifics. To draw an analogy between the human and an animal has been laid down in cultural traditions of all the nations since ancient times. Animals play an important role in people’s life, therefore the animals’ world is an inalienable part of the conceptual world picture.

It is worthy of note that image-bearing linguistic units based on zoonyms are mostly characterized by national specifics. It is accounted for by the fact, that people of different nations associate the same animals with different notions and ascribe them different conceptual features. It can be illustrated by comparative set expressions of the English, Uzbek and Russian languages: