A Study of Turkish Proverbs Based on Image Schemas in Cognitive Semantics Theory

This research explores image schemas in the proverbs of Azerbijani language within the framework of cognitive semantics, In so doing, I referred to two compilations of common Azerbijani proverbs in Ardabil region, by Haji Sattari (2014) and Novin (2009) and picked out a corpus of 3200 proverbs including different image schemas as the research sample. The purpose of this research is to analyze the proverbs based on schematic model introduced by Evans and Green (2006), to study their function, and concepts and themes conveyed by them. The descriptive-inductive analysis of the data showed that proverbs contained the general kinds of image schemas and most of the subclasses introduced by Evans and Green (2006). I recognized space, containment, locomotion, force, unity, balance, identity and existence schemas in the above-mentioned proverbs. The research findings indicated that containment schema (by 25.29%) and force schema (by 22.08%) had the highest frequency. Moreover, since image schemas derive from the human's interaction with the world, they involve different concepts associated with human beings. In the corpus of Azerbijani language proverbs including schemas, body concept (by 18.34%) and animal concept (by 17.66%) had the highest frequency. This shows that the geographical environment, social system and life style play a crucial role in the formation of the schemas. Finally, I explained about twenty cases of themes in the proverbs by referring to their schematic workings. Keywords: cognitive linguistics, cognitive semantics, image schema, proverb, Turkish language