Phraseologization of the concept “time” in the Azerbaijani language

Abstract

The article analyses the concept “time” in phraseological units of the Azerbaijani language. The analysis is based on cognitive models as well as on the classification of temporal phraseological units – semantic groups with antonymic oppositions. The article considers six groups of phraseological units reflecting the following concepts: 1) “long ago – recently”; 2) “past – future”; 3) “timeliness – untimeliness”; 4) “long – short / soon / little time”; 5) “fast – slow”; 6) “constantly, often – rarely, sometimes”. Based on the given examples the author concludes that the category of time is an important indicator of the pace of life and the rhythm of the Azerbaijani nation activity, and the types and forms of people’s communication depend on the value of time in culture. Thus the structural organization of the phrase-semantic field is different as it does not have an absolute centre expressed by a single phraseological unit.

Keywords

• concept of time
• semantic structure of the concept
• cognitive analysis
• metaphor
• phraseology