Abstract

This study investigates the conceptual metaphors underlying English idiomatic constructions containing human body-part terms from the perspective of Cognitive Linguistics. The dataset consists of 391 idiomatic constructions collected from English literary works, dictionaries, and their corresponding Vietnamese translations. Using a qualitative corpus-based approach, the study identifies the major source–target domain mappings to explain the cognitive mechanisms and cultural meanings reflected in these expressions. The findings reveal that English body-part idiomatic constructions are systematically structured by recurring conceptual metaphor patterns grounded in embodied human experience. This study contributes to a better understanding of the cognitive foundations of English idiomatic construction and provides useful implications for translation studies and foreign language teaching.

Keywords: Cognitive Linguistics, conceptual metaphor, embodiment, human body parts, English-speaking culture.