Cognitive linguistic theories in phraseology

Abstract: Departing from the standpoint of two cognitive linguistic theories, the Metaphor Theory and the Conceptual Integration or Blending Theory, this paper attempts to establish their role in the creation and processing of both conventional and modified phraseological units. It investigates the range of applications and interpretations of the existing cognitive models, furnishing them with attested phraseological material to test their efficiency and universality. It is argued that the two theories can be viewed as complementary: whereas the theory of metaphor is productive in accounting for a wide range of conventional phraseological units, the theory of conceptual integration can be consistently applied to the analysis of modified phraseological units.