Dagnev, Ivaylo2024-07-012024-07-0120243033-0599https://doi.uni-plovdiv.bg/handle/store/189Conceptual metaphor theory emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s and viewed the process and product of metaphorization as a complex interrelationship between language and thought. A central claim of this theory proposed by Lakoff & Johnson and subsequently developed by numerous researchers is that the apperception of the unknown takes place through a special process of construction in semantics – metaphorization, which results from the complex interaction between embodied experience, the conceptual system and its linguistic representation. The evolution of the theory problematises many essential issues of semantics such as the meaning and use of words, the relationship between literal and figurative meaning, between the conceptual character and the lexical expression in language. Like any significant idea, the theory of conceptual metaphor has become the target of numerous criticisms on all its aspects, which, after all, are the necessary driving force for its development.otherconceptual metaphor theorycognitive semanticsmappingpri-mary metaphorcritiqueArticle