IDIOMS: SEMANTIC-PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH IDIOMS CONTAINING ANIMAL NAMES

This article analyzes idioms involving animal names in English from both semantic and pragmatic perspectives. Idioms are one of the most figurative and polysemous units in language, reflecting the historical experience, cultural views, and cognitive thinking of the people who use a particular language. In the article, idioms consisting of the components "dog," "cat," and "horse" are selected, and the figurative meaning, metaphorical basis, and functional role of these units in the speech process are highlighted. The article also explains the historical and cultural factors that influenced the emergence of the given idioms, folklore, ancient beliefs, and social experiences. The semantic structure of idioms, their multi-layered meaning, emotional and stylistic functions, and pragmatic functions are also analyzed. The results of the article show that phrases formed with the help of animal images in the English language occupy an important place in the cognitive system of the language, and also that they are a product of national-cultural thinking and can acquire different meanings depending on the context.