Semantic Occasional Derivation in Uzbek Poetry: A Cognitive-Linguistic Analysis
Keywords:
Semantic occasional derivation; occasionalism; Uzbek poetry; cognitive linguistics; conceptual metaphor; poetic discourse; lexical creativity.Abstract
This study examines semantic occasional derivation in selected contemporary Uzbek poems from a cognitive-linguistic perspective. It focuses on cases in which an existing lexical form retains its formal structure but acquires an individualized, context-dependent meaning in poetic discourse. The analysis is based on selected passages from poems by Zebo Mirzo and Mirzo Kenjabek. Expressions such as “sevib bo‘ldim Sizsiz o‘limni,” “o‘limni ... ko‘tarmoq,” “buloqdirsiz,” “suvsab o‘lsam,” “ishqqa o‘xshab ketgan ta’m,” “jimjit yig‘layotgan majnuntollar,” and “qalbingda ... qabrim bor” are examined through contextual-semantic and cognitive analysis. The study distinguishes semantic occasional derivation from ordinary metaphor, lexicalized figurative meaning, and morphological nonce formation. The findings show that poetic semantic innovation is produced through paradoxical conceptualization, metaphorical transfer, embodied experience, personification, and contextual semantic extension. Concrete domains such as physical burden, thirst, taste, bodily injury, natural space, and burial space are recruited to conceptualize love, suffering, longing, memory, and emotional alienation. The study argues that occasionality arises not from metaphor alone, but from the degree of contextual dependence and semantic individualization. Thus, semantic occasional derivation can be viewed as a form of conceptual creativity at the interface of derivation, semantics, cognitive linguistics, and poetic discourse.
References
1.Bauer, L. (1983). English Word-Formation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2.Fauconnier, G., & Turner, M. (2002). The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and the Mind’s Hidden Complexities. New York: Basic Books.
3.Fillmore, C. J. (1975). An alternative to checklist theories of meaning. In Proceedings of the First Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society.
4.Hryshko, Y. (2022). The associative influence of phonetic nonce words (occasionalisms) in modern Ukrainian poetical discourse. Respectus Philologicus, 41(46), 234–245.
5.Johnson, M. (1987). The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
6.Kuryłowicz, J. (1936). Dérivation lexicale et dérivation syntaxique: Contribution à la théorie des parties du discours. Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris, 37, 79–92.
7.Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
8.Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). The metaphorical structure of the human conceptual system. Cognitive Science, 4(2), 195–208.
9.Lakoff, G. (2012). Explaining embodied cognition results. Topics in Cognitive Science.
10.Paul, H. (1880). Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte. Halle: Max Niemeyer.
11.Potebnya, A. A. (1862). Mysl’ i yazyk [Thought and Language].
12.Stern, G. (1931). Meaning and Change of Meaning: With Special Reference to the English Language. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
13.Turner, M. (1996). The Literary Mind. New York: Oxford University Press.
