COGNITIVE PECULIARITIES OF THE CONCEPT HEART BASED ON THE ENGLISH LEXICOGRAPHIC SOURCES
Authors: Анісімова А. , Репп Л. 
Published: February 2025

Background. The article deals with the analysis of cognitive features of the concept HEART in the English language based on the monolingual English lexicographical sources. The heart is often used as a symbol of emotion, love, passion, courage or spirituality. In the English-speaking world, as in many other cultures, the heart is considered an important element that reflects the inner feelings and moral qualities of a person. Moreover, in many cultures and contexts, the heart has a deep symbolic meaning. One of the most vivid symbolic meanings of the lexical unit heart is love. In addition, the heart also symbolizes the emotional center of a person, since in many cultures the heart is considered to be the center of life energy and morality of a person; the heart is associated with endurance, fortitude and vitality, or with divine love, sorrow and mercy. All these examples illustrate the deep symbolic significance of the heart in the culture and language, depicting it as a key symbol of spirituality, the center of human emotions and vital energy. Despite the fact that there is a number of researches dedicated to investigation of the nature of concept and conceptualization this topic is still of paramount importance.
Purpose. The purpose of the article is to reveal the cognitive peculiarities of the concept HEART based on the material of lexicographic sources. To achieve the goal, six English lexicographic sources have been chosen: Oxford Learner's Dictionaries, Cambridge Dictionary, Free Dictionary, Collins English Dictionary, Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
Methods. To reach research objectives the following methods have been chosen: the descriptive method, the constructive method, the comparative analysis, the cognitive analysis.
Results. As a result of the investigation of six lexicographic sources of the English language, it has been found out that the concept HEART verbalized by the lexical unit counts 11 conceptual meanings.
Conclusions and perspectives. The topic of Cognitive peculiarities of the concept Heart based on English lexicographic sources touches on a number of linguistic, cognitive, and cultural dimensions. The concept of HEART is often explored through the lens of conceptual metaphor theory, a key framework in cognitive linguistics. This theory suggests that abstract concepts are understood through metaphors grounded in physical and experiential realities. Cultural features can be analyzed by comparing how the concept HEART is linguistically and metaphorically expressed in other languages versus English could provide insight into universal versus culture-specific cognitive patterns. Lexicographic analysis from dictionaries (Oxford Learner's Dictionaries, Cambridge Dictionary or Collins English Dictionary) and thesauri can shed light on the semantic networks surrounding heart. Newer corpus-based lexicography tools will allow the study of frequency, collocations, and shifts in the concept’s usage across various registers (literary, colloquial, medical). To add, a discourse-based approach to study concept HEART might investigate how its use reflects societal values or ideologies, such as its role in romantic discourse, motivational speech, or even religious contexts.