THE ROLE OF STEREOTYPES IN SHAPING THE PHRASEOLOGICAL IMAGE OF A PERSON
Abstract
This article presents to a comparative linguocultural study of the role of stereotypes in shaping the phraseological image of a person in the English and Uzbek languages. The study focuses on figurative and phraseological expressions that represent human appearance, body parts, character, behaviour, speech, and emotional or physical condition. The analytical framework combines descriptive, semantic, comparative, componential, linguocultural, and quantitative procedures. The expressions are classified according to the human characteristic they represent and are then compared in terms of their figurative source, evaluative meaning, and cultural specificity. The analysis demonstrates that both languages regularly employ animal imagery, body-part imagery, simile, metaphor, and other conventionalized figurative patterns to conceptualize human qualities. At the same time, the choice of source images and their evaluative associations reflects culture-specific models of beauty, character, social behaviour, and moral values. The study therefore treats stereotypes not simply as simplified social beliefs, but as culturally shared conceptual models that become linguistically conventionalized and contribute to the construction of a recognizable phraseological image of the person.