Conceptual Metaphors of Ayrılıq (Separation) in Azerbaijani Turkish Poetry

This study aims to consider conceptual metaphors of “separation” in Azerbaijani Turkish poetry in an attempt to uncover the interactions of metaphorical expressions, culture, environment, and embodiment. The corpus of the study contains Azerbaijani Turkish poems of Shahriar (1906-1988) as well as seven other Azerbaijani poets. The results of the paper show that separation is expressed through eleven salient metaphors in Azerbaijani Turkish: 1. SEPARATION IS HUMAN/ANIMATE, 2. SEPARATION IS PAIN, 3. SEPARATION IS NATURAL FORCE, 4. SEPARATION IS FIRE, 5. SEPARATION IS THING/TOOL, 6. SEPARATION IS FALL, 7. SEPARATION IS OPPRESSION, 8. SEPARATION IS DEATH, 9. SEPARATION IS TRAVEL, 10. SEPARATION IS PLACE/CONTAINER, and 11. SEPARATION IS RESURRECTION. Moreover, according to the findings of the paper, Azerbaijani Turkish cultural/environmental schemata of separation lie at the root of most of the studied conceptualizations. That is, the studied metaphors are touched by cultural and environmental influences. Regarding embodiment and metaphor, the study confirms that some conceptual metaphors are based on recurring bodily experiences as it is seen in SEPARATION IS HUMAN/ANIMATE metaphors.