The metaphorical connotations of "girl" in Arabic languageA cognitive linguistic exploration of metaphors

Categorization is one of the most efficient abilities of the human mind and one of the most important topics in linguistics, which plays a great role in understanding phenomena. The importance of categorization is that placing similar phenomena in general groups helps to recognize its examples more easily. The concept of categorization has changed in the shade of cognitive linguistics and has been introduced as a cognitive-mental organization. The theory of conceptual metaphor is one of the influential topics in cognitive categorization and is based on elements such as perception, imagination, experience and culture. In this theory, metaphor is not only a stylistic feature of language and belongs to literary language, but it is a cognitive process that has roots in mind and thinking and plays an effective role in the semantic expansion and lexical conceptualization.
In the Arabic language, one can find many compound words that at least one of its elements has multiple meanings, including the word "Bent" which has experienced semantic changes in the process of combining with other nouns. Accordingly, in the present research, the attempt is made to investigate the polysemous phenomenon of the word "Bent" from the perspective of cognitive linguistics and to explain the various meanings of this word and how these meanings relate to the meaning of the archetype.
In this research, the semantic changes and the method of conceptualization of the word "Bent" in the first part of 131 Arabic compound nouns were investigated. The research data was collected from Arabic sources such as dictionaries and poetry divans of the "Al maktaba shamela" software and Majma' al-Amthal. The semantic expansion of the word "Bent" was investigated based on the descriptive-analytical method and using the concepts of conceptual metaphor.
There are approximately 25 meanings for the word "Bent" in Arabic dictionaries. The archetype of this word is "female child," which is expressed in compound words such as "bint al-labun (بنت اللبون)," which refers to the female camel. In addition to the archetype, it is possible to consider about 8 marginal meanings for this word. After the central meaning, the meaning of "born, result," which is created by the semantic expansion of the archetypal word, has a high frequency, such as "Banat Shadagham (بنات شدقم)" and "Banat Sahab (بنات سحاب)," which refers to "male camel" and "hail" respectively. Other marginal meanings of "Bent" which are related to the archetypal meaning are:- General mention and special intention, such as: "Bent Al-Halal (بنت الحلال)," which means righteous wife;
- Being contained, such as "Banat al-Fala (بنات الفلا)": male camel;
- A part of the whole, such as: "Bent al-Samaa (بنت السماء)": the sun;
- Similarity, such as: "Banat al-Rih (بنات الریح)": horse;
- Ownership and appropriation, such as: "Bent Shahm (بنت شحم)": female camel and "Banat Al-Bahr" (بنات البحر): sea clouds;
- Associated tools and devices, such as "Banat al-Ghali (بنات الغلی)": pot;
- Concomitance and companionship, such as: "Banat al-Sir (بنات السیر)": male camel;
Metaphor in cognitive semantics is a thinking tool and a language requirement that plays an effective role in the semantic expansion and lexical conceptualization. A lexical unit in the light of metaphorical conceptualizations forms a complex network of related concepts. In the present study, after the semantic analysis of the word "Bent" in the first part of 131 Arabic compound nouns, it was concluded that this word is used in various other concepts besides its main meaning.  One of the most important metaphorical meanings of this word, which is closely related to the original meaning, is the concept of born, result; this concept has a high frequency, and after it, the relation of being contained ranks second. Other concepts such as general mention and special intention, being contained, similarity, a part of the whole, ownership and appropriation, associated tools and devices, concomitance and companionship have also appeared in the semantic network of the word "Bent."