Conceptual metaphor, metonymy, and conventional knowledge in lexicography and paremeology

With the emergence of electronic dictionaries and due to the inadequacies of existing Persian dictionaries, a scientific and theory-based approach is required in lexicography. One of the most important problems in lexicography is arranging entries, including lexical items (words and groups of words) and their equivalents, in a useful way to dictionary users. The current study aims to organize idioms and proverbs in a non-linear and non-alphabetical way. The following research questions were proposed to achieve the purpose of the study: 1. Based on the Cognitive Semantics approach, how can we describe and arrange idioms and proverbs? 2. How can applying the mechanisms and theories of Cognitive Semantics help lexicographers in the lemmatization of idioms and proverbs? To do this, based on the descriptive-analytical method and Cognitive Semantics approach and its concepts, such as conceptual metaphor, conceptual metonymy, and conventional knowledge, the authors have examined the data extracted from the Sokhan two-volume Persian dictionary, two-volume Proverbial dictionary, Famous Iranian Proverbs and internet resources. The results indicated that by presenting metaphoric and metonymic idioms and proverbs in dictionaries, and based on the conventional knowledge of the language speakers, considering the semantic motivation and according to the concept of target domain of these expressions, a non-linear and non-alphabetical way can be proposed for arranging idioms and proverbs and their equivalents.