ZOONYMS AS DERIVATIONAL MEANS FOR DESCRIBING HUMAN APPEARANCE AND BEHAVIOR IN THE ENGLISH AND UZBEK LANGUAGES

The article examines the use of zoonyms as derivational means for describing human appearance and behavior in English and Uzbek. It highlights the semantic role of metaphors, particularly zoonym-based ones, as productive tools in expressing complex personal traits vividly and figuratively. Drawing on examples from both languages, the study categorizes zoonym metaphors into two groups: those describing physical appearance and those describing character traits. According to comparative analysis, many metaphors coincide cross-linguistically. Metaphorical zoonyms not only enrich descriptive language but also reflect cultural values and symbolic associations unique to each language community.