THE ROLE OF METAPHOR AND SYMBOLISM IN REPRESENTING THE SUPERNATURAL IN FOLKLORE

Abstract

Metaphor and symbolism are central semiotic strategies through which vernacular communities articulate encounters with the supernatural. Drawing on a comparative corpus of British, Uzbek, and broader Eurasian narrative traditions, the present study investigates how figurative language structures collective perceptions of other-worldly beings, spaces, and events. Using conceptual metaphor theory, semiotic analysis, and hermeneutic close reading, the research reveals that metaphoric mappings—particularly those of liminality, embodiment, and transformation—provide cognitive scaffolding for supernatural motifs, while symbolic clusters rooted in natural, spatial, and chromatic codes stabilize communal cosmologies. The findings demonstrate that metaphors of boundary crossing and symbols of threshold objects (doors, bridges, crossroads) mediate social norms by locating the supernatural at the edge of everyday life, thereby reinforcing ethical frameworks and group identity. The discussion argues that sustained metaphor–symbol interaction functions as an adaptive cultural mechanism: it preserves archaic cosmological schemata yet continuously re-interprets them, allowing folklore to remain intelligible amid social change.