Abstract
The theory of metaphor has gone through its development, starting with the works of Aristotle, in which it was begun, to the present state, when the linguistic paradigm became anthropocentric, and all linguistic phenomena are considered in direct connection with a person, his thinking, with society. The metaphor, which manifests the principle of human analogue thinking, occupies one of the central places in the cognitive direction of linguistic research. The cognitive theory explores metaphor as a means of conceptualising reality, as a basic mental operation that combines various conceptual spheres to explain, characterise, and cognise one with the help of the other. The novelty of the research is determined by the fact that in traditional theories (comparison theory, semantic approach) metaphor was perceived only as an unusual use of the word, as an abbreviated comparison, or investigated its semantic side, but did not pay attention to the reasons for the emergence of the metaphor, its essence, nature, its mechanisms generation, its role in the process of thinking and cognition. The authors show that the further development of the theory of metaphor is observed in close connection with the development of cognitive linguistics. The practical significance of the research is determined by the fact that the metaphor is shown not only as a phenomenon of language, but also one of the main means of thinking.