EN
The aim of this article is to present the role of conceptual metaphors in motivating meaning(s) of selected idiomatic expressions. According to the cognitive paradigm, meaning equals conceptualization and the function of metaphors is to facilitate cognitive processes. Thus, the semantic pole of, at least some, metaphorical expressions and idioms can be derived from the scope of metaphor, which, by the same token, constitutes the general meaning of idiomatic expressions. However, contrastive studies seem to substantially delimit the range of metaphorical motivation. Namely, it appears that experiential primacy should be given to image-schematic and ontological metaphors, which emerge as most universal in cross-linguistic studies.