FWU Journal of Social Sciences, Winter 2019, Vol.13, No.3, 15-29 Cognitve semantc study of concepts of life and death in Ghani Khan’s poetry Khan Sardaraz University of Science & Technology, Bannu Aasia Nusrat COMSATS University Lahore Campus, Lahore, Previous literature either penned down the philosophical and mystc atributes of Ghani Khan’s poetry, or the literary qualites of his poetry, but perhaps no study has undertaken cognitve linguistc analysis of his poetry. The present paper atempts to carry out cognitve semantc study of the concepts of life and death in Ghani Khan’s poetry from cognitve linguistc perspectve. Conceptual metaphor theory will be used to analyze the poetc language of Ghani Khan’s Kulyat in order to fnd out the conceptual schemas, which are used in descripton of life and death in his poetry. This theory holds that everyday language as well as poetc language is generated, processed and comprehended by the conceptual metaphors in human conceptual system.The analysis shows that Ghani Khan has used ten (10) key conceptual metaphors in descripton of life and death with slight cultural deviatons in nine poems on the ttles of life and death. This paper has also found that since Ghani Khan has used the key conceptual metaphor of LIFE IS A DAY, he has also used LIFE IS TWO DAYS drawing upon the conceptualizaton of life in Pukhtun culture. This paper fnds that the fguratve language in Ghani Khan’s poetry is based on the conceptual metaphors, and it recommends further research on Pashto everyday language and poetry from cognitve-linguistc and cognitve-semantc perspectves in order to validate the various tenets of conceptual metaphor theory through cross-cultural research . Keywords: conceptual metaphor, metaphor, experiental gestalt, life, death Life and Death are elusive concepts, which have evaded any defniton , but they are universal aspects of life . They have permeated the whole human verbal discourse, but due to their abstract and vague nature, they are ofen described in metaphorical and fguratve terms. However, the traditonal rhetoricians and linguists either treat the concepts of life and death literally, or in metaphoric and novel terms in literature, and thus, they miss the conceptual nature of these metaphoric concepts in literature . This has been due to the established Aristotelian approaches to the fguratve language in Pashto literature . Conceptual metaphor approach has recently been introduced to both Pashto everyday language and poetry . However, the cognitve semantc  Correspondence concerning this artcle should be addressed to Dr. Khan, Sardaraz 1 , Director ORIC, University of Science & Technology, Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, email. sardarazsorani@gmail.com Contributon of Authors: 1. Dr. Khan Sardaraz inttated the idea, analyzed the data and completed the frst write-up of the paper. 2. Dr. Aasia Nusrat reviewed the artcle, contributed to the literature review, methodology and discussions.