Cognitive Linguistics provides theoretical and methodological framework for a description of conceptual structure of signed languages. Articulation parameters of individual signs, such as hand-shape, location, motion, and orientation, all contribute to the creation of complex non-literal meanings. Being based on metaphors, metonymies, or metonymies-in-metaphor, the signs reflect various degrees of visual motivation or iconicity. American Sign Language (henceforth ASL) and British Sign Language (henceforth BSL), two unrelated languages, employ diverse strategies of conceptualisation to express the same concepts. These strategies range from identical, e.g. metaphor vs. metaphor, to different, e.g. metaphor vs. metonymy, with many intermediate configurations possible. The paper compares selected ASL and BSL signs related to various areas of experience. Some of the signs are also contrasted with their counterparts in other signed languages.

Cognitive linguistics studies language as a reflection of human mind. Many cases of concept-formation are based on metaphor. Though most of the analyses point out to the presence of metaphor in natural languages, also sign languages involve this conceptual mechanism. Comparative analysis of linguistic expressions and signs for such fundamental concepts as time, support, illness, and others, proves that they reflect the same conceptual metaphors. This, in turn, supports the Generalisation Commitment and the Cognitive Commitment as fundamental hypotheses of cognitive linguistics.