Metaphor means which a word gaining new meanings with the help of images. Metaphors have an important place in Turkish education with their function of revealing perceptions. The use of linguistics data in Turkish education makes it important to identify metaphorical perceptions about the concept of linguistics. The aim of this study is to determine the metaphorical perceptions of Turkish teachers towards the concept of linguistics. For this purpose, phenomenological design was used in accordance with the qualitative research method. 101 Turkish teachers working in Gaziantep in the 2021-2022 academic year participated in the study. The data collected from the participants were analyzed with the content analysis technique. As a result of the research, 5 metaphor categories (Linguistics as a Basic Field, Linguistics as a Wide Boundaries, Linguistics as a Difficult Field, Linguistics as a Systematic Field, Linguistics as a Changing and Developing Field) that reveal the metaphorical perceptions of Turkish teachers were reached. It was observed that Turkish teachers created metaphors mostly in the category of “Linguistics as a Basic Field”. It was determined that the most repeated metaphor among the collected data was the “space/universe” metaphor in the category of “Linguistics with Broad Boundaries”. The category with the least metaphors in the study was “Linguistics as a Changing and Developing Field”. Based on the findings obtained from the research, it was seen that Turkish teachers mostly associated linguistics with Turkish education. It is thought that the study will contribute to revealing how the concept of linguistics is perceived by Turkish teachers, and from this point of view, to enrich Turkish teaching with linguistic principles.

Turkish education, linguistics, metaphor, metaphorical perception.