The focus of the paper is on the semantics of English phrasal verbs whose constituent verb is related to the concept of plants. The investigated set of verbs includes twenty-two phrasal verbs featuring the particles out, off, up, through, in and away. The analysis is conducted in the framework of cognitive semantics, which states that the meaning of phrasal verbs can be analysed in view of their constituent particles and the interplay between the verb meaning and the particle senses. It is concluded that the general meaning of the examined phrasal verbs is a result of different spatial configurations underlying the conceptual-semantic structure of the constituent particles, while their specific meanings are motivated by different conceptual metonymies stemming from the constituent verb. Numerous abstract meanings are additionally derived via various submetaphors of the basic metaphor complex abstract systems are plants embedded in the conceptual framework of the constituent verbs.

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The aim of the paper is to investigate the semantic motivation of a set of English and Serbian plant-related idiomatic expressions, to ascertain the cognitive mechanisms that motivate their semantic structure and, ultimately, to contrast them, using the cognitive semantic view of idioms. Our analysis shows that in both languages the conceptual metaphors based on the source domain of plants play a very important role in the semantics of the analysed idiomatic expressions, accompanied by the conventional knowledge, the conceptual metonymy and image schemas. The concluding part discusses the observed similarities in the cognitive mechanisms which motivate the semantics of the analysed expressions, but also reflects upon certain differences between the two languages in terms of the idiomatic expression constituents.

This paper explores the semantic motivation of English phrasal verbs with the particle out whose constituent verb refers to processes and activities performed by or to plants and their prefixed Serbian counterparts with the prefixes iz-, s- and raz-. The cognitive approach to the semantics of phrasal verbs and prefixes is employed, which entails observing their meaning through the notions of conceptualisation, image-schematic structuring and spatial schematisation. It is shown that there is a high degree of correspondence in the concrete and abstract senses of the contrasted English and Serbian lexemes owing to the same spatial configurations which structure the constituent English and Serbian satellites (the particle out and the prefixes iz-, s- and raz-, respectively). Additionally, various conceptual metaphors stemming from the domain of PLANTS, inherent in the constituent verb, play a prominent role in the extension of the phrasal and prefixed verb meaning in both languages. The conclusion underlines the benefits of using the cognitive semantic approach in the contrastive studies of particles and prefixes.