According to the cognitive theory that has developed in modern linguistics, the processes of metaphorization and metonymization are based on the processing of knowledge structures fixed in the human cognitive system in the form of various concepts and frames. In this article we will try to solve those main problems, which, first of all, include metaphor and metonymy as the two main types of semantic changes, as a ready-made metaphorical and metonymic meaning, metaphorization and metonymization as the main method and means of objectifying linguistic images of the surrounding reality. Despite the long history of the study of metonymy and metaphor in linguistics, certain issues of linguistic phenomena continue to cause controversy, since there is still no unambiguous assessment of their linguistic status in the language system. As a result of this, the research interest in epithet (figurative) vocabulary in modern linguistic research is still not weakening, on the contrary, it is only rapidly growing day by day. The interest of linguists in metonymy is also due to the relationship between the speaker's statement and the objective reality he is aware of, since connections by contiguity exist not between meanings, but in reality.