This paper aims at investigating the concept of “language” in Russian and Chinese and the authors attempt to analyze the correlation between the universal and ethnical components in the formation of certain cultural concepts. The results have shown that the metaphorical lexical and derivational systems of languages with different structures share common principles in the modeling of the figurative aspect of the “language” concept. These principles are: i) the figurative component of the concept is structured when the corresponding cognitive domain functions as a source or as a target of metaphorical mapping, ii) speech perception is both substance and form in the sense that speech is perceived as an action, process or a dynamic situation.