Characterizing Metaphor

Abstract

Before we begin this study, it is necessary to characterize the term ‘metaphor’ itself, for in the literature it is used with a wide variety of meanings. In the narrowest sense, metaphor refers to a specific way of using the words and phrases of a language, and in a broad sense it is applied to the process of conceptualization itself, leading to the aphorism “All thought is metaphorical.” Then there are the phenomena of simile, analogy, and models, that are considered to be closely related to metaphor, but there are wide variations in how these relations are perceived. Researchers do not always state explicitly the range of phenomena covered by their use of the term metaphor, leaving this task to the reader. This practice has sometimes generated needless controversy about the nature of metaphor due to misunderstood positions, as we will see in Chapter 8.