In:At the Crossroads of Historical and Cognitive Linguistics
Edited by Anna Rogos-Hebda and Heli Tissari
[Figurative Thought and Language 21] 2026
► pp. 264–285
Using The Oxford English Dictionary to identify metaphors in historical corpus data
Published online: 29 January 2026
https://doi.org/10.1075/ftl.21.12tis
https://doi.org/10.1075/ftl.21.12tis
Abstract
This chapter discusses the possibility of using The Oxford English Dictionary to
identify metaphors in historical corpus data, especially to analyze abstract concepts in Early or Late Modern English.
The discussion centers around two corpus examples which are analyzed and discussed in detail. The examples are
analyzed both using the metaphorical pattern analysis (MPA) presented by Stefanowitsch (2006) and the metaphor identification procedure (MIP) suggested by the Pragglejaz group (2007). The comparison of these two methods reveals that
while they seemingly give different results, they are in fact complementary. It is suggested that the same applies to
MPA and MIPVU.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Previous research
- 3.An initial comparison of MPA and MIP
- 3.1Briefly on MPA
- 3.2MIP in a nutshell
- 3.3Comparing MPA with MIP: A Present-day English example
- 4.Late Modern English examples
- 4.1The first example
- 4.2The second example
- 5.Discussion
- 6.Conclusion
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