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In:Performing Metaphoric Creativity across Modes and Contexts
Edited by Laura Hidalgo-Downing and Blanca Kraljevic Mujic
[Figurative Thought and Language 7] 2020
► pp. 175–196

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Chapter 8
Disentangling metaphoric communication

The origin, evolution and extinction of metaphors

 | University of Valencia
Published online: 29 May 2020
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ftl.7.08dom
Abstract
This work addresses the different processes involved in the genesis and evolution of metaphors. Studying mainly cartoons published after dramatic events, I show how, when facing a communication need due to a situation of media stress, metaphors are generated to promote news dissemination and comprehension. I propose that an efficient metaphor quickly transforms into a meme that effectively colonizes the communication ecosystem, thanks to the Internet and social networks platforms. In addition, I explain how metaphors can collaborate and evolve together, in a process I name metaphor symbiogenesis. The way these metaphors approach particularly complex and delicate issues has great communicative potential and can become an independent process in metaphor evolution.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Metaphorgenesis: On the origin of metaphors
  • Metaphors as memes and the eco-evolutive process
  • Adaptation of metaphors and other evolutionary processes
  • Evolving together: Metaphoric symbiogenesis
  • Extinction of metaphors: Living fossils and dead metaphors
  • Discussion and conclusion
  • Note
  • References
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