Chapter 12. Extended metaphor in the web of discourse

This chapter explores extended metaphor in the cognitive stylistic framework. Extended metaphor defines as an entrenched stylistic pattern of both thought and language, reflecting extended figurative thought. It is a cognitive inference tool, applicable in new figurative thought instantiations. A metaphor can be extended only by extension of its metaphorical image: by creating a metaphorical subimage or a string of sub-images, which relate metonymically by associations of contiguity. Metonymy is invariably present in each instantiation of metaphorical extension. Thus, extended metaphor is “mixed” by definition.Metaphor is not alone in figurative meaning construction. Apart from metonymy, extended metaphor may incorporate other figurative modes (pun, allusion, personification, euphemism, hyperbole, irony), forming figurative networks and representing a process and a result of human thought and a conceptualisation of experience. Only a detailed semantic and stylistic analysis will reveal the interaction and interrelationships of direct and figurative meanings in the web of discourse, which is not a “mix” but a natural flow of figurative thought in natural discourse.