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Article published In: Aspects of Metaphor
Edited by Maria Theodoropoulou
[Review of Cognitive Linguistics 23:1] 2025
► pp. 35–58

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Special issue articles

A look at, inside, and outside metaphors

The multitudinal interactions of metaphorical meaning

 | University of Alberta
Published online: 25 June 2024
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https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.00189.col
Abstract
How metaphors are comprehended and their pragmatic effects have long been of interest ( (2019). How language makes meaning: Embodiment and conjoined antonymy. New York: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; (2017). Metaphor wars: Conceptual metaphor in human life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Gibbs, R. W., & Colston, H. L. (2012). Interpreting figurative meaning. New York: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). Attending to the varied constructions where metaphors appear has also advanced our understanding (Athanasiadou, A. (Ed.) (2017). Studies in figurative thought and language. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). How metaphors in extra-linguistic mediums has been of particular interest of late, as have the import of embodied simulations (Bergen, B. K. (2012). Louder than words: The new science of how the mind makes meaning. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Cienki, A., & Muller, C. (Eds.). (2008). Metaphor and gesture. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Forceville, C. J., & Urios-Aparisi, E. (Eds.). (2009). Multimodal metaphor. Berlin: de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). But these explorations outside of language and inside the body have left some bits relatively unattended. Metaphors and their host constructions can be embedded into an array of language genres. These also bring their own idiosyncratic influences on metaphor cognition. Moreover, the target domain content that metaphors invoke adds to this complex mixture. And metaphors can be layered within metaphors. This paper presents a tour of just some of the immense fractalesque complexity invoked when we look at the full richness of metaphorical meaning.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Metaphor within metaphor – The case of picture poems
  • 3.External and internal characteristics of linguistic metaphors, shown in, Guitar Riff
    • Conjoined antonymy
    • Echo
    • Bridging
    • Pre-use signaling
    • Modification
    • Alliteration
  • 4.External and internal meaning influences, beyond the included poem
    • Sophistication
    • Imagery
    • Discourse patterns
  • 5.Language genres
  • 6.Target domains
  • 7.Interactions
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (48)
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