What is a love-as-fluid-in-container metaphor?

What is a love-as-fluid-in-container metaphor?

Definition
	A conventional metaphor in which love is represented as a fluid contained in the body, such that the level of the fluid represents the amount of love.

Examples
	Here are some examples in English:
	She was filled with love. Warm feelings welled up inside him. He poured out his affections on her. She couldn't hold in her love for him any longer.

Generic
	A love-as-fluid-in-container metaphor is a kind of
	What is a metaphor for love?

Source
	Kovecses 1986

Context for this page:

Concept module: love-as-fluid-in-container metaphor
In modular book: Metaphors in English, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H. Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Lexicon

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 18 September 1998