Conventional metaphors in English

Conventional metaphors in English

Introduction

Complementing the terminology of metaphor presented in the Glossary of linguistic terms, a large collection of English conventional metaphors is presented here, with citations principally from Lakoff (1987), Johnson (1987), Kovecses (1986), and Lakoff and Johnson (1980). Though these are in fact English metaphors, they will be useful to linguistic research and translation in other languages to the extent that they are found to be universal, or to the extent that they are found to be held in common with other Indo-European languages because of genetic or areal influences.

Kinds
	Here are some kinds of conventional metaphors in English:
	What is an artifact-as-proud-person metaphor? What is a justice-as-balance metaphor? What is a labor-as-resource metaphor? What is a mathematical-equality-as-balance metaphor? What is a metaphor for activities and events? What is a metaphor for causation? What is a metaphor for life? What is a metaphor for mind and mental processes? What is a metaphor for state? What is a metaphor for time? What is a metaphor for values? What is a natural-formation-as-proud-person metaphor? What is a storm-as-angry-person metaphor? What is a vitality-as-substance metaphor? What is a wealth-as-hidden-object metaphor?

Context for this page:

Concept module: conventional metaphor in English
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