Where Metaphors Come From

Abstract This book argues that what is known as “conceptual metaphor theory” has stood the test of time. At the same time, it also suggests that the view of metaphorical grounding as proposed in the book augments and refines conceptual metaphor theory according to which conceptual metaphors are based on our bodily experience. Although this is certainly true in many cases of metaphor, the role of the body in metaphor creation can and should be reinterpreted, and, consequently, the body can be seen as just one of the several contexts from which metaphors can emerge (including the situational, discourse, and conceptual-cognitive contexts)—although perhaps the dominant or crucial one. Such a proposal seems to be…