METAPHORICAL CONCEPTS BEYOND EVERYDAY LANGUAGE
METAPHORICAL CONCEPTS BEYOND EVERYDAY LANGUAGE

Summary/Abstract: Along the years, metaphors have been perceived as powerful instruments of effectiveness used by writers to achieve a certain literary effect. However, they are more than rhetorical devices employed by orators and writers to strengthen and decorate their speeches and composition. Recently, cognitive linguists have demonstrated that metaphors play an important role in language and constitute people’s primary mode of mental operation, influencing the way in which they conceptualize abstract concepts such as identity, morality, life, love, etc. Thus, metaphor proves to be the main mechanism through which people comprehend abstract concepts and perform abstract reasoning. Nowadays, we can talk about the pervasiveness of metaphors in everyday life, not only in language but also in thought and action. This proves that our conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is metaphorical in nature. People comprehend their experiences in terms of metaphors and come to act and relate with other people in terms of them. Still, metaphors compose reality and do not distort it because metaphors are a way to describe something.

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