A Contemporary Cognitive Analysis of Metaphor

Basing itself on the cognitive theory of metaphor proposed by Lakoff and Johnson,this paper elaborates the important views that make this theory of metaphor unique,namely,the definition of metaphor as a mapping across conceptual domains,the distinction drawn between conceptual metaphors(or metaphorical concepts)and linguistic metaphors(or metaphorical expressions),the classification and features of conceptual metaphor and the experiential basis of conceptual metaphor as distinguished from both subjectivism and objectivism.