Figurative Language and Metaphor

Figurative language is language that goes beyond its literal meaning to create effects, convey complex ideas, or evoke emotions. It is one of the most important areas of semantic analysis at A-Level, because figurative language is pervasive — not just in literary texts but in everyday conversation, journalism, advertising, and political discourse. Understanding how figurative language works requires not just identifying figures of speech but analysing the cognitive and communicative functions they perform.

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Literal vs. Figurative Meaning

The literal meaning (or denotation) of a word or phrase is its primary, dictionary meaning — the direct, non-metaphorical sense. The figurative meaning extends or transforms the literal meaning in some way, often by drawing a connection between two different domains of experience.

• Literal: "The ice on the lake melted."
• Figurative: "Her icy stare melted his resolve."

In the figurative example, "icy" does not refer to actual temperature but to coldness of manner, and "melted" does not refer to a physical state change but to a weakening of determination. The figurative meaning works by mapping properties from one domain (temperature and physical states) onto another (emotions and attitudes).

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Metaphor

Metaphor is arguably the most important and pervasive type of figurative language. A metaphor describes one thing in terms of another, asserting an implicit comparison without using "like" or "as."

• "Time is money."
• "Life is a journey."
• "The world is a stage."
• "He drowned in paperwork."
• "She has a heart of stone."

Key Definition: Metaphor — a figure of speech in which a word or phrase from one semantic domain is applied to another, creating an implicit comparison that transfers properties from the source to the target.

The Structure of Metaphor

Linguists describe metaphor in terms of two domains:

• Source domain (or vehicle) — the concrete, familiar domain from which properties are borrowed (e.g., "journey" in "life is a journey")
• Target domain (or tenor) — the abstract or unfamiliar domain being described (e.g., "life" in "life is a journey")
• Ground — the shared properties or similarities that make the metaphor work (e.g., both journeys and lives involve progression, stages, obstacles, destinations)

Dead Metaphors and Live Metaphors

Some metaphors have become so conventional that speakers no longer notice their figurative quality. These are called dead metaphors (or conventional metaphors):

• "the foot of the mountain"
• "the head of the department"
• "a branch of government"
• "falling in love"
• "surfing the internet"

Live metaphors (or novel metaphors) are creative, original comparisons that surprise the reader and create fresh meaning:

• "The fog comes / on little cat feet" (Carl Sandburg)
• "Hope is the thing with feathers" (Emily Dickinson)

The distinction between dead and live metaphors is not binary but a spectrum — some metaphors are more conventionalised than others.

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Lakoff and Johnson: Cognitive Metaphor Theory

The most influential modern theory of metaphor was developed by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in their groundbreaking work Metaphors We Live By (1980). They argued that metaphor is not merely a decorative literary device but a fundamental feature of human thought. We do not just use metaphors in language — we think in metaphors.

Conceptual Metaphor

A conceptual metaphor is an underlying pattern of thought in which one conceptual domain is systematically understood in terms of another. Conceptual metaphors are written in SMALL CAPITALS to distinguish them from individual linguistic expressions:

Conceptual Metaphor	Linguistic Expressions
ARGUMENT IS WAR	"He attacked my position." "She defended her argument." "His claims were indefensible." "I demolished his argument."
TIME IS MONEY	"You're wasting my time." "I've invested a lot of time in this." "That saved me an hour." "How do you spend your weekends?"
LIFE IS A JOURNEY	"He's at a crossroads in his life." "She's come a long way." "We're going in different directions." "He's reached a dead end."
IDEAS ARE FOOD	"I can't digest all that information." "That's food for thought." "Let me chew it over." "A half-baked idea."
LOVE IS A JOURNEY	"We're at a crossroads in our relationship." "We've hit a dead end." "Our relationship is going nowhere." "We've come so far together."
HAPPY IS UP / SAD IS DOWN	"I'm feeling up today." "He's been really down." "My spirits rose." "She sank into depression."

Why Cognitive Metaphor Theory Matters for A-Level

Lakoff and Johnson's theory is important because it shows that:

1. Metaphor structures our understanding of abstract concepts — we can only think about time, arguments, emotions, and relationships through metaphorical mappings.
2. Metaphor is ideological — the metaphors a culture uses shape how it thinks. If we conceptualise argument as war, we treat arguments as battles to be won rather than cooperative explorations of truth.
3. Metaphor is pervasive in everyday language — it is not restricted to poetry and literary prose. Advertising, politics, journalism, and ordinary conversation are saturated with conceptual metaphors.
4. Metaphor choices are analytically significant — when a politician describes immigration as a "flood" or an "invasion," the choice of metaphor frames how the audience thinks about the issue.