Metaphoric chains
Single-ground versus double-ground chains
The molecular structure of a complex metaphor comprises two or more atomic metaphorical parts, known as primary
metaphors. In the same way, several molecular structures of metaphors may combine and form a mixture, known as mixed metaphors. In
this study, different types of metaphoric integrations are reviewed and illustrated in figures to facilitate understanding the
phenomena. Above all, we introduce double-ground metaphoric chain, a new form of metaphoric integration that has not been
identified in the previous literature. Also, a distinction is made between single-ground and double-ground metaphoric chains. In
the former, which has already been introduced, two basic metaphors are chained with the same form and have the same ground, while
the latter includes two chained metaphors, one main metaphor plus a supportive one, with different grounds. In this analysis, we
benefited from Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) to analyse double-ground metaphoric chains. This study suggests that each
metaphoric integration leads to a multifaceted conceptualization, in which each facet is related to one of the constituent
micro-metaphors.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Framework
- 2.1Mixed metaphors
- 2.2Metaphoric complexes
- 2.2.1Metaphoric amalgams
- 2.2.2Metaphoric chains
- 2.3Alluding metaphor
- 3.Double-ground metaphoric chain
- 3.1More DGMC examples from the corpus of contemporary American English (COCA)
- 3.2Comparison of DGMCs with other metaphoric integrations
- Mixed metaphor
- Metaphoric amalgam
- Single-ground metaphoric chain (SGMC)
- Double-ground metaphoric chain
- 3.3DGMCs and blending theory
- 3.4DGMCs and cultural filters
- 4.Conclusion
- Acknowledgment
- Notes
-
References