Modes of Metaphor

• Published in: Metaphor and symbolic activity 1991-01, Vol.6 (1), p.1-27
• Main Author: Indurkhya, Bipin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0885-7253
• DOI: 10.1207/s15327868ms0601_1

In spite of some revealing insights that interdisciplinary research on metaphor has obtained in recent years, the nature of metaphor, and how and why it pervades all aspects of cognition remains enigmatic. In particular, the ability of metaphor to create similarities where none existed before seems somewhat mystical, despite several attempts to explain it cognitively. Moreover, on the surface, this characteristic seems incompatible with the accounts of metaphor that explain it on the basis of the existing similarities-structural or otherwise-between the source and the target. An attempt is made in this article to present a unifying account of metaphor from which many of its characteristics can be explained cognitively. The account is based on introducing a distinction between an object and its representation, and on an interactive view of cognition in which both the cognitive agent and the external world have an equal role to play. In this framework, it is argued that there are three different modes of metaphor, and that there are different cognitive processes underlying each mode. Moreover, there are characteristic features of each process that are imparted to the metaphors generated in that mode, and that determine what role those metaphors play in cognition.