Children's acquisition of primary metaphors : a crosslinguistic study

Abstract

This paper demonstrates that metaphor is not simply a literary device, but aparto f technicallinguistic environments. The Theory o f Conceptual Metaphor suggests that our conceptual system is fundamentally metaphorical. Concepts arise from our everyday interaction with the world and semantic structure reflects the conceptual structure. Metaphor, therefore, is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action. Based on these assumptions, we analyzed a terminological dictionary to find metaphorically used lexical items. We then tried to determine the most literal meaning o f each item in other contexts. In arder to doso, the procedures we developed were complemented by a method for identifyingmetaphorically used items elaborated by the Pragglejaz Group. The results confirm the pervasiveness of metaphor and show how polysemy is motivated. Moreover, there seems to be no clear boundaries between literal and figura tive language.