Metaphor and argumentation: a cognitive-discursive approach

Abstract

The cognitive paradigm in the study of the metaphor stresses the nature of a trope as a figure essentially of the mind, and not just of language. As a result of that new approach, language came to have a relatively secondary role as the locus of metaphors and, consequently, as the focus in metaphor research. However, more recently a number of researchers have stressed the discursive dimension of metaphors, suggesting an articulation between discourse and cognition. The present work follows such a trend and aims at exploring the argumentative dimension of metaphors, especially new metaphors, as a resource of cognitive-pragmatic nature. This work examines discursively inter-related metaphoric phrases which constitute “metaphoric niches” in persuasive texts.