Cognitive theory of metaphor and idiom analysis

Abstract: We wish to establish to what extent the methods of analysis developed within the framework of the Cognitive Theory of Metaphor (CTM) can be applied to idiom analysis. Conventionalised figurative metaphors, and hence idioms, have a different function and a different cognitive and communicative value, as compared to novel metaphors. Idioms contribute much less to the structuring of unstructured situations, but they rather convey different kinds of knowledge that they have accumulated in the course of their functioning in the language. What is needed in addition to CTM is a theory specially designed to describe the irregularities of idioms. To develop such a theory is the main aim of modern idiom research. This paper should be viewed as a contribution to developing such a theory.