METAPHOR AT THE INTERSECTION OF CONCEPTS, LANGUAGE AND DISCOURSE

Abstract: This paper presents “a third way” between seeing metaphor as a conceptual or a discursive phenomenon. Metaphor is presented as the ability to metaphorize which is common and global, but which depends on local factors in a significant way. The following linguistic factors which have an impact on metaphor are mentioned: explicitness or implicitness of metaphors, different metaphoricity of different grammatical forms and lexical characteristics of source-domain expressions. On the level of discourse, metaphorical clusters and the role of metaphor in the creation of emotional styles are dealt with. The presented views are situated among contemporary theories of metaphor, especially the three-dimensional metaphor theory presented by Gerard Steen, and Kövecses’s contextual model. The paper ends with an overview of methodological consequences of the presented viewpoint for the research of metaphor.