Studying metaphor in discourse: Some lessons, challenges and new data

Abstract

There is something surprising about the wonderful contributions in this volume on ‘metaphor and discourse’. On the one hand, the various studies of how metaphor permeates diverse types of discourse provide additional evidence for theories that emphasize the prominence of metaphor in thought, language, and culture. Yet on the other hand, it has taken metaphor scholars some time now to recognize that metaphors are not decontextualized entities, to be studied in isolation, as they attempt to see what each one may mean and how it works. Metaphors are, as the chapters in this volume clearly articulate, products of discourse, and thus are thoroughly contextualized, enough so that it is now questionable whether metaphor should ever be studied apart from the contexts in which they live. In saying this, we do not simply imply that discourse contexts give specific meanings to metaphors, as if metaphors are pre-existing entities of language or thought, with context adding seasoning to flavour each specific metaphor as it is used. Instead, and more dramatically, metaphors are inseparable from context because there is no division between metaphor and discourse, given that metaphors are both products of discourse and creators of discourse. Realization of this true state of affairs offers metaphor scholars several important lessons, and also raises some challenges as we continue to study metaphor in discourse.