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Article published In:
Living Metaphors and Metonymies
Edited by Mario Brdar and Rita Brdar-Szabó
[Review of Cognitive Linguistics 20:1] 2022
► pp. 7–32

Metaphorical experience

Contiguity or cross-domain mappings?

This article examines whether metaphorical experiences are better characterized in terms of contiguity or cross-domain mappings. My claim is that many facets of concrete experience are infused with metaphoricity as part of our ordinary understanding of these events. Many source domains in conceptual metaphors may also be interpreted via different metaphorical ideas. If both source and target domains in metaphorical concepts may be characterized in metaphorical terms, then the relationship between them may be related via contiguity or metonymy rather than cross-domain mappings. For this reason, metaphorical concepts and language may originate in the contiguous, and at times almost isomorphic, relationships between concrete actions and larger metaphorical ideas.

Keywords: contiguity, cross-domain mapping, embodiment, metaphor, metonymy
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Distinguishing between metaphor and metonymy
  • 3.Are metaphorical source domains non-metaphorical?
  • 4.Contiguity in experience leads to metaphorical meanings
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 24 May 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.00099.gib
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