Since Aristotle, scholars have regarded similes and metaphors as equivalent figures of speech sharing very similar comprehension, interpretation and usage patterns. By analysing the use of similes in real discourse, the aim of this study is to show that these two analogical figures reflect different cognitive processes, as well as different discursive functions, using as a framework cognitive models. To this end, this work presents, first, the main differentiating features of the two figures existing in the literature. And, second, it analyses 100 natural-occurring similes in English opinion discourse (news, interviews and commentary sections) in order to explain the conceptual-semantic and formal-syntactic factors which explain why similes and metaphors are not interchangeable in the discourse type under study; that is, why metaphors can usually be transformed into similes by adding like, whereas the opposite process seems to depend on specific conditions of structure, use and interpretation.
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2021. About as boring as flossing sharks: Cognitive accounts of irony and the family of approximate comparison constructions in American English. Cognitive Linguistics 32:1 ► pp. 133 ff.
Roncero, Carlos, Roberto G. de Almeida, Laura Pissani & Iola Patalas
2021. A metaphor is not like a simile: reading-time evidence for distinct interpretations for negated tropes. Metaphor and Symbol 36:2 ► pp. 85 ff.
Zhou, Shiqing
2021. A Cognitive Analysis of Conceptual Metaphors of Color Idioms in English and Chinese Based on Data Mining. In Application of Intelligent Systems in Multi-modal Information Analytics [Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, 1234], ► pp. 349 ff.
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