French body part metaphors are analyzed within the theoretical framework of cognitive linguistics, using proposals formulated in prototype semantics to shed light on the analogical reasoning as the basic mechanism underlying the production and processing of metaphors. It is argued that the human conceptual system is structured and defined by metaphorization, and thought processes rely, largely, on the metaphorical functioning of the outside world: the everyday reality is structured by a metaphorical conceptual system. The analysis of body part metaphors, in comparison to such figurative language uses as metonymy or synecdoche, shows how designations of body parts are semantically composed of conceptual nodes representing such notions as form, position, destination, imagery, or functionality. These conceptual-notional cores constitute the basic level of cognitive semantics, according to Georges Kleiber's (1990) semantic hierarchy. Metaphors, relying on the mechanism of analogy, are generated on the basic level, while metonymy and synecdoche are generated on either the superordinate or subordinate levels. However, all three figures share the structural and conceptual model of indirect designation based on the principle of "enclosed tertium comparationis" formulated earlier (Tutescu, 1996). (LLBA, Z. Dubiel, Accession Number 200401050, (c) CSA [1997]. All rights reserved.)