The author focuses on the social and cognitive factors at work during meaning construction by analysing the metaphors used in a heavily loaded emotional face to face conversation between a Spanish young couple. The analysis reveals the various conversational strategies, the stereotypical behaviours and the attitudes adopted by the male and female partners in the framework of the theory of face-threatening acts and tries to identify the various factors playing a role in the expression of emotion by means of a comprehensive quantative analysis of the paradigmatic interaction (Translation of anonymous French summary)