The present project has tried to focus attention on the following areas as a way of studying metaphors as profiles against the bases of cultural models. One area is the analysis of metaphorical expressions in context, especially in one of the most prototypical contexts of language use, that of two people talking - the conversational dyad. One topic to be explored further is how the profile/base approach can be applied to the study of creative versus conventional metaphoric expressions within a given body of discourse. A hypothesis to be explored is that a more creative expression highlights a new framing of the topic under discussion, thereby giving it new salience, and allowing it to serve as a new profile against the base of what has already been discussed. Another approach advocated here is to integrate the study of metaphorical expressions from actual discourse data with what is being said in between the metaphorical expressions to help reveal the cultural models of which they are a part. In connection with this, it is also important to distinguish between what is being said versus what is tacit, assumed cultural knowledge (the bases against which semantic relations are being profiled). This assumed knowledge may be made explicit if, for example, someone from outside the cultural group is present (such as the American interviewer with the Russian students), and the speaker is aware of the information gap between them (perhaps prompted by the interviewer' s questions). (Alan Cienki)