Two main interpretations of the view that conceptual structure is partly metaphorical, as identified by verbal metaphors like 'Love is a journey', are discussed. (1) A target domain is not explicitly represented but is instead understood through reference to a different domain (e.g., rather than a detailed concept of "love" per se, one could refer to the concept of a journey). (2) There is a separate representation of love, but the content of that representation is influenced by the metaphor such that the love concept takes on the same structure as the journey concept. It is argued that (1) is not fully coherent, and although (2) is a possible theory of mental representation, empirical and theoretical problems are raised. It is concluded that many of the data cited as evidence for metaphorical representations can be accounted for by structural similarity between domains. (Copyright 1997, Sociological Abstracts, Inc., all rights reserved.) (LLBA 1997, vol. 31, n. 1)