Metaphors from collocations

Abstract

Cognitive linguists claim that our conceptual system is metaphorical in nature. It is widely recognized that “… we typically conceptualise the non-physical in terms of the physical, that is, we conceptualise the less clearly delineated in terms of the more clearly delineated” (Lakoff 1980:59). The analises of linguistic expressions of abstract notions reveals metaphors, esp. the dead metaphors, that are unconscious, conventionalised and pervasive. Some cognitive linguists point to close relationship between collocations and dead metaphors: “The metaphor is a novel, unconventional, modal typification/categorisation that could not be expressed as collocation until the metaphor or system of metaphors dies and becomes a set of collocations” (Alverson 1994:57, also see Lakoff 1980:51, Kovecses 1986:132). Nevertherless practically cognitivists do not use existing corpora and/or collocational patterns to derive metaphors from.