A Yardstick for Recognizing Metaphors relying on Cognitive Linguistics

AbstractMetaphor is the core essence of creativity; and wonder, the core essence of metaphor. On the road of cognition, Human beings always encounter sensual, experiential and verbal information, which form the individual's knowledge of the world via the mental cognitive capabilities such as categorization, attention, conceptualization, memory, etc. Our knowledge of and experiences from the outside world are classified into domains and frames based on the similarities and discrepancies between the novel and earlier perceptions that would, in turn, lay a cornerstone for production through blending and also learning through analogy. Wherever our creations, Be it linguistic or non-linguistic, are the product of unfamiliar, unpredictable, or rather, marked combinations in that very socio-cultural context, metaphor and the metaphorization capacity of the mind are involved. In the present exploratory paper, that stems from a research on translating metaphors, the researchers first review metaphor from both traditional and contemporary viewpoints and then, upon highlighting the existing drawbacks, attempt to give an all-embracing definition of metaphor providing a simple, easy-to-understand formula for recognizing metaphors, which would pave the ground for a fresh classification of metaphors.