When love is not a journey: What metaphors mean

Lakoff(1987, 1993) has argued that the comprehension of metaphorical language is mediated by metaphoric correspondences that structure our understanding of abstract concepts. We take issue with the assumptions of this argument and discuss the lack of empirical support for several predictions that follow from it. As an alternative, we propose a 'minimalist' account of metaphor in which comprehension is conceived as a search for an 'attributive category' that is exemplified by the metaphor vehicle. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.