A look at, inside, and outside metaphors

Abstract How metaphors are comprehended and their pragmatic effects have long been of interest ( Colston, 2019 ; Gibbs, 2017 ; Gibbs Cienki Forceville & Urios-Aparisi, 2009 ). But these explorations outside of language and inside the body have left some bits relatively unattended. Metaphors and their host constructions can be embedded into an array of language genres. These also bring their own idiosyncratic influences on metaphor cognition. Moreover, the target domain content that metaphors invoke adds to this complex mixture. And metaphors can be layered within metaphors. This paper presents a tour of just some of the immense fractalesque complexity invoked when we look at the full richness of metaphorical meaning.