Metaphor

Abstract

The article consists of two parts. In the first part, we scrutinize two lexical definitions of metaphor. The notion underlying both definitions is the notion of similarity. Next, we analyze the similarity space (analogy, metaphor, mere similarity etc.): two things can be similar in view of properties or in view of relations (Gentner’s model). The second part deals with rough classification of different theories of metaphor and representations of their basic statements. In our opinion, all theories can belong to one of the three sets: literal, figurative or dualistic.