Abstract
This paper aims to relate the body of research and findings on the role of Michael Hoey’s Lexical Priming theory in current metaphor investigation, with special emphasis in the research on its formal representations. It is argued that the application of this theory to the analysis of metaphor, pioneered by Katie J. Patterson, sheds light to the explanation of some aspects of metaphoric language which have been of increasing interest among linguists in recent years. From a purely theoretical approach, these contributions will be thoroughly examined. The ability of this theory to account for the processes of metaphor acquisition, identification, and usage by the individual, as well as for the great diversity of metaphorical behaviours and uses, demonstrates the particular relevance of its application to the study of figurative language.