Zooming in on the notion of metaphoricity

Abstract

Abstract The present contribution addresses the notion of metaphoricity and discusses different positions in relation to this complex and multi-dimensional phenomenon. Generally, the notion of metaphoricity is used when metaphor is not considered a binary category anymore, or when the status of an expression as metaphorical is at stake (e.g. in discussions of metaphor identification). We will focus on the first understanding of metaphoricity as a scalar phenomenon. Despite the fact that the term is used more and more in the metaphor literature, it is often unclear what it actually entails, e.g. how metaphor is gradable. To shed light on this theoretical and methodological problem, in this paper we will discuss different notions of the term metaphoricity by illustrating how metaphoricity is understood and how it can be operationalized and studied.