Root Metaphors in Accounts of Developing Romantic Relationships

Abstract

This study was undertaken in an attempt to complement extant approaches to our understanding of how parties make sense of their developing romantic relationships. A metaphor analysis was undertaken of 106 interview transcripts, finding three root metaphors that dominated the data: relationship development as work, relationship development as a journey of discovery and relationship development as an uncontrollable force. In addition, four secondary root metaphors were identified: relationship development as danger, relationship development as organism, relationship development as economic exchange and relationship development as game. These seven root metaphors were subsequently reduced through cluster analysis to four groups: work-exchange, journey-organism, force-danger and game. These four groups are posited as folk-logics which relationship parties use to make sense of their relational experiences.