Chapter 5 delves into metaphor and metonymy. Metaphor exists as a collection of mappings between source and target conceptual domains, and the relationships established by these mappings are licensed by systematic similarities between entities in the conceptual domains. When we say, “he needs to blow off some steam” or “she made my blood boil,” we use our physical experience of boiling water to express the abstract emotion of anger (Lakoff, 1987). Metonymy functions within a single conceptual domain and establishes a mapping between two parts of that domain on the basis of physical or functional adjacency. For example, metonymy enables the use of the term White House to refer to the executive branch of the US government, and the name of the national capital Beijing to refer to China. This chapter compares patterns of metaphor and metonymy available in English and Chinese, illustrates how metonymy functions as a basis for character formation in Chinese, and suggests how metaphor and metonymy can be incorporated into L2 Chinese classrooms.

Most metaphors are highly conventionalized expressions that are typically read and understood by native speakers effortlessly. For instance, while reading “the brightest child” in the classroom native speakers naturally understand that the speaker is not referring to a child who is literally shiny, but rather, a smart child.

Nonnative speakers and language learners, however, may find some metaphoric expressions difficult to understand if expressed in a language that they do not master fluently. Moreover, they may try to use conventional metaphoric expressions translated directly from their own native or first language, into another language. This can create problems in intercultural settings, where the expression may sound strange if unheard before, and possibly unclear. For instance, the arguably unclear expression “climbing up on mirrors” is actually a direct translation of a highly conventional Italian metaphoric expression, frequently used to say “finding excuses.” This chapter elaborates on the way in which metaphoric expressions are understood, and how such comprehension processes vary in relation to metaphor conventionality, aptness, and deliberateness. I then take these observations into the field of intercultural communication, explaining how the pragmatics of metaphor comprehension may be affected by intercultural settings.