Hypotheses Revisited

The Cognitive Theory of Metaphor Applied to Religious Texts

Résumé

The main tenets of the Cognitive Theory of Metaphor are summarized in the form of nine hypotheses (cf. Jäkel 1997). Then, instances of the JOURNEY metaphor with its underlying PATH schema from the latest English version of the Bible are analyzed by way of a semasiological approach. The findings of this empirical case study are finally brought to bear on the theoretical claims. While as a result most of these tenets are seen to be corroborated, the "invariance hypothesis" (cf. Lakoff 1993) in particular appears highly suspect.