Top-down versus bottom-up approaches to the identification of metaphor in discourse

Résumé

To study metaphors in discourse they must first be identified. Metaphor identification and analysis are generally approached in a top-down fashion or in a bottom-up manner. In a topdown approach, texts are searched for linguistic metaphors based on predetermined conceptual metaphors, while in a bottom-up approach linguistic metaphors are identified before conceptual mappings are formulated. These two approaches involve very different analytical steps. This paper explicitly demonstrates how the two approaches can produce disparate outcomes, including differences in (1) how mappings are formulated and (2) what kinds of source and target concepts are determined to be part of the mapping. The processes involved in the two analytical routes are demonstrated via concrete examples in the context of the five-step method developed in Steen (1999, 2009).