ABSTRACT
In this chapter I show how a theoretical framework can be built up to explain the interplay between metaphors within texts. In fact, in the interests of psychological realism, it ought to be extended in this way, since metaphoric processing depends upon both local and global metaphoricity and they interact with each other (Steen 1994:119). The texts which provide my main examples are Macbeth, Paradise Lost (Book 1), The Rainbow by D.H.Lawrence and six early novels of William Golding. After a schematic overview of the interrelations and other complicating processes (section 9.1), I illustrate each interrelation in turn (sections 9.2-9.7). I then focus on three complicating processes, compounding, literalization (section 9.9) and overdescription (section 9.10), and relate the last two to symbolization (section 9.11), one of the distinctive features of literary texts.
