ABSTRACT
It was in the Upper Palaeolithic period, a recent theory suggests, that the human brain first became capable of metaphorical thought. According to this theory, up until that time, the domains that formed the main subjects of human thought were cognitively separated from each other so that no interaction or crossover between them was possible. Tercedor Sanchez describe the pervasiveness of different types of figurative language in specialised writing as a striking phenomenon and one that is of great significance for term creation and the representation of technical and scientific knowledge. By far the most influential framework for the study of metaphor is currently provided by the conceptual metaphor theory. There are many different approaches to the theoretical study of metaphor, although the most popular one among researchers is currently the conceptual metaphor theory. This theory allows more of a place for interlingual and intercultural variation in metaphorical language.
