ABSTRACT
For over two millennia, metaphor has been an object of study in rhetoric. Generally perceived as the poetics of language, requiring a level of linguistic creativity above and beyond ordinary language, it is considered the frosting on the cake of solid literal language, delectable but not substantial, pleasant but not essential. For scholars who view figurative language as secondary to literal language, metaphor is ‘an ornament that at best breaks up the monotony of ‘plain talk’ and at worst reduces all communication to little more than fancy babble’ (Sapir 1977: 8-9).
