Abstract
The importance of metaphor in cognitive linguistics is explained, providing a sketch of the history of cognitive linguistics & a description of important aspects of the cognitive view of metaphor. Drawing on the work of George Lakoff & Mark Johnson (eg, 1980) as well as other cognitive scientists, how the mind uses similarity & schematic functions to map the source domain onto a target domain, thus organizing knowledge, is discussed; subsequently, common metaphorical linguistic expressions & the underlying metaphorical concepts in Tunisian Arabic are examined. Structural metaphors (eg, ARGUMENT IS SPORTS), orientational metaphors (eg, UP IS GOOD AND DOWN IS BAD), & ontological metaphors (eg, THE BODY IS A CONTAINER) are discussed & illustrated. It is found that the Tunisian Arabic orientational metaphors overlap their American English counterparts to a great degree, suggesting the existence of a pancultural "localism." Minor differences may be observed between American English & Tunisian Arabic structural & ontological metaphors. 46 References. S. Paul