On the similarities of metaphors

Abstract

Metaphor is a cognitive process of founding and asserting the similarities between two kind of things or phenomenons, therefore, similarity is the premise and fundamental of its existence. The similarities of metaphors can be distinguished from the physical and psychological aspects. The similarities of metaphors are the cognitive result of the thinking subject, the user's psychological assumption or the psychological association, and are related to the background knowledge, the re membrance of things, the experiences of the thinking subject. Cognitive salience is the premise of similarity establishment , and analogy, judgment, as well as inference are three important cognitive channels to establish the similarities of metaphors