The contested notion of ‘deliberate metaphor’: What can we learn from ‘unclear’ cases in academic lectures?

Abstract This contribution applies Steen’s (e.g., 2008, 2010, 2015, 2017a,b) notion of ‘deliberate metaphor’ to authentic language data from US-American academic lectures. The analysis of excerpts from these data demonstrates several problems with the concept of deliberate metaphor and its proposed ‘identification procedure’ (Reijnierse 2017, Reijnierse et al. 2018). As the analysis shows, problems in distinguishing deliberate from non-deliberate metaphors are posed by metaphorical technical terms, the assumption of ‘idealized language users’ inherent in the identification procedure of deliberate metaphors, and the dynamics of discourse. Thus, while in its current state, deliberate metaphor can draw our attention to important uses of striking metaphors, it appears to be inadequate for the analysis of less striking cases of metaphor whose use in particular discourse contexts nevertheless suggests important communicative functions for part of the participants.