Acquiring Metaphorical Expressions in a Second Language: Performance by Chinese Learners of English

Conventional metaphorical expressions are widely used by native speakers in everyday language and have received extensive attention in theoretical semantics and cognitive linguistics. However, how a second language learner can acquire those expressions is left largely unknown. Researchers and language learners face the question: if one has acquired the literal meaning of a word, can they automatically derive the metaphorical meaning?

This book provides the answer by placing the question of...