Unveiling the potential: Novel metaphors as cognitive processes for discovery through imagination

Abstract

This paper proposes a new direction within studies of metaphor. It argues that metaphor, rather than functioning as a model for knowledge transfer between concepts, serves as a process of discovery to unveil the potential for novel connections through possibilities and imagination. The discussion acknowledges the significance of two essential features of metaphors, namely ambiguity and hypotheses, in the inferential processes of theorizing metaphor and proposes the application of C. S. Peirce’s notion of abductive reasoning, the method of obtaining new ideas, as well as the application of Bergson’s sensory-motor schema, which Deleuze calls ‘cliché’, to explain how metaphors can become habitual, potentially solidifying thought patterns. Ultimately, this paper aims to transcend the contemporary view of metaphors as mapping processes that promote clarity, uniformity and one-way systematicity to standardized meaning. Instead, it presents metaphors in terms of their multiplicity and the crucial role connotations can play in their effectiveness.