Metaforen som konvention : graden av bildlighet i svenskans vikt- och tyngdmetaforer

This dissertation examines the nature of conventional lexicalized metaphors, especially their degree of figurativeness, which is defined as their ability to activate conceptions from the source domain of the metaphor. The corpus in question consists of central words from the source domain WEIGHT. The analysis concentrates on collocations, the basic approach being to compare the metaphorical uses of a word with the non-metaphorical ones. The study demonstrates that the WEIGHT domain consists of two subdomains, partly distinct, partly overlapping: 1) the vikt subdomain primarily connected to weighing procedures with metaphorical meanings like 'importance' and 'consider'; 2) the tyngd subdomain primarily connected to gravitational effects on objects and bodies with metaphorical meanings like 'heaviness' and 'weigh upon'. Metaphors from the vikt subdomain were in general found to be less figurative, basically due to its conceptual nature. But there were also differences within the same subdomain. Some words seem metaphorically projected one by one, rather than as parts of a conceptual unity. The degree of figurativeness can therefore be said to depend on both (sub)domain properties and on lexical properties specific to the lexicalized metaphorical item.