Abstract
Metaphors are all around us in our daily lives: we *defend* a thesis, we live *in* 2011, and Dutch politician Geert Wilders speaks of a *tsunami* of Islamization. Most people will not recognize the first two expressions as metaphorical. The last type of expression, however, is often considered to be one of the strongest rhetorical tools of Wilders. People thus do not always seem to be aware of the presence of metaphors in language use. Not all linguistic metaphors are added to the discourse deliberately by the sender of the message or understood as deliberate by the recipient. This automatic processing of metaphor has been the focus of the cognitive-scientific approach to metaphor, which has consequently neglected the rhetorical power of deliberate metaphor. This research project aims to investigate the difference between deliberate and non-deliberate metaphor and develop a relatively complete picture of the distinct value of deliberate metaphor. The project will first contribute to the theoretical conceptualization of deliberate metaphor. It will investigate when metaphor is used deliberately and where deliberate metaphor differs from non-deliberate metaphor. Secondly, the project aims to build a reliable method for the linguistic identification of deliberate metaphor in both spoken and written discourse. In subsequent stages, the conceptual structures, communicative functions, and distribution of deliberate metaphors will be studied. Finally, psycholinguistic experimentation will be used to examine deliberate metaphor processing. In this way, the phenomenon is approached from various complementary perspectives: rhetoric, cognitive linguistics, discourse analysis, and psycholinguistics. The findings of this project will not only contribute to our fundamental knowledge of the functions of metaphor in discourse in general and appreciation of the value of deliberate metaphor more specifically, they will also create a solid base for application in practice regarding deliberate metaphor use in different communicative settings. The proposed candidate has gained a lot of experience with linguistic research during her bachelor's studies. In her master's studies, this was supplemented with profound knowledge of the study of metaphor as well as practical experience with the identification of metaphors in discourse. In this way, she has familiarized herself with important insights into the study of metaphor and has shown to be very well suited to perform this research. The fact that the department is at the center of present-day metaphor research can only be to the candidate's advantage.