2022068 [HCOSE-Vol3] 011-Ch35-Valenzuela-Ibarretxe-Antunano-proof-02 [version 20230314 date 20230314 12:16] page 2 © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2023 | doi:10.1163/_011 chapter 35 Conceptual Metaphor in Cognitive Semantics Javier Valenzuela and Iraide Ibarretxe-Antuñano 1 What Is a Conceptual Metaphor? A conceptual metaphor is “a cognitive phenomenon in which one semantic area or domain is conceptually represented in terms of another” (Soriano, 2012: 87).* More precisely, what happens in the process known as conceptual metaphor is that information is taken from one domain—usually concrete and easy to conceptualize—in order to structure, and thus better understand, a dif- ferent cognitive domain, which in turn tends to be more abstract and diffuse. The first domain, from which the information is extracted, is called the “source” domain and the domain that is elaborated or structured using that information is known as the “target” domain. The usual convention in Cognitive Linguistics is to indicate the name of the domains in smallcaps(forexample, ti me), and to mention the target domain before the source domain (the usual formula is the target domain is the source domain). One example: the domain of affection is not very concrete, since it cannot be directly perceived by our external senses; it cannot be smelled, seen, touched, or manipulated. Thus, in order to conceptualize it in a more detailed way and to facilitate its use in our reasoning processes, information from the domain of temperature, which can be directly perceived, is taken and mapped onto affection. By connect- ing both domains, the metaphor affectioniswarmth is created, and shows up in linguistic expressions such as a warm welcome or a cold reception. Another example is found in the domain of importance:what is important and what is not can, to a certain extent, be a subjective question, difficult to systematize. To facilitate our reasoning processes about this concept, information is imported from the domain of p hysical size, so that important things are conceptual- ized as large and unimportant things as small. This is how the important is big metaphor arises and is then expressed linguistically with examples such this is a great day, he is the big boss, or that matter is a small thing. In this * This work was supported by the Spanish State Research Agency and f eder/ue funds (grant numbers pgc2018–1551 097658- B-100; ffi2017–82460-P; pid2021-123302nb-I00), the Gov- ernment of Aragón (Psylex H11–17R; MultiMetAr lmp143_21), and the Iberus Campus (icon action group).