Lexical Filledness and Metaphor in Idioms

Abstract

Many have noted the connection between metaphor and idiomaticity (cf. Lakoff 1987, Nunberg, Sag & Wasow 1994, Geeraerts 2003), but few have questioned why this connection exists. In this paper I suggest three ways in which the idiomatic trait called filledness renders idioms statistically more likely than non-idioms to be metaphoric. Idioms, as lexically filled constructions, require the inclusion of particular lexical items, which can result in the juxtaposition of items representing the source and target domains of a metaphor. This juxtaposition, I argue, leads to idioms that cannot be understood within a single domain and must always be interpreted metaphorically. The percentage of metaphoric idioms is further increased by idiomatic constructions that can be used either metaphorically or non-metaphorically; and by idioms that have developed a constructional meaning that guarantees a metaphoric interpretation. Together, I argue, these three classes of idiomatic constructions lead to the well-known preponderance of metaphor in idioms.