Imago Mundi. Perspectives on Metaphor, Creativity, and Discourses

Mariangela Albano;Simona Maria Cocco;Olga Denti;Eleonora Fois;Michela Giordano;Paolo Orrù;Daniela Zizi

2025-01-01

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Abstract

This volume has been produced within the framework and with the support of the Project MED-GREEN. Examining Models of Local Livelihood, Green Building, and Sustainable Mobility in Mediterranean Areas through Discursive Negotiation and Active Citizenship. Philosophers and linguists have historically devoted considerable attention to establishing the centrality of metaphor within the broader scope of human thought. This sustained intellectual engagement has unequivocally confirmed, over the centuries, the paramount importance of this notion for the definition of the concepts, archetypes, and models that permeate daily existence. Metaphors function within everyday language not merely to satisfy a stylistic pretext or mitigate lexical inopia, but to translate a series of creative processes that inherently transcend the threshold of the strictly logical-inferential process. In this specific sense, the foundational step of this volume consists of formally acknowledging the inherent linguistic and cognitive dimensions of metaphor, compelling further reflection upon three dynamically interrelated elements: creativity, lexicalisation, and discourse.