Metafooride

Metafooride is a theoretical concept in cognitive linguistics describing a higher-order metaphor that governs how metaphors are created and interpreted. It emphasizes recursion: a metaphor about metaphor use that can generate further figurative language.

The term emerged in discussions of reflexive language and conceptual metaphor theory, offering a framework to analyze how speakers talk about metaphor itself. Metaphors become not only mappings but meta-level frames that shape reasoning.

Core features include recursive applicability, cross-domain reach, and cultural modulation. A metafooride can steer the development of new metaphors by signaling which frames are available to speakers.

Applications include literary analysis, political discourse, and the study of AI language models. Metafooride concepts help reveal how self-referential figurative language shapes interpretation and how training data may bias metaphor production.

Example: time is money is a common metaphor; a metafooride reading might examine a second-order statement such as "The metaphor itself is a tool for managing time," which shifts attention from meaning to metaphorical mechanism.

Critics argue the concept risks abstraction and difficult operationalization, but proponents say it clarifies recursive figurative language and improves cross-disciplinary analysis.

See also: metaphor, conceptual metaphor theory, metacognition.