Mirror, cat, sun and other concepts

a comparison between metaphors and symbols

Abstract

This work presents a discussion on the relationships of proximity and distance between two concepts that are widely studied within the science of language: metaphors and symbols. Thus, the main objective of the work is to propose a comparative analysis between symbolism and metaphoricity based on examples taken from the Dictionary of Symbols by Chevalier and Gheerbrant (2015). To do so, we resorted to the Conceptual Theory of Metaphor by Lakoff and Johnson (2003) and the discussions carried out by Chevalier and Gheerbrant (2015) about symbols. The results point to a relationship between the construction of the metaphoricity of the metaphors studied and the symbolism of the elements involved (Mirror, Star, Fire, Cat and Sun), even though the concepts are not directly equivalent. This proximity can be explained by the fact that both metaphors and symbols use the connotative meaning of concepts to construct their own meanings. On the other hand, the crucial difference between these two concepts is explained based on compositionality: metaphors always bring two concepts/elements together to construct a new meaning; symbols, in turn, do not establish this comparison, there is no compositionality in the construction of symbolic meaning.