Introduction Analogies and Linguistic Thought EN

Abstract

This introductory text examines the central role of analogy and metaphor in linguistic thought and in the structuring of human cognition. Drawing on cognitive linguistics and embodied cognition, it emphasizes that metaphors are not merely rhetorical devices but fundamental conceptual mechanisms grounded in sensorimotor experience, as demonstrated by Lakoff and Johnson. Beyond metaphor, analogies are viewed as transversal cognitive processes that play a key role in conceptualization, learning, and linguistic creativity. The text also highlights the epistemological challenges involved in studying analogical processes, particularly through research on specific populations such as autistic individuals, which calls into question the traditional opposition between literal and metaphorical language and supports enactive approaches to meaning. The contributions gathered in this issue address these questions through studies on body-related lexicon, morphological and submorphological reanalyses, cognitive processing of metaphor, and theoretical foundations of linguistic science. Taken together, the papers argue that analogy functions as a structuring principle of language, shaping the emergence, variation, and stabilization of linguistic signs.