Extending extended conceptual metaphor theory: rethinking levels, modalities, and meaning-making

Abstract The following article aims to synthesize, review, and extend the existing framework of the multilevel approach to metaphor. The synthesis provides insight into how various levels of the human conceptual structure participate in the emergence of metaphoricity in gesture and visuals. The critical part of the paper evaluates contentious areas of the framework, focusing in particular on the question of reconciling the fuzzy, gradable character of the human conceptual system with much needed analytical rigor in analyzing metaphor, and proposes some tentative ways of overcoming these methodological and conceptual tensions. In the final part of the article, two additional levels of the conceptual structure are proposed, the level of mimetic schemas and constructions, providing more granularity for the future analysis within the multilevel approach.