RICHARD TRIM is Senior Lecturer in English Historical Linguistics and Translation Studies at the University of Provence, France. He has published widely in these fields and has held lecturing posts in several European countries including Britain, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland. He is the author of Metaphor Networks: The Comparative Evolution of Figurative Language, also published by Palgrave Macmillan.

List of Illustrations Acknowledgements PART I: CONCEPTUALISATION IN THOUGHT AND LANGUAGE Conceptualisation Processes and Symbolism The Thought/Language Interface PART II: DIACHRONIC CONCEPTUAL SYSTEMS Diachronic Universality Diachronic Conceptual Variation Diachronic Salience iIn Love Analogies Semantic Fields and Colour PART III: ANALOGY IN WAR RHETORIC Long-Term Trends Time-Specific Analogies in War: The Crusades Cultural Change in Western War Analogies Since The Late Middle Ages PART IV: TOWARDS AN EVOLUTIONARY MODEL OF ANALOGICAL LANGUAGE Diachronic Mapping at the Conceptual/Linguistic Interface Cultural History in the Evolution Of Analogy References Index

An investigation of the historical evolution of figurative language within the framework of cognitive linguistics. It examines how and why metaphors evolve through the ages; discusses the role of culture; patterns of metaphor evolution; how many people use particular expressions.