MIP: A Method for Identifying Metaphorically Used Words in Discourse

TLDR

The authors aim to provide metaphor scholars with a flexible, reliable tool—MIP—for identifying metaphorically used words across diverse research contexts. MIP is a stepwise procedure illustrated with a sample text, accompanied by a reporting format and a case study demonstrating its empirical reliability. The case study confirms MIP’s reliability, highlights practical complications, and shows it compares favorably to existing metaphor identification proposals.

Abstract

This article presents an explicit method that can be reliably employed to identify metaphorically used words in discourse. Our aim is to provide metaphor scholars with a tool that may be flexibly applied to many research contexts. We present the “metaphor identification procedure” (MIP), followed by an example of how the procedure can be applied to identifying metaphorically used words in 1 text. We then suggest a format for reporting the results of MIP, and present the data from our case study describing the empirical reliability of the procedure, discuss several complications associated with using the procedure in practice, and then briefly compare MIP to other proposals on metaphor identification. The final section of the paper suggests ways that MIP may be employed in disciplinary and interdisciplinary studies of metaphor.