Dead-metaphor is a metaphor that has lost its figurative force through conventionalization, such that competent speakers no longer perceive it as figurative speech but process it as literal meaning. Its parameters: (1) the expression originated as a deliberate figurative mapping from a source domain to a target domain, (2) repeated usage has caused the figurative sense to become lexicalized, (3) competent speakers process the expression literally without activating the source domain, (4) the figurative origin can be recovered through etymological or historical analysis even though speakers do not. The mechanism of persistence is linguistic conventionalization — the fossilization of figurative usage into literal meaning through habitual repetition across a speech community. A dead-metaphor is a fossilized figurative mapping — a figure that became fact through repetition.
Accepted ontology entry
dead-metaphor
Dead-metaphor is a metaphor that has lost its figurative force through conventionalization, such that competent speakers no longer perceive it as figurative speech but process it as literal meaning. Its parameters: (1) the expression origi…
Definition
Why it is in scope
A metaphor that has undergone conventionalization to the point where competent speakers process it literally rather than figuratively — the figurative origin survives only in etymological trace, not in current cognitive processing. Human-made because it requires the deliberate act of figurative speech followed by the cultural process of linguistic habituation that erases the figurative perception.
Names and aliases
- dead-metaphoren · CANONICAL
Relations from this entry
- cmrmabncj005jdveaz4ew5sgvINSTANCE_OF →
A dead-metaphor is a specific kind of metaphor: one that has lost its figurative force through conventionalization. Competent-speaker test: 'a dead-metaphor is a type of metaphor.' It files against the nearest kind — metaphor — which already exists and has an accepted definition.
- cmrmabncj005jdveaz4ew5sgvDERIVED_FROM →
Chronology test: metaphor as a figure of speech predates the concept of dead metaphor by millennia. Dead metaphor emerged as a linguistic phenomenon where formerly vivid metaphors lose their figurative force through common usage — it is a historical development of metaphor, not a separate invention.
Relations to this entry
No accepted relations in this direction.
Record identity
- Created
- Aug 6, 2026, 7:38 PM UTC
- Content hash
- cee6936a36c470e2647b6c6cabbd4cc6a6adb2816599e0ff273093c2dfd42112