Home > Terms > English (EN) > correlation-based metaphor
correlation-based metaphor
A metaphor based on tight and recurring correlations or co-occurrences in experience rather than being motivated by perceived similarity or resemblance between two entities.
Correlation-based metaphor thus contrasts with resemblance-based metaphor. An example of a correlation- based metaphor is INTIMACY I S WARMTH as evidenced by the expression: Those two have a warm relationship. As intimacy co-varies with warmth in experience, intimacy and warmth are tightly correlated.
This is held to give rise to a conceptual association at the cognitive level between intimacy and warmth thus establishing the conceptual metaphor: intimacy is warmth.