* Features/Benefits
o Uniquely provides a clear, accessible, introduction to a range of aspects of theoretical and applied metaphor studies - metaphor variability, processing, use, multimodality, and creativity - across languages (including non-Western languages), communicative settings, and modes of expression. It thus enables understanding of the main issues, terminology, and big picture relating to metaphor.
o Presents diverse studies that employ a variety of empirical methods, from neuroimaging to corpus analysis to behavioral experimentation to computational modelling.
o Offers a rich array of pedagogical material in every chapter and points to future directions for metaphor research.
* Demand/Audience
o Meets the demand for a comprehensive, introductory work in metaphor, which has had an explosion of interest and output in the research literature, conferences, and taught courses.
o Students/instructor and researchers of linguistics, communication, anthropology, cognitive science, discourse analysis, and more interested in learning/teaching more about metaphor, figurative language, and cognitive linguistics will benefit from this synthesis, which will enable them to read more specifically oriented books in this area (of which there are many).
* Competition
o No extant book directly competes with the proposed book. Other books about metaphor are highly specialized, narrowly focused monographs on metaphor in specific domains, and are inaccessible/inappropriate for student/course or introductory use to the broad subject of metaphor. This synthetic, zoomed-out book fills that gap by pulling together a wide range of topics and offering an overview of current metaphor research.