The Routledge Handbook of Metaphor and Language provides a comprehensive overview of state-of-the-art interdisciplinary research on metaphor and language. Featuring 35 chapters written by leading scholars from around the world, the volume takes a broad view of the field of metaphor and language, and brings together diverse and distinct theoretical and applied perspectives to cover six key areas:

• Theoretical approaches to metaphor and language, covering Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Relevance Theory, Blending Theory and Dynamical Systems Theory;



• Methodological approaches to metaphor and language, discussing ways of identifying metaphors in verbal texts, images and gestures, as well as the use of corpus linguistics;



• Formal variation in patterns of metaphor use across text types, historical periods and languages;



• Functional variation of metaphor, in contexts including educational, commercial, scientific and political discourse, as well as online trolling;



• The applications of metaphor for problem solving, in business, education, healthcare and conflict situations;



• Language, metaphor, and cognitive development, examining the processing and comprehension of metaphors.

The Routledge Handbook of Language and Metaphor is a must-have survey of this key field, and is essential reading for those interested in language and metaphor.