Abstract
Given the crucial role of metaphor in the conceptualization of sexual issues (Kovecses 1988; Zeve 1993; Pizarro Pedraza 2013; Crespo-Fernandez 2015), this paper aims to gain an insight into the social and communicative functions that metaphors on homosexuality perform in discourse, with special attention to the conceptualization of verbal mitigation and offence, on a sample of metaphors touching on homosexual issues taken from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). Following a cognitively based approach to figurative language based on Steen’s (2011) discourse-analytical model, homosexual-related metaphors are conceived not only as a matter of language but also as a matter of thought which have a communicative impact and serve a particular purpose in discourse. Evidence from the corpus reveals that metaphor is used for a range of communicative functions which correspond to different axiological categories of taboo naming: to provide a socially acceptable reference to homosexuality and avoid offence (euphemism); to degrade homosexuals as people who do not conform to traditional gender roles (dysphemism); and to display group solidarity or direct the reader’s attention towards the homosexual topic in discussion (quasi-euphemism).
