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In recent years, numerous studies have pointed to the ability of artificial intelligence (AI) to generate and analyze expressions of natural language. However, the question of whether AI is capable of actually interpreting human language, rather than imitating its understanding, remains open. Metaphors, being an integral part of human language, as both a common figure of speech and the predominant cognitive mechanism of human reasoning, pose a considerable challenge to AI systems. Based on an overview of the existing studies findings in computational linguistics and related fields, the paper identifies a number of problems associated with the interpretation of non-literal expressions of language by large language models (LLM). It reveals that there is still no clear understanding of the methods for training language models to automatically recognize and interpret metaphors that would bring it closer to the level of human “interpretive competencies”. The purpose of the study is to identify possible reasons that hinder the understanding of figurative language by artificial systems and to outline possible directions for solving this problem. The study suggests that the main barriers to AI’s human-like interpretation of figurative natural language are the absence of a physical body, the inability to reason by analogy and make inferences based on common sense, the latter being both the result and the cognitive process in extracting and processing information. The author concludes that further improvement of the AI systems creative skills should be at the top of the research agenda in the coming years.

Working in the framework of object-oriented ontology, Graham Harman claims that science strictly adheres to literal language as opposed to metaphorical language. In this article, I argue that such a distinction between literal and metaphorical language cannot be made cleanly in the context of contemporary physics. First, I identify aspects of scientific practice that point to non-literalism, which include non-linguistic elements of scientific discourse, the problem of interpretation of mathematical formulations of some theories, and the acceptance of incompatible theories that describe the same object. Second, I outline an argument that at least some theories in physics constitute complex metaphors based on Harman’s own definition.

This study presents a lexico-semantic analysis of Kayode Kasum's movie One Too Many, focusing on the interplay between lexical choices and their semantic implications. The research aims to uncover how language use in the film contributes to its thematic depth and narrative structure. By employing a qualitative methodology, the study examines key scenes and dialogues to identify significant lexical items and categorized them into semantic fields. The analysis reveals how specific lexical choices delineate character traits, particularly highlighting the protagonist's journey from addiction to recovery. Metaphorical language and the repetition of certain phrases are also explored to understand their role in emphasizing key themes and emotional states. Grounded in lexico-semantic theory and incorporating elements of film theory, this research underscores the importance of linguistic analysis in film studies. The findings demonstrate that the lexico-semantic features of One Too Many significantly enhanced its narrative and thematic expressions, offering a deeper understanding of the characters' psychological landscapes and the film's overall message. This study contributes to the broader field of film linguistics and provides a model for analyzing other cinematic works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article stems from the author’s dialogue with New Testament scholar Andries van Aarde about the divinity of Jesus, during which the topic of Jesus’ ascension also arose. The author aims to focus on Van Aarde’s thinking about the ascension of Jesus. The article does not intend to provide a reflection on the exegetical and hermeneutical analysis of the biblical texts alluding to the ascension of Jesus Christ. Instead, it argues that these texts existentially emphasise a believer’s new life, theologically expressed as ‘personal ascension’, implying participation with God. In the New Testament, language expressing Jesus’ ascension was borrowed particularly from royal psalms in the Old Testament. The concept of ‘ascent to heaven’ to access the divine presence is central not only to Jewish Christian apocalyptic symbolism but it also became part of the church’s liturgy. Van Aarde contends that the modern church should preserve the reference to Jesus’ ascension in ecclesial confessional language, despite no longer affirming a three-tiered universe or adhering to the mythical language of ‘descended into hell’ and ‘ascended to heaven’. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article makes the case that Jesus Christ’s ascension serves as a liturgical celebration of victory over trauma. It demonstrates the need for a metaphorical interpretation of the ancient references to ascension. These mythological descriptions become anachronistic in our time if they are interpreted in a realistic, historical and literal sense. However, rich and meaningful victory poetry can still be communicated if the ‘ascension’ is interpreted metaphorically.

Background: While clinical diagnosis of mental health issues focuses on factual details represented by literal language (e.g., the onset and process of the triggering event and duration of symptom), the relationship between metaphorical language and psychopathological experiences remains an intriguing question. Focusing on psychological trauma triggered by the 2019–2020 Hong Kong social unrest, this study explored the correlations between trauma victims' quantitative metaphor usage patterns and their experience of specific Acute Stress Disorder (ASD) symptoms. Methods: Forty-six individuals with trauma exposure within 28 days were recruited through convenience sampling. Each completed a 20– to 30-minute semi-structured interview and filled out the Chinese version of the Stanford Acute Stress Reaction Questionnaire (SASRQ; 1). Metaphors in the interviews were identified using the discourse dynamic approach (2), and clinically interesting categories related to trauma and emotion expression, as revealed by previous literature, were sorted out. Standardized frequencies of the categories were correlated with participants' SASRQ scores of five major ASD symptoms, and the correlational patterns were interpreted from a discourse analytic perspective. Results: The study reveals how metaphor usage patterns can reflect the speakers' differentiated experiences of psychopathological symptoms. Compared with individuals who experienced less trauma, those more disturbed by the re-experiencing symptom were more inclined to use emotion-related metaphors and to metaphorize about the self and the self-society relationship. Individuals who experienced more severe anxiety and hyperarousal showed a heightened awareness of self-related issues and diminished attention to others. Those who suffered from more severe impairment in functioning produced more metaphors in the negative valence. Dissociation and avoidance, which were less experientially salient and intense than the others, were not significantly correlated with metaphor usage patterns. Conclusion: This study establishes symptom-level metaphor usage patterns as a previously overlooked but interesting avenue in trauma evaluation, treatment, and research. While the study is confined to a single context, it nevertheless reveals the potential for metaphor research findings to be incorporated as useful materials in psychology education and therapist training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Abstract Background While clinical diagnosis of mental health issues focuses on factual details represented by literal language (e.g., the onset and process of the triggering event and duration of symptom), the relationship between metaphorical language and psychopathological experiences remains an intriguing question. Focusing on psychological trauma triggered by the 2019–2020 Hong Kong social unrest, this study explored the correlations between trauma victims’ quantitative metaphor usage patterns and their experience of specific Acute Stress Disorder (ASD) symptoms. Methods Forty-six individuals with trauma exposure within 28 days were recruited through convenience sampling. Each completed a 20– to 30-minute semi-structured interview and filled out the Chinese version of the Stanford Acute Stress Reaction Questionnaire (SASRQ; 1). Metaphors in the interviews were identified using the discourse dynamic approach (2), and clinically interesting categories related to trauma and emotion expression, as revealed by previous literature, were sorted out. Standardized frequencies of the categories were correlated with participants’ SASRQ scores of five major ASD symptoms, and the correlational patterns were interpreted from a discourse analytic perspective. Results The study reveals how metaphor usage patterns can reflect the speakers’ differentiated experiences of psychopathological symptoms. Compared with individuals who experienced less trauma, those more disturbed by the re-experiencing symptom were more inclined to use emotion-related metaphors and to metaphorize about the self and the self-society relationship. Individuals who experienced more severe anxiety and hyperarousal showed a heightened awareness of self-related issues and diminished attention to others. Those who suffered from more severe impairment in functioning produced more metaphors in the negative valence. Dissociation and avoidance, which were less experientially salient and intense than the others, were not significantly correlated with metaphor usage patterns. Conclusion This study establishes symptom-level metaphor usage patterns as a previously overlooked but interesting avenue in trauma evaluation, treatment, and research. While the study is confined to a single context, it nevertheless reveals the potential for metaphor research findings to be incorporated as useful materials in psychology education and therapist training.

Copyright of Bulletin of Ablai Khan KazUIRandWL: Series 'Philological sciences' is the property of Kazakh Ablai Khan University of International Relations & World Languages and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this article, I will introduce the "tactic board", a tool that allows the employment of football language during a therapy session. Football coaches use tactic boards to show players the different techniques and strategies they have studied. Therapists, like football trainers, can employ this device during their clinical practice, to help the patient locate his role in the family contest, observe his distance or closeness to the other significant people, recognize relational dynamics, and be aware of roles and functions he develops within the family. The therapist's task is to lead the patient throughout the discovery of these dynamics, using metaphorical language. In such a way, football becomes a shared language that encourages the possibility of tracking down and building new meanings through the play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question is raised about the correlation of mythological ideas with scientific information and the corresponding object of reality. It is noted that, the cognitive potential of myths continues to remain inaccessible to the perception of a modern person due to his metaphorical language. The novelty of the research is seen in an attempt to verify the semantics of the mythological image of Yuryung Aiyy Toyon in natural science discourse. The research involves a general scientific synergetic approach, lexical-semantic, contrastive-comparative, structural-semantic types of analysis, the method of mutual interpretation. In addition, special methods of depersonification, demetaphorization, and dehyperbolization of the mythological image were applied. Particular attention is paid to isolating the initial meaning of the lexeme үрүҥ — the component that generates the semantic space of the name Yuryung Aiyy Toyon. As a result of a comparative analysis, the essential content of the mythological image of a single origin and the supreme creator Yuryung Aiyy Toyon is revealed in a new light, as a basic concept of the existence of the universe from the point of view of modern science — light, the spread of which is a key factor in determining the fundamental categories of the flow of time and the length of space.

The sudden outbreak of the COVID‐19 epidemic forced healthcare workers to use all their professional and personal skills to battle it. The unexpected onset of the disease has led to extraordinary pressure on healthcare workers and has challenged their resilience. The study aimed to explore the subjective experiences of 18 Israeli nurses who are directly treating COVID‐19 patients, and to identify the sources of resilience used by nurses to address national health crises. The data were gathered via semi‐structured interviews and thematically analyzed. The analysis yielded three central analytic themes that described the nurses' experiences during the pandemic: maneuvering between professional demands and personal‐family life; the nurses' coping strategies and resilience; and nurses' use of metaphorical military language as a way of coping with the difficulties. The findings show that in a time of severe health crisis, and despite the fear of infection, nurses adhere to the values of the profession and are willing to fight the virus to save lives. The nurses' extensive use of military metaphorical language reflected their experiences, strengthened them, and provided them with a source of empowerment in the face of a common enemy that needed to be overcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a case study of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's delegitimisation discourse on the European Union in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. We focused on how the EU and its member states were depicted metaphorically in PM Orbán's weekly radio interviews. Relying on the discourse dynamics approach, we identified the metaphorical expressions the PM used to legitimise the crisis management of the Hungarian government and delegitimise critical comment from international voices in the context of the European Union. Our results showed that supranational bodies were depicted as authority figures and this image was reinforced by the use of particular verbal motifs. Rhetorical ambiguity was also found regarding Western Europe, whereas the notion of friendship was propagated when referring to the relationship between Hungary and the Visegrád countries Czechia, Poland, and Slovakia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Languages play an essential role in communicating aesthetic, scientific and religious convictions, as well as laws, worldviews and truths. Additionally, metaphors are an essential part of many languages and artistic expressions. In this paper I will first examine the role metaphors play in religion and art. Is there a specific focus on symbolic and metaphoric language in religion and art? Where are the analogies to be found in artistic metaphors and religious ones? How are differences to be described? How do various (philosophical) concepts of aesthetics and theological concepts explain those different kinds of language and how, if at all, do they make use of them? Lastly: what could be added to aesthetics, philosophy and theology by examining carefully the role and importance of language, including nonverbal, sign language and especially metaphorical language? Without the human capacity for language, religions are scarcely imaginable. A widening of traditional exegesis and hermeneutics by taking into account nonverbal semantics is needed. Religion is a cognitive and linguistic phenomenon. By taking this seriously, we set and enable an agenda to discuss religion scientifically, leaving aside for the purpose of a scientific understanding and discourse about the inter-religious and the inner-religious claims of truth and absolutist claims. To sum it up: metaphor is introduced as an important means of language when it comes to religious conceptualization. Next, I will show that art, more than religion, deals with visual metaphor – the latter being an image that suggests a particular association, similarity or analogy between two (or more) generally unconnected visual elements. This often, but not always, functions in a roughly comparable fashion to the better-known concept of verbal metaphor. In addition, visual metaphor has developed many original and unique characteristics. These two sections are followed by another one dealing with (inter)cultural philosophy of religion and aesthetics, as well as the meaning of metaphors for these disciplines. The next section is on metaphor and metaphorical language in mathematics, natural sciences and art and how they are related, i.e. influence and help each other. I will discuss the critical approach to metaphors in natural science and provide a short introduction to the cultural history of mathematics and art. Mathematicians and artists have long been on the quest to understand the physical world they see before them and the abstract objects they know by thought alone. How have art and mathematics helped each other in representing each other’s concepts? A final section provides a summary and an outlook: theology is contextual as is science – and so is art. All these disciplines partly rely upon metaphor and by the help of metaphor get closer to an intercultural and interdisciplinary understanding. I shall argue that, by dealing more carefully with their metaphorical language and their own metaphors, together they become better equipped to map the world.

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There has been extensive work done on the analysis of the kalima attawheed, basmala, and praise of God (hamdalah) in a preamble section of a book in the Arabic literature. One example of these works is the treatise written by the Andalucian scholar İbn al-Sīd al-Batalyavsī on the analysis of the famous and oft-repeated grammatical example Ḍaraba Zaydun ʻAmra. Batalyawsī analyzes the grammatical structure of the sentence in five ways in the treatise which he says he has written upon the question by one of his pupils. He first investigates the function of the agent ('amil) on verbal noun/subject (fāʻil) and object (mafʻūl bih) respectively and enumerates the differing views of grammarians on this topic. Second, he considers the potential metaphorical meaning of a sentence. Third, he writes about the nature of the effect of the verb (fiʻl) on the subject (fāʻil). The fourth section discusses the order and arrangement of sentence elements in a grammatical structure and also considers possible different sentence structures. Lastly, in the fifth section, differences between the subject (fāʻil) and the object (mafʻūl bih) are examined. Batalyawsī briefly mentions comparative views on the mentioned topics and selects among them which he considers as the correct explanation. Grammatical agency or operator (ʻāmil), declinability (iʻrāb), the composition and word-order of sentence elements in a grammatical structure, and literal-metaphor distinction are topics that are investigated in this treatise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

L’argomento che si intende sviluppare nel presente intervento è quello del rapporto di reciprocità tra amore e conoscenza nella riflessione mistica di Riccardo di San Vittore, autore di alcune delle pagine più belle sulla dignità conoscitiva dell’amore nella filosofia medievale. Si metterà a fuoco come la prospettiva mistica e il linguaggio metaforico descrivano un preciso percorso conoscitivo nel quale il soggetto si assimila all’oggetto conosciuto in una dinamica che, analogicamente, riprende la relazione tra amante e amato. In particolare, assumendo come note le riflessioni di Riccardo circa la contemplazione, avanzate nei libri quarto e quinto del De arca mystica (o Beniamin Maior), ci si volgerà all’approfondimento della dimensione trinitaria, trattata sia nello scritto sopra citato, in quanto oggetto dell’ultimo tipo di contemplazione (quello dell’intelligentia praeter rationem), sia, e soprattutto, nel De Trinitate, in quanto fonte e figura dell’amore e, dunque, del suo rapporto con la dimensione conoscitiva. Si tenterà di chiarificare la visione riccardiana circa la reciprocità di amore e conoscenza e, successivamente, si mostrerà come la forma (intensa nel senso di fonte e principio) di tale rapporto sia la vita trinitaria. The topic that we intend to develop in this essay is the relationship between love and knowledge in the mystical reflection of Richard of Saint Victor, author of some of the most significant pages on the cognitive dignity of love in medieval philosophy. It will focus on mystical perspective and metaphorical language and how these dimensions describe a precise cognitive strategy in which the subject is assimilated to the known object in a dynamic that takes up the relationship between lover and loved one. In particular, taking as notes the reflections of Richard about contemplation, advanced in the fourth and fifth books of De arca mystica (or Beniamin Maior), we will turn to the deepening of the Trinitarian dimension as an object of the last type of contemplation (intelligentia praeter rationem), both, and above all, in the De Trinitate, as a source and figure of love and, therefore, of its relationship with the cognitive dimension. An attempt will be made to clarify the Richard’s view of the reciprocity of love and knowledge and, subsequently, it will be shown how the form (understood as source and principle) of this relationship is the Trinitarian life.

Languages play an essential role in communicating aesthetic, scientific and religious convictions, as well as laws, worldviews and truths. Additionally, metaphors are an essential part of many languages and artistic expressions. In this paper I will first examine the role metaphors play in religion and art. Is there a specific focus on symbolic and metaphoric language in religion and art? Where are the analogies to be found in artistic metaphors and religious ones? How are differences to be described? How do various (philosophical) concepts of aesthetics and theological concepts explain those different kinds of language and how, if at all, do they make use of them? Lastly: what could be added to aesthetics, philosophy and theology by examining carefully the role and importance of language, including nonverbal, sign language and especially metaphorical language? Without the human capacity for language, religions are scarcely imaginable. A widening of traditional exegesis and hermeneutics by taking into account nonverbal semantics is needed. Religion is a cognitive and linguistic phenomenon. By taking this seriously, we set and enable an agenda to discuss religion scientifically, leaving aside for the purpose of a scientific understanding and discourse about the inter-religious and the inner-religious claims of truth and absolutist claims. To sum it up: metaphor is introduced as an important means of language when it comes to religious conceptualization. Next, I will show that art, more than religion, deals with visual metaphor - the latter being an image that suggests a particular association, similarity or analogy between two (or more) generally unconnected visual elements. This often, but not always, functions in a roughly comparable fashion to the better-known concept of verbal metaphor. In addition, visual metaphor has developed many original and unique characteristics. These two sections are followed by another one dealing with (inter)cultural philosophy of religion and aesthetics, as well as the meaning of metaphors for these disciplines. The next section is on metaphor and metaphorical language in mathematics, natural sciences and art and how they are related, i.e. influence and help each other. I will discuss the critical approach to metaphors in natural science and provide a short introduction to the cultural history of mathematics and art. Mathematicians and artists have long been on the quest to understand the physical world they see before them and the abstract objects they know by thought alone. How have art and mathematics helped each other in representing each other's concepts? A final section provides a summary and an outlook: theology is contextual as is science - and so is art. All these disciplines partly rely upon metaphor and by the help of metaphor get closer to an intercultural and interdisciplinary understanding. I shall argue that, by dealing more carefully with their metaphorical language and their own metaphors, together they become better equipped to map the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hippolytus (Asiatic tradition, 3rd century) likes to approach the reality by creating resemblances between all kind of objects, events and living beings. Despite metaphorical language is less accurate than scientific reasoning, it might, however, reflect better the dynamism of the reality. For instance, the history of salvation is compared to a loom (cf. De Antichristo 4), due to its strong biblical roots and omnipresent in Roman life; therefore, this would not only generate greater interest in the audience but also it could arouse among some of them connotations linked to the Myth of Penelope, the myth of social content in Plato's Politikos, etc. By this passage, Hippolytus provides the following correspondence between different aspects of a textile work-shop and some details of the history of salvation: the warp, strong and durable as the Spirit; the weft, thicker and weak, such as the flesh of Christ, the patient workers, the Patriarchs and the Prophets; the golden threads of the edge meaning the grace of God; the loom's shuttle weaving the artistic design, the same as the Logos and finally, the mast of the loom meaning the Cross of Christ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Palobra is the property of Universidad de Cartagena and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Much has been written about the Our Father (also referred to as the Lord’s Prayer) as it represents a personal and public dialogue with God in daily prayer and liturgy. While its theological and spiritual aspects have been thoroughly investigated, their cultural implications for different speech communities have been disregarded. This study aims to compare the English, Italian, and French versions of the Lord’s Prayer in the Catholic Church in an attempt to examine the role that culture is bound to play in shaping religious response and tracing a preferential interpretive pathway through a sacred text. This comparative analysis is focused on lexical choice and metaphorical imagery and integrated by an examination of the wider co-text, the Bible. The analysis has shown that the versions of the Lord’s Prayer present distinctive features possibly reflective of deeply-ingrained cultural attitudes such as the appeal for elevation in the English prayer, the dual tension between deference and solidarity in the Italian prayer, and the inclination for a grand narrative of heroes and anti-heroes in the French prayer. The study concludes that renewed attention to Christian sources could help bridge the gap between religion and culture, and reconcile our spiritual and social identities in post-secular societies.

Language is one of the main symbols of a culture. Without language it is impossible to define identities and motherlands, to analyse working relationships, processes of integration and segregation of a people, and, mainly, communication between different populations. Despite the current tendency towards the overcoming of national borders, due to the increased communications brought about by globalisation, this overcoming occurs in different ways, depending on social class. The rich have access to the internet, to good movies, books, songs, newspapers, documentaries, photographs, in dialogues regulated by codes based in the native language and, in some cases, in a second language. All that is left to the poor is the language of waters, rivers, of the kenês, and an oral tradition charged with metaphors and puns. This article is an extended version of my master’s dissertation and aims at analysing the backgrounds and identities of rural workers migrated into Acre from Central and Southern Brazil. These backgrounds and identities are in turn revealed by metaphors, in a way to reinforce the literary and linguistic value of those for the preservation of memory and identity. This work is based on cultural studies as described by Raymond Williams (1979) and Thompson (1998).

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Copyright of Journal of Language & Linguistics Studies is the property of Journal of Language & Linguistics Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article first explores Augustine’s conspicuous references to ‘God’s Hand’ in his Confessions by presenting a fresh translation and brief commentary of the relevant texts. In the commentary special attention is given to the possible signifiance of these texts to (former) Manichaean readers. It is concluded that Augustine’s eye-catching imagery is not only inspired by biblical language and—in all likelihood—by predecessors in the Christian tradition such as Irenaeus and especially Ambrose, but also strikingly coincides with an essential metaphor of the Manichaeans. This feature once again underlines the importance of the Manichaean element in Augustine’s Confessions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines whether higher-proficiency learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) produce expository writing that exhibits a greater density of metaphorically used words and expressions than what is found in texts produced by lower-proficiency peers. A comparison was made between essays written by 257 undergraduate English majors at three different year levels at a university in Viet Nam. The proportion of metaphorical language making up these essays was indeed found to be positively related to the students’ year levels and also to the grades awarded to the essays by independent assessors. A closer inspection of the data revealed that this positive association between proficiency and quantity of metaphorical expressions held true exclusively for grammatically correct instances of metaphorical language. The findings suggest that learners stand to gain considerably—in terms of perceived writing proficiency—from using words in their non-basic senses, as long as this use is also grammatically target-like. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the conspicuous references to God's 'Right Hand' in Manichaeism by analysing texts from both Western and Eastern sources. The analysed texts prove that the eye-catching imagery (directly or indirectly) refers to Christ. Perhaps this imagery of Christ as God's Right Hand also had its place in Manichaean art. The article aims to function as background for a subsequent study of Augustine's portrayal of Christ as manus or dextera Dei in his Confessions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metaphorical language is a type of non-literal language with multiple uses in communication. Despite its relevance, most studies about this topic have focused on measuring the performance of a variety of populations on this skill and relating it to biological substrates or other cognitive abilities and there are little or no published studies on procedures for training the creation of metaphorical expressions. The current study evaluated a multiple exemplar training procedure for training simple metaphorical expressions in 4 six-year-old participants. Results demonstrated that all participants acquired the skill and demonstrated generalization, suggesting that multiple exemplar training may be effective for teaching children to create simple metaphorical expressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, it is presented two math teachers' discourse analysis results, to identify the possible incidence of the metaphorical language used by them, in the learning of the concept of a complex number with ninth grade students. The analysis of the metaphorical language of the teacher is done in the light of the Cognitive Theory of Mathematics. It seeks the understanding of mathematics in the metaphorical thinking of people, and not in the rigorous demonstrations of books, emphasizing the connection that has the body with the cognitive processes, inducing the main key for the reform of teaching and learning processes focused on mathematical communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]