Metaphors in Wine-tasting Notes in English and Spanish

Resumen

Conceptual metaphor in cognitive linguistics involves understanding one semantic domain in terms of the other. Conceptual associations between domains have been considered universal, unidirectional and usage-based. However, the concept of universality is rather controversial, since it contradicts that of culture: different cultures may convey the same reality by using different metaphorical sources. The purpose of this paper is to examine to what extent the concept of universality holds true for metaphors found in wine-tasting notes written by wine experts. Our corpus-based methodology involves identifying metaphors linked to selected key terms and analyzing them both quantitatively and qualitatively. Our results show that the differences in English and Spanish cultures do not seem to affect the metaphorical use of language in wine-tasting notes.