What is a love-as-captive-animal metaphor?

What is a love-as-captive-animal metaphor?

Definition
	A conventional metaphor in which love is represented as a captive animal, external to the person in love but held onto by him or her, such that
	letting the animal loose represents loss of control over the feelings of love, and holding onto the animal represents retention of control.

Examples
	Here are some examples in English:
	He couldn't hold back his love. She let go of her feelings.

Generic
	A love-as-captive-animal metaphor is a kind of
	What is a metaphor for love?

Source
	Kovecses 1986

Context for this page:

Concept module: love-as-captive-animal metaphor
In modular book: Metaphors in English, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H. Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Lexicon

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 18 September 1998