Metaphor analysis generally is any attempt to understand, clarify, replace, unfold, elaborate upon, or make fruitful use of metaphors—everything that can be done with metaphors at all, ranging from everyday, more or less conscious metaphorical language use right up to a scientific investigation of metaphor. The goal of this analysis depends in each case on what is seen as a metaphor and how it is seen. A metaphor can be a linguistic expression, a concept, an image, a software interface, an affect, an emotion, a schema—or anything and everything; and in the process, it can be seen as decoration and ornament, as a non-literal figure of speech, as a distortion of the truth, as a subversive disruptive factor, as a Trojan horse, as subtle manipulation, as a sign of creativity, as a strategy for change—or fundamentally as a principle for the construction of reality.
