CEFContemporary Education Frontiers3029-18793029-1860WHIOCE PUBLISHING PTE. LTD.10.18063/CEF.v3i6.718ArticleMetaphorical Analysis of The Old Man and the Sea from the Perspective of Cognitive Linguisticshttps://artdesignp.com/journal/CEF/3/6/10.18063/CEF.v3i6.718ZhouJiamei2025362025-07-26The Old Man and the Sea stands as the pinnacle of Hemingway’s literary achievement. While its surface narrative is minimalist, the text conceals a complex network of metaphors. Although existing studies have explored the novel’s symbolic meanings, few have systematically analyzed its metaphorical structure from a cognitive linguistic perspective. Grounded in Conceptual Metaphor Theory, this study employs textual analysis and the Metaphor Identification Procedure (MIP) to extract and categorize metaphorical expressions in the novel, revealing how Hemingway constructs profound philosophical themes through everyday language. The findings identify nine categories of metaphors—natural, bodily, religious, ecological, etc.—all rooted in the protagonist’s embodied experiences (e.g., exhaustion, pain) and interactions with nature.The Old Man and the Sea,textual analysis,conceptual metaphor,embodied experiences

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