In this ambitious and wide-ranging text, Andrew Goatly explores the language of metaphor. Combining insights from relevance theory and functional linguistics, he provides a powerful model for understanding how metaphors work in real communicative situations, how we use them to communicate meaning as well as how we process them. Examining the distinction between literal and metaphorical language, Goatly surveys the means by which metaphors are realized in texts and locates the interpretation of metaphor in its social context.