What is a character-as-straight-movement metaphor?

What is a character-as-straight-movement metaphor?

Definition
	A conventional metaphor in which moral character is represented as movement with a degree of straightness, such that the degree of straightness represents the level of moral goodness.

Examples
	Here are some examples in English:
	He's a man of unswerving integrity. You're just a crook. I want a straight answer. She would never deviate from the truth.

Generic
	A character-as-straight-movement metaphor is a kind of
	What is a metaphor for values?

Source
	Kovecses 1986

Context for this page:

Concept module: character-as-straight-movement 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