Propositional vs. Imagistic Modes in Metaphoric Creativity.

It has been argued that a metaphor can be processed through a propositional or an imagistic mode of processing. Through the propositional mode of metaphor processing, semantic contents of words are creatively manipulated to produce metaphorical meanings. Through the imagistic mode, mental images of the source and target domains are combined, leading to the emergence of a coherent mental image. While the propositional mode produces a novel conceptual representation with newly-emerged propositional properties, the imagistic mode builds a novel imagistic representation with newly-emerged perceptual properties. In the propositional mode, abstract classes or abstract structures, detached from sensorimotor features, are formed in the mind; in the imagistic mode of metaphor processing, sensorimotor features and imagistic components of meanings are activated. In the propositional mode, there is a shift toward generalizing and suppressing perceptual features that are metaphorically irrelevant; in the imagistic mode of metaphor processing, specific perceptual features are strongly activated and combined to create a coherent imagistic representation. Although these two modes of metaphorical processing are distinct and even oppositional in certain respects, they share the key feature of being creative. In fact, they are creative in two different directions; while the propositional mode of metaphor processing is creative through abstraction, the imagistic mode is creative through imagination.