Definition
A target domain is a semantic domain that is structured and understood metaphorically in terms of another domain.
Examples
Here are some examples of the domain of quantity, to which the verticality schema is applied in the more-as-up and less-as-down metaphors expressed in the following:
- The crime rate keeps rising.
- The number of books published each year keeps going up.
- That stock has fallen again.
-
Our sales dropped last year.
Sources 1
- Lakoff, G. 1987, 276–277, 288