Based on their syntactic,semantic and cognitive characteristics, the author classifies metaphors into explicit and implicit, radical andderivative, similarity-based and similarity-creating as well as NP, VP, AP, ADP and PP metaphors.

• 作者认为，从隐喻的表达形式、功能和认知特点角度，隐喻可分为显性隐喻与隐性隐喻、根隐喻与派生隐喻、以相似性为基础的隐喻与创造相似性的隐喻； 从隐喻的句法特点角度，又可分出名词性、动词性、形容词性、副词性、介词性隐喻等。