日常语言中的隐喻的被列为无生命的，而罕见的的小说或诗中的隐喻还有生命力。20世纪80年代，关于隐喻及认知的新理论质疑了这些假设，但缺少实证支持。这本书触及了新近语言学，符号学，哲学，和心理方面的研究。作者科妮莉亚.穆勒(Cornelia Muller)驳斥了传统的隐喻死/活二分法，从而推崇一个更为动态的模式："睡眠或清醒"。

"尽管此书内容很抽象, Mueller精心编入了情境、实例、和探讨, 是书的内容更容易被接纳.

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Traditional thinking on metaphors has divided them into two camps: dead and alive. Conventional expressions from everyday language are classified as dead, while much rarer novel or poetic metaphors are alive. In the 1980s, new theories on the cognitive processes involved with the use of metaphor challenged these assumptions, but with little empirical support. Drawing on the latest research in linguistics, semiotics, philosophy, and psychology, Cornelia Müller here unveils a new approach that refutes the rigid dead/alive dichotomy, offering in its place a more dynamic model: sleeping and waking.

To build this model, Müller presents an overview of notions of metaphor from the classical period to the present; studies in detail how metaphors function in speech, text, gesture, and images; and examines the way mixed metaphors sometimes make sense and sometimes do not. This analysis leads her to conclude that metaphors may oscillate between various degrees of sleeping and waking as their status changes depending on context and intention. Bridging the gap between conceptual metaphor theory and more traditional linguistic theories, this book is a major advance for the field and will be vital to novices and initiates alike.