The metaphoricity of the noun 'law'

The chapter explores the metaphoricity of the noun law, as it is used across different genres. Metaphor originates in the verb, therefore we seek where and how the noun law, as a syntactic object, inherits metaphorical senses from its preceding verbs. Genre-based corpora are used as data sources. This analysis has two aims, which are only partially fulfilled: to determine the metaphoricity of law in a fairly general sense, with its amount and quality across different genres, and then to establish the metaphoricity of law with its forms of linguistic expression. The latter would have practical implications for practitioners of English for legal purposes, especially in their writing tasks where the key noun law appears. Overall, the analysis provides us with a more abstract understanding of the noun law and organises our knowledge of how law combines with preceding verbs.