This book offers a critical perspective on cognitive approaches to metaphor, metonymy, and the philosophical background underpinning experientialist semantics. Particular emphasis is placed on the works of George Lakoff, Mark Johnson and congenial cognitivists. Verena Haser suggests that we abandon some familiar methodological principles connected with experientialist research. Instead, she proposes a new perspective on the distinction between metaphor and metonymy and provides an account of metaphorical transfer that does not rely on the notion of conceptual metaphor. Close readings of key passages from writings by Lakoff and Johnson, among others, are the basis of a detailed criticism of key experientialist tenets. This book will be relevant to students and scholars interested in semantics and cognitive linguistics, and also in psychology and philosophy of language.