Patrons d’extension metaphorique et leur potentiel didactique

The present paper is situated within the Cognitive Linguistics movement, which claims that language is associated with certain cognitive abilities. One of them is the ability to conceptualise a situation at different levels of abstraction. This process is shown to apply, among others, in the process of forming patterns of metaphorical extension, as postulated within Cognitive Grammar (Langacker 1987, 1990, 2000b, 2008, etc.). The paper aims to discuss the process of emergence of these patterns and their pedagogical potential. In the first part of the paper, the major processes engaged in the emergence of these patterns are discussed: schematisation and extension. Then, embeddedness of these schematic structures in bodily experience and culture is emphasised. All these considerations indicate the schemas’ pedagogical potential in the area of foreign language pedagogy. The paper is concluded with several suggestions made by the author about the possible applications of such schematic structures in class.