A Sea of-Noun vs. a Mountain of-Noun: A Quantitative Corpus-Based Study of Two Metaphorical Constructions

Applying the perspective of Construction Grammar and corpus-based method known as Distinctive-Collexeme Analysis, this study seeks to identify nouns that indicate a strong preference either for sea of-noun-construction or mountain of-noun-construction. Based on data extracted from corpus, reveals constructions convey subtle nuances meaning, reflect different degrees metaphoricity, have tendency occur with specific nouns.