Across field areas, studies of metaphor repeatedly emphasize the social and political functioning of metaphors, neglecting the role of materiality in the appearance and circulation of metaphors. This article argues for greater ecological and material engagement when examining metaphors. A material-discursive analysis of the origination of the mirror metaphor as deployed in the cognitive neurosciences demonstrates how metaphors are generated from situated practices and not easily divorced from bodies and affects in a time and place. The case study shows the benefit of rethinking metaphors as always to some extent outside the head; objects in unruly environments have a say in a metaphor's origination and success, making appeals to the overwhelming power of the social field or to the strategic maneuvering of the scientist insufficient. The paper ends with a call for new materialist metaphor studies.

跨领域的隐喻研究反复强调隐喻的社会和政治功能，而忽略了物质性在隐喻的出现和传播中的作用。本文主张在研究隐喻时加强生态和物质参与。对认知神经科学中镜像隐喻起源的物质话语分析表明，隐喻是如何从情境实践中产生的，并且不容易脱离身体并在时间和地点产生影响。案例研究表明，在某种程度上总是在头脑之外重新思考隐喻的好处；不守规矩的环境中的物体在隐喻的起源和成功中有发言权，使得对社会领域的压倒性力量或对科学家的战略操纵的诉求不足。