Conceptual modeling by analogy and metaphor

Metaphor is not merely a rhetorical device, characteristic of language alone, but rather a fundamental feature of the human conceptual system. A metaphor is understood by finding an analogy mapping between two domains. This paper argues that analogy mappings facilitate conceptual modeling by allowing the designer to reinterpret fragments of familiar conceptual models in other contexts. The contributions of the paper are expressed within the tradition of the Entity-Relation model.