People use figurative non-literal language with the aim of being more cooperative and efficient on communication. Specific metaphors change through time in different cultures, languages and across generations with effects on semantic and conceptual change. The aim of the present research is to test the change and social distribution of some metaphors in Uruguayan Spanish. Particularly, this study tested figurative expressions for the Uruguayan metaphors BEING IN THE OVEN IS DIFFICULTNESS IS HAZARDNESS, BANKING SOMETHING OR SOMEBODY IS BEARING IT and TO BE FLYING IS DOING SOMETHING WELL. 267 Uruguayan female participatedBy using MCA as a visual exploratory statistical tool, the study identified privileged associations for grounding metaphorical thinking and its social life. Cultural Immersion and Metaphorical Proficiency were proposed as dimensions for explaining the evolution and social distribution of the aforementioned conventional metaphors. But even though MCA seems to be a useful tool for understanding and modeling the metaphors’ vitality, the short percentage of the variance explained by the founded dimensions suggest introducing additional categories in order to obtain an adequate proportion of this variance.

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Figurative language; Metaphorical literacy; Age; Residence; MCA;