DMT focuses on the difference between metaphors used as metaphors versus metaphors not used as metaphors in communication. This is the issue of deliberate versus non-deliberate metaphor use. DMT aims to describe and explain this issue in analytical and behavioural terms: what are the analytical parameters and categories that offer criteria for deciding upon (non)-deliberate metaphor use and it structures, functions, and effects, and what is the behavioural evidence for (non)-deliberate metaphor use and its psychological and social properties?

DMT connects previous metaphor theories in a new fashion, including a new model, hypotheses, theory, and theoretical framework. This new approach may be situated in Daniel Kahneman’s views on fast and slow thinking. Adopting this framework, DMT  is then further grounded in a well-known general cognitive-psychological model for the comprehension of all utterances in discourse, the Construction-Integration model by Teun van Dijk and Walter Kintsch. It starts out from the definition of metaphor as a cross-domain mapping (Lakoff and Johnson) or form of structure mapping (Dedre Gentner) or simply figurative analogy (Miller): metaphor is understanding one thing in terms of something else.

This requires research on the interaction between structures and functions of language and discourse, on the one hand, and processes and products of cognition and interaction, on the other (for several hundreds of examples, see Bibliography). Dedicated methods for doing this research, including metaphor identification and metaphor analysis, have been developed for this purpose.

To compare or not to compare, that is the question for metaphor scholars who affiliate with DMT. This resonates with the foundations of all cognition, whether fast or slow, including comprehension, memory, imagination, and learning. All of these turn on the central role of analogy and categorization for human thinking. This viewpoint may also be translated into connections with applied research and doing science for society.