It is proposed in this paper that a developmental continuum functions between metaphors and the perception of metaphoric referents in both ordinary and aesthetic language use, and three levels of the metaphoring act are isolated: perceptual, analogical, and evaluative. These levels appear justified in terms of their functional association with Piagetian theories of language acquisition. An experimental study, in which 192 high school and college students ranked metaphors from the three levels by their adaptive features (similarity, analogy, and dissimilarity), affirmed the theoretical propositions and suggested new grounds for explaining the intrinsic nature of metaphoric meaning. (Author/RL)