Analysis of food metaphors

Arm Candy

The source domain is an object, specifically food. The target domain is obviously people. Since this metaphor is used to describe both male and female persons, sex does not need to be identified. What does matter, however, is the rather subjective distinction of said person being "attractive." This is achieved through identifying them as a particular kind of food, generally beloved and coveted by most people. Thus: people are food + everybody wants candy + people are jealous and pay attention to those who have candy + the spatial element of "having" your partner on your arm = arm candy. It is easy to glean that this metaphor is describing having an attractive person on your arm for the purposes of getting attention and creating jealousy.

Eye Candy

"Eye candy," though seemingly similar to the aforementioned "arm candy," is actually justified through a different formula, thereby giving it a slightly different meaning. The source and target domains, however, remain the same. So: people are food + people love tasting candy + people love looking at attractive human beings = eye candy. Therefore, we can see that there is a shift in sensory systems from "taste" to "vision," but the meaning is still easily recovered.

Vanilla

This metaphor involves a source domain of flavor and a target domain that is relatively undefined, but can consist of activities, other objects, or events. Specifically, it involves rating these. With "vanilla," the implication is that the activity/object is plain, boring, or regular, like the most basic flavor of ice cream ("vanilla"). This yields: activities are flavors + vanilla is the most basic flavor + basic is unexciting = the activity is unexciting/"vanilla."