Lakoff and Johnson have written a book about metaphors. Below you will read a short summary about the first seven chapters.
Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms
of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature. Since
metaphorical expressions in our language are tied to metaphorical concepts in a
systematic way, we can use metaphorical linguistic expressions to study the
nature of metaphorical concepts and to gain an understanding of the
metaphorical nature of our activities.
A case of how a metaphorical concept can
hide an aspect of our experience can be
seen in what Michael Reddy has called “conduit
metaphor”. The speaker puts ideas (objects) into words (containers) and sends them (along a conduit) to a hearer who takes
the idea/objects out of the word/containers.
The linguistic
expressions are containers for meanings aspect of the conduit metaphor
entails that words and sentences have meanings in themselves, independent of
any context or speaker. The meanings are
objects part of the metaphor, entails that meanings have an existence
independent of people and contexts. The part of the metaphor that says linguistic expressions are containers for meaning
entails that words (and sentences) have meanings, again independent of context
and speakers.
There are sentences that have no meaning without context, but there are cases
where a single sentence will mean different things to different people. The conduit metaphor does not fit cases where
context is required to determine whether the sentence has many meanings at all
and what meaning it has.
Once we can identify our experiences as entities or substances, we can refer to them, categorize them , group them, and quantify them = REASON ABOUT THEM.
Ontological Metaphors are so natural, we don't notice them being a metaphor.
Different types of metaphors:
Structural Metaphors: one concept is metaphorically structured in terms of another concept
Oriental Metaphors: have to do with spatial orientation (happy is up, sad is down)
Ontological Metaphors: entity and substance metaphor (Inflation: view it as an entitiy, refer to it, quantify and identify it)
Container Metaphors:
Land Areas: moving out, into another - we set boundaries for physical things, we define where the forest stops, we define when we're in or out a room.
Visual Field: we describe what we can or can not see.
Events, Actions, Activities, and States: Events are often viewed as a container object, Activities as substances. Activities are viewed as containers for the actions and other activities that make them up.
Personification: on-human objects or concepts are given human traits or described as if they were human.
Good things are UP, bad things are DOWN, fundamental concepts contain more or one spatialization metaphors. It is hard to distinguish the physical from the cultural basis of a metaphor, since the choice of one physical basis from among many possible ones has to do with cultural coherence.
Many of our values cohere with the metaphorical structure. Which values get priority depends on culture, subculture and your personal values.
