Metaphors We Live by

METAPHORS WE LIVE BY
Index
01. 02. 03. 04. Concepts We Live By ................................................................................................................. 2 The Systematicity in Metaphorical Concepts ........................................................................... 3 Metaphorical Systematicy: Highlighting and Hiding ................................................................. 4 Orientational Metaphors .......................................................................................................... 6
Conclusions ...................................................................................................................................... 7 Experimental Bases on Metaphors .................................................................................................. 8 05. 06. Metaphor and Culture Coherence ............................................................................................ 9 Ontological Metaphors ........................................................................................................... 10
Entity and Substance Metaphors ................................................................................................... 10 Container Metaphors ..................................................................................................................... 11 Land Areas .................................................................................................................................. 11 The Visual Field .......................................................................................................................... 11 Events, Actions, Activities and States ........................................................................................ 11 07. 08. Personification ........................................................................................................................ 12 Metonymy ............................................................................................................................... 13
George Lakoff, Mark Johnson - Metaphors We Live By Resume by Enzo Santilli, info: rage_X_love@live.it Pag. 1
01.
Concepts We Live By
Metaphor is not only a device of poetic imagination, something which lays outside the ordinary language, or a characteristic of language alone, a matter of words rather than thought or action. On the contrary, its not true that people can behave without metaphor, because metaphor is pervasive in everyday life. Our ordinary conceptual system, the way we both think and act, is metaphorical in nature. Since communication in based on the same conceptual system that we use in thinking and acting, language is an important source for what that system is like. Lets take the concept of ARGUMENT and its daily application in the conceptual metaphor of ARGUMENT IS WAR: Your argument is indefensible He attacked every weak point in my argument His criticisms were right on target I demolished his argument Ive never won an argument with him You disagree? Ok, shoot! If you use that strategy, hell wipe you out He shot down all of my arguments.
We see how we dont just talk about argument in terms of war, we can actually win or lose an argument, we must defend and sometimes we need to counterattack or change strategy. We actually talk, but basing our behavior on a war-styled concept. So the structure of a verbal battle reflects the structure of a real battle; in this sense ARGUMENT IS WAR. In a culture which would considerate argument in terms of aesthetic, the essence of argument itself would be different. Argument would be seen as a dance, not a war, and the target of the two dancers would be to perform (not fight) in a balanced pleasing way. This would drastically change the way argument would be thought and experienced. So, the essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another. Arguments and wars are two different things but argument is partially structured, understood, performed and talked in terms of war. In this sense the language is metaphorically structured as well. The metaphor is not in the words we use, it is on the very concept of an argument; and the language of an argument is not poetic or rhetorical, it is literal. Then, we can assume that human thought processes are largely metaphorical, this is what we mean when we say that human conceptual system is metaphorically structured and defined, but before all it must be understood that metaphor means metaphorical concept.
02.
The Systematicity in Metaphorical Concepts
It is not a case that expressions used for arguing are the same used to talk about war. We conceptualize arguments in terms of battle and this systematically influences the way we talk when arguing. Since metaphorical expressions in language are tied to metaphorical concepts in a systematic way, we can use metaphorical linguistic expressions to study the nature of metaphorical concepts. In order to do that, let us consider the metaphorical concept TIME IS MONEY: How do you spend your time in these days? That activity cost me two hours You dont use your time profitably Youre running out of time I dont have the time to give you I lost a lot of time when I got sick
Thus, time is considered a valuable commodity, it is a limited resource that we use to accomplish our goals. Because of the way that the concept of work has developed in modern Western culture, where work is typically associated with the time it takes and time is precisely quantified, it has become customary to pay people by the hour, week or year. Obviously this concept does not exist in every society and it has not always existed, but our contemporary society understands and experiences time as the kind of thing that can be spent, wasted, invested or saved. TIME IS MONEY, TIME IS A LIMITED RESOURCE, and TIME IS A VALUABLE COMMODITY are all metaphorical concepts which are related among a unique structure but we generally adopt the practice of using the most specific metaphorical concept, in this case TIME IS MONEY, to characterize the entire system. Anyway, on the expressions listed above some refers only to the concept TIME IS MONEY (spend, invest, profitably), others to TIME IS A LIMITED RESOURCE (use, run out of), and still others to TIME IS A VALUABLE COMMODITY (have, give, loose). This is an example of the way in which metaphorical entailments can characterize a coherent system of metaphorical concepts and a corresponding coherent system of metaphorical expressions for those concepts.
03.
Metaphorical Systematicy: Highlighting and Hiding
The systematicy that allows us to comprehend one aspect of a concept in terms of another (arguing in terms of war) will necessarily hide other aspects of the concept. For example, when arguing with rage we can forget the cooperative aspect of arguing, and the fact the someone else is giving us his time, a valuable commodity in an effort at mutual understanding. A far more subtle case of how a metaphorical concept can hide an aspect of our experience can be seen in what Michael Reddy calls the conduit metaphor. According to him our language about language is structured by the following complex metaphor: 1) 2) 3)
IDEAS (OR MEANINGS) ARE OBJECTS LINGUISTIC EXPRESSIONS ARE CONTAINERS COMMUNICATION IN SENDING
The speaker puts ideas into words and sends them (along a conduit) to a hearer. Further studies demonstrate that about 70 percent of the expressions we use for talking about language is structured like this. Here, some examples: I gave you that idea Its difficult to put my ideas into words You cant simply stuff ideas into a sentence any old way The meaning is right there in the words The introduction has a great deal of thought content
Here is more difficult to see that there is anything hidden by the metaphor because this is the conventional way of thinking about language. But if we look at what the CONDUIT metaphor entails we can see how it masks some aspects of the communicative process. First, the LINGUISTIC EXPRESSIONS ARE CONTAINERS FOR MEANING means 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 existence independent of people and contexts. So these metaphors are appropriate in many situations but only if all the participants understand the sentence in the same way. The sentence: the meaning is right there in the words is easily understandable independently from the context in which its said, but if we say: please sit it theapple juice seat this can appear without any sense. To understand it we need to know that a waitress of a bar is saying to a customer that he should sit at the table where apple-juice was. More, a sentence can own different meanings independently from the contest but accordingly with two different points of view. We need alternative source of energy might means two different things for the president of Mobil Oil and the president of Friends of the Earth. The CONDUIT metaphor does not fit cases where context is required to determine whether the sentence has any meaning at all and, if so, what meaning was. This metaphor, along with the ARGUING IS WAR and MONEY IS TIME metaphors, provide us only a partial understanding of the whole concept in this case language and hides other aspects of it. If the structure of a metaphor
wouldnt be partial this would mean that a concept wouldnt be a metaphor of the other, but the other itself, so when we say that a concept is structured by a metaphor, we mean that it is partially structured and that it can be extended in some ways but not others.
04.
Orientational Metaphors
Structural metaphors can be defined as those cases in which a concept is metaphorically structured in terms of another. Some other metaphors, instead, organize a whole system of concepts in terms with respect to one other and are called orientational metaphors. They have to do with spatial orientation: up-down, in-out, front-back, on-off, deep-shallow and arise from the fact that we have bodies of the sort we have and that they function as they do in our physical environment. For example HAPPY IS UP. Such metaphorical orientations are not arbitrary, they have a basis in our physical and cultural experience and they can vary from culture to culture.
HAPPY IS UP; SAD IS DOWN
Im feeling up, Im depressed, I fell into depression, that boosted my spirit. Physical basis: dropping posture typically goes along with sadness and depression, erect posture with a positive emotional state.
CONSCIOUS IS UP; UNCONSCIOUS IS DOWN
get up, he fell asleep, hes under hypnosis, Im up already. Physical basis: humans sleep lying down and stand up when theyre awaken.
HEALTH AND LIFE ARE UP; SICKNESS AND DEATH ARE DOWN
hes at the peak of his health, Lazarus rose from death, he fell ill, he dropped dead. Physical basis: serious illness forces us to lie down physically, when youre dead you are physically down.
HAVING CONTROL OF FORCE IS UP; BEING SUBJECT TO CONTROL OF FORCE IS DOWN
I have control over him, hes in a superior position, Im under her control, his power is on the decline. Physical basis: physical size typically correlates with physical strength, and the victor in a fight is typically on top.
MORE IS UP, LESS IS DOWN
the number of printed books keeps going up, his income fell last year. Physical basis: if you add more of a substance or of physical objects to a container or pile, the level goes up.
FORESEEABLE FUTURE EVENTS ARE UP AND AHEAD
whats coming up this week? Im afraid of whats up ahead of us. Physical basis: normally our eyes look in the direction in which we typically move (ahead, forward). As one object approaches a person or vice versa the top of the object appears larger and to be moving upward in the persons field of vision.
HIGH STATUS IS UP; LOW STATUS IS DOWN
shell rise to the top, hes climbing the ladder, hes at the bottom of the social hierarchy, she fell in status. Social and physical basis: status is correlated with (social) power and (physical) power is UP.
GOOD IS UP; BAD IS DOWN
we hit a peak last year but its been downhill since then. Physical basis for personal well-being: happiness, health, life, and control the things that principally characterize what is good for a person are all UP.
VALUE IS UP; DEPRAVITY IS DOWN
he is high-minded, she has high standards, that was a low trick, he fell into the abyss of depravity. Physical basis: GOOD IS UP (for a person physical basis), together with the metaphor of SOCIETY IS A PERSON to be virtuous is to act in accordance with the standards set by the society. VIRTUE IS UP because virtuous action correlate with social well-being.
RATIONAL IS UP; EMOTIONAL IS DOWN
the discussion fell to the emotional level, but I raised it back up to the rational plane. Physical and cultural basis: in our culture people view themselves as being in control over animals, plants and their physical environment, and it is their unique ability to reason that places human beings above other animals and give them this control. CONTROL IS UP gives a basis for MAN IS UP and therefore for RATIONAL IS UP.
Conclusions
Resuming we can say: Most of our fundamental concepts are organized in terms of one or more spatialization metaphors There is an internal siystematicity to each spatialization defining a coherent system rather than a number of isolated case (e.g. Im feeling up = I feel happy; My spirit rose I became sadder) There is an overall external systematicity among the various spatialization metaphors, which defines coherence among them. GOOD IS UP gives an UP orientation to well-being and this orientation is coherent with HAPPY IS UP, HEALTH IS UP, ALIVE IS UP... Spatialization metaphors are rooted in physical and cultural experience; theyre not randomly assigned. There are many possible physical and social bases for metaphors. Coherence within the overall system seems to be part of the reason why one is chosen instead of another. For example: happiness tends to correlate with a physical smile and general feeling of expansiveness. This could in principle form the basis for HAPPY IS WIDE; SAD IS NARROW. In fact the expression Im feeling expansive is often synonymous of happiness. In some cases spatialization is so essential part of a concept that is difficult for us to imagine any alternative metaphor that might structure that concept. The high status concept is such a concept
Concepts of scientific theories are based on metaphors that have a physical and or cultural basis. High-energy particles MORE IS UP, High-level functions RATIONAL IS UP, Low-level phonology MUNDANE REALITY IS DOWN Different cultures give different bases for spatialization metaphors. Which one are chosen change from culture to culture. 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.
Experimental Bases on Metaphors

No metaphor can be comprehended or even adequately represented independently of its experimental basis. For example MORE IS UP has a different kind of basis than HAPPY IS UP or RATIONAL IS UP. Though the concept UP is the same in all these metaphors, the experiences on which these UP metaphors are based are very different. It is not that there are many different UPS, rather verticality enters our experience in many different ways and so gives rise to many different metaphors. We could represent the relationships between experimental basis and metaphors like this: MORE LESS RATIONAL EMOTIONAL Experimental basis 1 UP DOWN
UP
Experimental basis 2
DOWN
This emphasizes that the two parts of each metaphor are linked only via an experimental basis and that it is only by means of these experimental bases that the metaphor can serve the purpose of understanding. For economy we will keep on using is instead of this graphic representation. Graphic representations help to understand the workings of metaphors that do not fit together because they are based on different kinds of experience. For example UNKNOWN IS UP; KNOWN IS DOWN is coherent with UNDERSTANDING IS GRASPING because you can physically grasp and manipulate an object and this operation will be easier when it is on the ground where you can see it in a more profitable way. But UNKNOWN IS UP, KNOWN IS DOWN is not coherent with FINISHED IS UP, UNFINISHED IS DOWN because these last one has a very different experimental basis than FINISHED IS UP.
05.
Metaphor and Culture Coherence
The most fundamental values in a culture will be coherent with the metaphorical structure of the most fundamental concepts in the culture. For example if we consider the UP-DOWN spatialization we figure out that some values are coherent with it: More is better is coherent with MORE IS UP and GOOD IS UP; Bigger is better is coherent with MORE IS UP and GOOD IS UP, The future will be better is coherent with the FUTURE IS UP and GOOD IS UP, There will be more in the future is coherent with MORE IS UP and the FUTURE IS UP, Your status will be higher in the future is coherent with HIGH STATUS IS UP and THE FUTURE IS UP. Their opposites (less, smaller, future is worse) are not coherent with the same metaphor. These values are really embedded in our culture, and seem that theyre not independent but must form a coherent system with the metaphorical concepts we live by. The values listed above hold in our culture generally all things being equal, but because things are usually not equal there are often conflicts among these values and hence conflicts among the metaphors associated with them. MORE IS UP always has the highest priority because of its clearest basis, in fact if we consider The crime rate is going up we see how MORE IS UP is priority over GOOD IS UP. Every subculture, then, may share basic values but giving them different priorities. BIGGER IS BETTER is not true for those culture who aim to save money, energy and environment so they will buy small cars and it may be in conflict with THERE WILL BE MORE IN THE FUTURE when its time to buy a new car now with large time payments or weather to buy a smaller, cheaper, car. Trappists think that LESS IS BETTER and SMALLER IS BETTER but, as for the mainstream, they contemplate the VIRTUE IS UP and the THE FUTURE WILL BE BETTER metaphors (in terms, of course, of serving God). Generally the major orientation up-down, in-out, central-peripheral, active-passive seem to cut across all culture but which concepts are orientated which way and which orientations are most important vary from culture to culture.
06.
Ontological Metaphors
Entity and Substance Metaphors

In our life experience of understanding physical objects and substances we pick out parts of our experience and threat them as discrete entities of substances of uniform kind. We categorize them, group them and quantify them because we look at them as entities or substances. We create artificial boundaries around things so that physical phenomena become discrete as we are: entities bounded by a surface. Our experiences with physical objects give us a variety of ontological metaphors because we see some events, activities, emotions, ideas etc as entities and substances. One first example could be the experience of rising prices, metaphorically viewed as a metaphor under the noun of inflation:
INFLATION IS AN ENTITY: We need to combat inflation; Inflation is backing us into a corner.
Viewing at the inflation as an entity allows us to refer to it, quantify it, identify a particular aspect of it, see it as a cause, and ontological metaphors are necessary to deal rationally with our experiences. We use ontological metaphors for a wide range of purposes, here are some: Referring: That was a beautiful catch; the middle class is a powerful force in America Quantifying: It will take a lot of patience to finish this book, Youve got too much hostility in you Identifying Aspects: The ugly side of his personality is coming out; The brutality of war dehumanizes us all Identifying Causes: The pressure of his responsibilities caused his breakdown; The world is declining because of our lack of moral fibre Setting Goals and Motivating Actions: He went to New York to seek fame and fortune; She saw getting married as the solution to her problems
Two other vivid examples of how we see nonphysical things as an entity or substance lie in THE MIND IS A MACHINE and in THE MIND IS A BRITTLE OBJECT metaphors. In the first case we can say: My mind is just not operating today; Boy, the wheels are turning now!; Im a little rusty today while in the second: Her ego is very fragile; He broke under examination; Im going to pieces, that experience really shattered me. Here we have the same entity saw as two different objects. The MACHINE metaphor gives us an idea that our mind is an on-off device, with a proper efficiency, productive capacity, internal mechanisms; the BRITTLE OBJECT metaphor allow us to talk only about psychological strength. These two metaphors do not focus on exactly the same aspect of mental experience: when a machine breaks down it simply stops to function, when a brittle object shatters, its pieces go flying with dangerous consequences.
Container Metaphors
Land Areas Each of us is a container, with bounding surface and in-out orientation so we tend to see everything as something which contains something and which can be contained into something. We impose this orientation on our natural environment as well, so a clearing in the wood can become a boundary for that wood: passed it youre out the wood, on the other side youre in the wood. This allows us to quantify in terms of substance how much a limited area can contain, so a bounded area gets the metaphorical function of CONTAINER. Its the same for substances and objects: in a tube of water when you get into the tube you get into the water so the tube is a CONTAINER OBJECT while the water is a CONTAINER SUBSTANCE. The Visual Field Our visual field is a container itself (its clearly explicated in its name). The metaphor is natural and emerges from the fact that when you look at some territory your field vision defines a boundary of the territory that is the part that you can see. So if a bounded area is a CONTAINER and our visual fields correlates with boundaries then its not a mistake to say that VISUAL FIELDS ARE CONTAINERS: Hes in the centre of my field of vision, Theres nothing in sight. Events, Actions, Activities and States We use ontological metaphors to understand events, actions, activities and states. Events and actions are conceptualized as object, activities as substance, states as containers. A race, for example is an event which is seen as a discrete entity: Are you in the race? (race as CONTAINER OBJECT), Did you see the race? (race as OBJECT); There was a lot of running in the race (running as a SUBSTANCE in a CONTAINER). Activities are viewed metaphorically as a SUBSTANCE and therefore as a CONTAINER: In washing the window, I splashed water on the floor; How you did get out of washing windows?; How much washing-windows did you do? Various kinds of states may also be conceptualized as containers: He is in love; Were out of trouble now, He entered a state of euphoria.
07.
Personification
We do not personalize just objects, we do the same for nonhuman entities: His theory explained me the behaviour of chickens; life has cheated me; Cancer finally caught with him. In each of these cases we are seeing something nonhuman as human. Another aspect of personification is that it differs in terms of the aspects of people that are peaked out. We can say: Inflation has attacked the foundation of economy; Our biggest enemy now is inflation, Inflation has robbed me of my savings. Here inflation is personified but the metaphor is not INFLATION IS A PERSON, it is INFLATION IS AN ADVERSARY. It gives us a specific way to look at inflation and a specific way to react at it and if we are not able to do that at least the metaphor gives us a coherent account of why were suffering these losses. Personification is a general category that covers a wide range of metaphors, each picking out different aspects of a person and what they all have in common is that they allow us to make sense of phenomena in the world in human terms that we can understand on the basis of our own motivations, goals, actions and characteristics.
08.
Metonymy
When one entity is used to refer to another that is related to we are in front of a metonymy. Some examples are: The ham sandwich is waiting for his check; He likes to read Oscar Wilde; The Times hasnt arrived yet. A special case of metonymy, called synecdoche, is when THE PART stands FOR THE WHOLE: The automobile is clogging our highways; There are a lot of good heads for our team; We need some new blood in the organization. In these cases, as in the other cases of metonymy, one entity is being used to refer to another. Metaphor is principally a way of conceiving of one thing in term of another and its primary function is understanding; metonymy, on the other hand, has primarily a referential function allowing us to use entities to stand for others. The point is that metonymies help us to focus on a particular aspect of what is being referred to; we use a chosen part to refer to the whole body and we choose the part that best fits with the idea we want to give of the body itself. The metonymy There are a lot of good heads for our team underlines how our team is made up of several intelligent individuals. Other metonyms are: THE FACE FOR THE PERSON: Shes just a pretty face; We need some new faces around here PRODUCER FOR THE PRODUCT: Ill have a Knig Ludwig; He drives a Ferrari OBJECT USED FOR USER: The guitar has the flu today; We need a stronger glove at third base CONTROLLER FOR CONTROLLED: Nixon bombed Hanoi; Napoleon lost at Waterloo INSTITUTION FOR PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE:
Youll never get the university to agree with that, The
Senate thinks abortion is immoral THE PLACE FOR THE INSTITUTION: The White House isnt saying anything, Wall Street is in a panic THE PLACE FOR THE EVENT: Pearl Harbor still has an effect on our foreign policy; Watergate changed our politics
Metonymic concepts like these are systematic in the same way that metaphoric concepts are. The sentences given above are not random, they are instances of certain metonymic concepts in terms of which we organize our thoughts and actions. Metonymic concepts help us to conceptualize one thing by means of its relation to something else. Like metaphoric concepts, metonymic concepts structure not just our language but our thoughts, attitude and actions and are grounded in our experience. In fact, the grounding of metonymic concepts can result even more obvious than in the case of metaphoric concepts, since it usually involves direct physical or casual associations. Cultural and religious symbolisms are special cases of metonymy: THE DOVE FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT is the most evident, and its not arbitrary. It is grounded on the conception of the dove in Western culture and of the Holy Spirit in Christian theology. The dove is conceived of as a beautiful, friendly, gentle and, above all, peaceful entity. As a bird, its natural habitat is the sky, which metonymically stands for heaven, the natural habitat of the Holy Spirit. The dove is a bird that flies gracefully, glides silently ant is typically seen coming out of the sky and landing among people.
This shows how the conceptual systems of cultures and religions are metaphorical in nature: symbolic metonymies are critical links between everyday experience and the coherent metaphorical systems that characterize religions and cultures.

Metaphors We Live by

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Metaphors We Live by

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METAPHORS WE LIVE BY

The Systematicity in Metaphorical Concepts

Metaphorical Systematicy: Highlighting and Hiding

Experimental Bases on Metaphors

Metaphor and Culture Coherence

Entity and Substance Metaphors

Youll never get the university to agree with that, The

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