Lakoff, George and Johnson, Mark. Metaphors We Live By

Lakoff, George and Johnson, Mark. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago UP: Chicago. 1980,

“Since communication is based on the same conceptual system that we use in thinking and acting, language is an important source of evidence for what that system is like” (3). =B

“Because the metaphorical concept is systematic, the language we use to talka bout that aspect of the concept is systematic” (7). =B

“The metaphorical concepts TIME IS MONEY, TIME IS A RESOURCE and TIME IS A VALUABLE COMMODITY form a single system based on subcategorization, since in our society money is a limited resource and limited resources are valuable commodities. These subcategorization relationships characterize entailment relationships between the metaphors” (9).=M

“Reddy obersves that our language about language is structured roughly by the following complex metaphor:
Ideas (or meanings) are objects.
Linguistic expressions are containers.
Communication is sending. =B & M

Since we put such a physical face on intangible objects such as ideas and language, we are using our minds to create links between physicality and thought.

“metaphorical concepts can be extended beyond the range of ordinary literal ways of thinking and talking into the range of what is called figurative, poetic, colorful, or fanciful though and language” (13). =B & M

This is how we stretch the understanding of certain ideas. It is also how we communicate the understanding. Burke?

“there is another kind of metaphorical concept, one that does not structure one concept in terms of another but instead organizes a whole system of concepts with respect to one another. We will call these orientational metaphors, since most of them have to do with special orientation: (14). =B

“Most of our fundamental concepts are organized in terms of one or more spatialization metaphors (17). =B

“The most fundamental values in a culture will be coherent with the metaphorical structure of the most fundamental concepts in the culture” (22). B & A

“The various subcultures of a mainstream culture share basic values but give them different priorities” (23). =B

“our experiences with physical objects (especially our own bodies) provide the basis for an extraordinarily wide variety of ontological metaphors, that is ways of viewing events activities, emotions, ideas, etc., as entities and substances (25). =B

“We project our own in-out orientation onto other physical objects that are bounded by surfaces. Thus we also view them as containers with an inside and an outside” (29). =B

“Perhaps the most obvious ontological metaphors are those where the physical object is further specified as being a person. This allows us to comprehend a wide variety of experiences with nonhuman entities in terms of human motivations, characteristics and activities” (33). =B & M

“The point here is that personification is a general category that covers a very wide range of metaphors, each picking out different aspects of a person or a way of looking at a person” (34) =B

“we are using one entity to refer to another that is related to it. This is a case of what we will call metonymy” (35). =B

Delving deeper into apparent and hidden metaphors goes toward discovering motive. Burke.
(called synecdoche by rhetoricians).

“The conceptual systems of culture and religions are metaphorical in nature” (41). =B

Women equal Eve equal sin?


“We claim that most of our normal conceptual system is metaphorically structured; that is, most concepts are partially understood in terms of other concepts” (56). =B

“metaphors allow us to conceptualize our emotions in more sharply defined terms and also relate them to other concepts having to do with general well-being . . .” (58).

“Structural metaphors allow us to do much more than just orient concepts, refer to them, quantify them, etc., as we do with simple orientational and ontological metaphors; they allow us, in addition, to use one highly structured and clearly delineated concept to structure another.
Like orientational and ontological metaphors, structural metaphors are grounded in systematic correlations within our experience” (61).

“Standard theories of meaning assume that all of our complex concepts can be analyzed into undecomposable primitives. Such primitives are taken to be the ‘building blocks’ of meaning. (69).

“We conceptualize changes of this kind—from one state into another, having a new form and function—in terms of the metaphor THE OBJECT COMES OUT OF THE SUBSTANCE. That is why the expression out of is used. . .” (73).

This is the same with “into”. A young woman who is marriageable and pure “turns into” a social outcast when she is sullied by her own choice or another’s. Conduct books.

“Another way we can ceptualize making is by elaborating on direct manipulation, using another metaphor: THE SUBSTANCE GOES INTO THE OBJECT.” (73). =B
“the concept of CAUSATION is based on the prototype of DIRECT MANIPULATION, which emerges directly from our experience (75). =B

Eve at the apple and all women turned into evil.

Conversation dimensions of structure:
“Participants: The participants are of a certain natural kind, namely, people.
“Parts: The parts consists of a certain natural kind of activity, namely, talking.
Stages: beginning middle and end
Linear sequence: Participants take turns.
Causation: The finish of one turn is expected to result in the beginning of the next turn.
Purpose: Polite social interaction. [PARAPHRASE] (79). =B

“A ONE-PARTY RATIONAL ARGUMENT is a specific branch of the general concept ARGUMENT and, as such, has many special constraints on it” (88). =B
Content: enough supporting evidence.
Progress: premises to conclusion
Structure: appropriate logical connections among the various parts.
Strength: The ability of the argument to withstand assault depends on the evidence and tightness of logical connections.
Basicness: Some claims are more important to maintain and defend than others, since subsequent claims will be based up-on them.
Obviousness: In any argument there will be things which are not obvious and need to be identified and explored.
Directness: The force of an argument can depend on how straightforwardly you move from premisis to conclusion.
Clairty: What you are claiming and the connections must be clear. (88-9). [PARAPHRASE]

Can we say write a paper?

“We can get some idea of the mechanism of coherence within a single metaphorical structuring by starting with the metaphor AN ARGUMENT IS A JOURNEY” (89). =B

“Because we conceptualize linguistic form in spatial terms, it is possible for certain spaceial metaphors to apply directly to the form of a sentence, as we conceive of spatially”(126).

“Thus, they can give new meaning to our pasts, to our daily activity, and to what we know and believe” (139). (metaphors). =B

Metaphors allow for an expansion of understanding and that expansion allows for new knowledge to be taken in, synthesized, and reformed.

“Ontological metaphors also make similarities possible” (146).

“TIME IS A SUBSTANCE and LABOR IS A SUBSTANCE allows us to view them both as being similar to physical resources and hence similar to each other” (147.)