The concepts that govern our thought are not
just matters of the intellect. They also govern
our everyday functioning, down to the most
mundane details. Our concepts structure what we
perceive, how we get around in the world, and how
we relate to other people. Our conceptual system
thus plays a central role in defining our everyday
realities. If we are right in suggesting that our conceptual
system is largely metaphorical, then the
way we think, what we experience, and what we
do every day is very much a matter of metaphor.
But our conceptual system is not something we
are normally aware of. In most of the little things
we do every day, we simply think and act more or
less automatically along certain lines. Just what
these lines are is by no means obvious. One way to
find out is by looking at language. 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.
Primarily on the basis of linguistic evidence,we
have found that most of our ordinary conceptual
system is metaphorical in nature. And we have
found a way to begin to identify in detail just what
the metaphors are that structure how we perceive,
how we think, and what we do.
To give some idea of what it could mean for
a concept to be metaphorical and for such a
concept to structure an everyday activity, let us
start with the concept ARGUMENT and the conceptual
metaphor ARGUMENT IS WAR. This metaphor
is reflected in our everyday language by a wide
variety of expressions:
ARGUMENT IS WARYour claims are indefensible.
He attacked every weak point in my argument.
His criticisms were right on target.
I demolished his argument.
I’ve never won an argument with him.
You disagree? Okay, shoot!
If you use that strategy, he’ll wipe you out.
He shot down all of my arguments.
It is important to see that we don’t just talk
about arguments in terms of war.We can actually
win or lose arguments.We see the person we are
arguing with as an opponent.We attack his positions
and we defend our own. We gain and lose
ground. We plan and use strategies. If we find a
position indefensible, we can abandon it and take
a new line of attack. Many of the things we do in
arguing are partially structured by the concept of
war. Though there is no physical battle, there is a
verbal battle, and the structure of an argument—
attack, defense, counterattack, etc.—reflects this.
It is in this sense that the ARGUMENT IS WARmetaphor
is one that we live by in this culture; it structures
the actions we perform in arguing.
Try to imagine a culture where arguments
are not viewed in terms of war, where no one wins
or loses, where there is no sense of attacking or
defending, gaining or losing ground. Imagine a
culture where an argument is viewed as a dance,
the participants are seen as performers, and the
goal is to perform in a balanced and aesthetically
pleasing way. In such a culture, people would view
arguments differently, experience them differently,
carry them out differently, and talk about them
differently. But we would probably not view them
as arguing at all: They would simply be doing
something different. It would seem strange even to
call what they were doing “arguing.” Perhaps the
most neutral way of describing this difference
between their culture and ours would be to say
that we have a discourse form structured in terms
of battle and they have one structured in terms
of dance.
This is an example of what it means for a
metaphorical concept, namely, ARGUMENT IS WAR, to
structure (at least in part) what we do and how we
understand what we are doing when we argue. The
essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing
one kind of thing in terms of another. It is
not that arguments are a subspecies of war. Arguments
and wars are different kinds of things—
verbal discourse and armed conflict—and the
actions performed are different kinds of actions.
But ARGUMENT is partially structured, understood,
performed, and talked about in terms of WAR. The
concept is metaphorically structured, the activity
is metaphorically structured, and, consequently,
the language is metaphorically structured.
Moreover, this is the ordinary way of having an
argument and talking about one. The normal way
for us to talk about attacking a position is to use
the words “attack a position.” Our conventional
ways of talking about arguments presuppose a
metaphor we are hardly ever conscious of. The metaphor is not merely in the words we use—it is
in our very concept of an argument. The language
of argument is not poetic, fanciful, or rhetorical;
it is literal. We talk about arguments that way
because we conceive of them that way—and we
act according to the way we conceive of things. . . .
In each of the examples that follow we give a
metaphor and a list of ordinary expressions that
are special cases of the metaphor. The English
expressions are of two sorts: simple literal expressions
and idioms that fit the metaphor and are part
of the normal everyday way of talking about the
subject.
THEORIES (AND ARGUMENTS) ARE BUILDINGS
Is that the foundation for your theory? The
theory needs more support. The argument is shaky.
We need some more facts or the argument will fall
apart. We need to construct a strong argument for
that. I haven’t figured out yet what the form of the
argument will be. Here are some more facts to
shore up the theory.We need to buttress the theory
with solid arguments. The theory will stand or fall
on the strength of that argument. The argument
collapsed. They exploded his latest theory.We will
show that theory to be without foundation. So far
we have put together only the framework of the
theory.
IDEAS ARE FOOD
What he said left a bad taste in my mouth. All
this paper has in it are raw facts, half-baked ideas,
and warmed-over theories. There are too many
facts here for me to digest them all. I just can’t swallow
that claim. That argument smells fishy. Let me
stew over that for a while.Now there’s a theory you
can really sink your teeth into. We need to let that
idea percolate for a while. That’s food for thought.
He’s a voracious reader.We don’t need to spoon-feed
our students. He devoured the book. Let’s let that
idea simmer on the back burner for a while. This is
the meaty part of the paper. Let that idea jell for a
while. That idea has been fermenting for years.
With respect to life and death IDEAS ARE
ORGANISMS, either PEOPLE or PLANTS.
IDEAS ARE PEOPLE
The theory of relativity gave birth to an enormous
number of ideas in physics.He is the father of
modern biology.Whose brainchild was that? Look
at what his ideas have spawned. Those ideas died off
in the Middle Ages. His ideas will live on forever.
Cognitive psychology is still in its infancy. That’s an
idea that ought to be resurrected. Where’d you dig
up that idea? He breathed new life into that idea.
IDEAS ARE PLANTS
His ideas have finally come to fruition. That
idea died on the vine. That’s a budding theory. It
will take years for that idea to come to full flower.
He views chemistry as a mere offshoot of physics.
Mathematics has many branches. The seeds of his
great ideas were planted in his youth. She has a
fertile imagination. Here’s an idea that I’d like to
plant in your mind.He has a barren mind.
IDEAS ARE PRODUCTS
We’re really turning (churning, cranking, grinding)
out new ideas.We’ve generated a lot of ideas
this week.He produces new ideas at an astounding
rate. His intellectual productivity has decreased in
recent years. We need to take the rough edges off
that idea, hone it down, smooth it out. It’s a rough
idea; it needs to be refined.
IDEAS ARE COMMODITIES
It’s important how you package your ideas. He
won’t buy that. That idea just won’t sell. There is
always a market for good ideas. That’s a worthless
idea.He’s been a source of valuable ideas. I wouldn’t
give a plugged nickel for that idea. Your ideas don’t
have a chance in the intellectual marketplace.
IDEAS ARE RESOURCES
He ran out of ideas. Don’t waste your thoughts
on small projects. Let’s pool our ideas. He’s a
resourceful man.We’ve used up all our ideas. That’s
a useless idea. That idea will go a long way.
IDEAS ARE MONEY
Let me put in my two cents’ worth. He’s rich in
ideas. That book is a treasure trove of ideas.He has
a wealth of ideas.
IDEAS ARE cutting instruments
That’s an incisive idea. That cuts right to the
heart of the matter. That was a cutting remark.He’s
sharp. He has a razor wit. He has a keen mind. She
cut his argument to ribbons.
IDEAS ARE FASHIONS
That idea went out of style years ago. I hear
sociobiology is in these days.Marxism is currently
fashionable in western Europe.That idea is old hat!
That’s an outdated idea.What are the new trends in
English criticism? Old-fashioned notions have no
place in today’s society. He keeps up-to-date by
reading the New York Review of Books. Berkeley is
a center of avant-garde thought. Semiotics has
become quite chic. The idea of revolution is no
longer in vogue in the United States. The transformational
grammar craze hit the United States in
the mid-sixties and has just made it to Europe.
UNDERSTANDING IS SEEING; IDEAS ARE LIGHT-SOURCES;
DISCOURSE IS A LIGHT-MEDIUM
I see what you’re saying. It looks different from
my point of view. What is your outlook on that?
I view it differently.Now I’ve got the whole picture.
Let me point something out to you.That’s an insightful
idea. That was a brilliant remark. The argument
is clear. It was a murky discussion. Could you elucidate
your remarks? It’s a transparent argument.The
discussion was opaque.
LOVE IS A PHYSICAL FORCE (ELECTROMAGNETIC,
GRAVITATIONAL, ETC.)
I could feel the electricity between us. There
were sparks. I was magnetically drawn to her. Theyare uncontrollably attracted to each other. They
gravitated to each other immediately. His whole
life revolves around her. The atmosphere around
them is always charged. There is incredible energy
in their relationship. They lost their momentum.
LOVE IS A PATIENT
This is a sick relationship. They have a strong,
healthy marriage. The marriage is dead—it can’t
be revived. Their marriage is on the mend. We’re
getting back on our feet. Their relationship is in
really good shape. They’ve got a listless marriage.
Their marriage is on its last legs. It’s a tired affair.
LOVE IS MADNESS
I’m crazy about her.She drives me out ofmy mind.
He constantly raves about her. He’s gone mad over
her. I’m just wild about Harry. I’m insane about her.
LOVE IS MAGIC
She cast her spell over me. The magic is gone. I
was spellbound. She had me hypnotized. He has me
in a trance. I was entranced by him. I’m charmed
by her. She is bewitching.
LOVE IS WAR
He is known for his many rapid conquests. She
fought for him, but his mistress won out. He fled
fromher advances. She pursued him relentlessly. He
is slowly gaining ground with her.He won her hand
in marriage.He overpowered her. She is besieged by
suitors.He has to fend them off. He enlisted the aid
of her friends. He made an ally of her mother.
Theirs is a misalliance if I’ve ever seen one.
WEALTH IS A HIDDEN OBJECT
He’s seeking his fortune. He’s flaunting his newfound
wealth. He’s a fortune-hunter. She’s a golddigger.
He lost his fortune.He’s searching for wealth.
SIGNIFICANT IS BIG
He’s a big man in the garment industry. He’s a
giant among writers. That’s the biggest idea to hit advertising in years. He’s head and shoulders
above everyone in the industry. It was only a small
crime. That was only a little white lie. I was
astounded at the enormity of the crime. That was
one of the greatest moments in World Series
history. His accomplishments tower over those of
lesser men.
SEEING IS TOUCHING; EYES ARE LIMBS
I can’t take my eyes off her.He sits with his eyes
glued to the TV. Her eyes picked out every detail of
the pattern. Their eyes met. She never moves her
eyes fromhis face. She ran her eyes over everything
in the room. He wants everything within reach of
his eyes.
THE EYES ARE CONTAINERS FOR THE EMOTIONS
I could see the fear in his eyes. His eyes were
filled with anger.There was passion in her eyes.His
eyes displayed his compassion. She couldn’t get the
fear out of her eyes. Love showed in his eyes. Her
eyes welled with emotion.
EMOTIONAL EFFECT IS PHYSICAL CONTACT
His mother’s death hit him hard. That idea
bowled me over. She’s a knockout. I was struck by
his sincerity. That really made an impression on
me.He made his mark on the world. I was touched
by his remark. That blew me away.
PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL STATES ARE ENTITIES
WITHIN A PERSON
He has a pain in his shoulder.Don’t give me the
flu.My cold has gone from my head to my chest. His
pains went away. His depression returned. Hot tea
and honey will get rid of your cough. He could
barely contain his joy. The smile left his face. Wipe
that sneer off your face, private! His fears keep
coming back. I’ve got to shake off this depression—
it keeps hanging on. If you’ve got a cold,
drinking lots of tea will flush it out of your system.
There isn’t a trace of cowardice in him. He hasn’t
got an honest bone in his body.
VITALITY IS A SUBSTANCE
She’s brimming with vim and vigor. She’s
overflowing with vitality. He’s devoid of energy.
I don’t have any energy left at the end of the day.
I’m drained. That took a lot out of me.
LIFE IS A CONTAINER
I’ve had a full life. Life is empty for him. There’s
not much left for him in life. Her life is crammed
with activities. Get the most out of life.His life contained
a great deal of sorrow. Live your life to the
fullest.
LIFE IS A GAMBLING GAME
I’ll take my chances. The odds are against me.
I’ve got an ace up my sleeve. He’s holding all the
aces. It’s a toss-up. If you play your cards right, you
can do it.He won big.He’s a real loser.Where is he
when the chips are down? That’s my ace in the
hole. He’s bluffing. The president is playing it close
to his vest. Let’s up the ante. Maybe we need to
sweeten the pot. I think we should stand pat.That’s
the luck of the draw. Those are high stakes.
In this last group of examples we have a
collection of what are called “speech formulas,” or
“fixed-form expressions,”or “phrasal lexical items.”
These function in many ways like single words,and
the language has thousands of them. In the
examples given, a set of such phrasal lexical items
is coherently structured by a single metaphorical
concept. Although each of them is an instance of
the LIFE IS A GAMBLING GAME metaphor, they are typically
used to speak of life, not of gambling situations.
They are normal ways of talking about life
situations, just as using the word “construct” is a
normal way of talking about theories. It is in this
sense that we include them in what we have called
literal expressions structured by metaphorical
concepts. If you say “The odds are against us” or
“We’ll have to take our chances,” you would not be
viewed as speaking metaphorically but as using
the normal everyday language appropriate to the
situation. Nevertheless, your way of talking about, conceiving, and even experiencing your situation
would be metaphorically structured. . . .
The most fundamental values in a culture will
be coherent with the metaphorical structure of
the most fundamental concepts in the culture.
As an example, let us consider some cultural
values in our society that are coherent with our
UP-DOWN spatialization metaphors and whose
opposites would not be.
“More is better” is coherent with MORE IS UP and
GOOD IS UP.
“Less is better” is not coherent with them.
“Bigger is better”is coherent with MORE IS UP and
GOOD IS UP.
“Smaller is better” is not coherent with them.
“The future will be better” is coherent with THE
FUTURE IS UP and GOOD IS UP. “The future will be
worse” is not.
“There will be more in the future” is coherent
with MORE IS UP and THE FUTURE IS UP.
“Your status should be higher in the future” is
coherent with HIGH STATUS IS UP and THE FUTURE IS UP.
These are values deeply embedded in our culture.
“The future will be better” is a statement of
the concept of progress.“There will be more in the
future” has as special cases the accumulation of
goods and wage inflation. “Your status should be
higher in the future” is a statement of careerism.
These are coherent with our present spatialization
metaphors; their opposites would not be. So it
seems that our values are not independent but
must form a coherent system with the metaphorical
concepts we live by. . . .
NEW MEANING
The metaphors we have discussed so far are
conventional metaphors, that is, metaphors that
structure the ordinary conceptual system of our
culture, which is reflected in our everyday language.
We would now like to turn to metaphors
that are outside our conventional conceptual
system, metaphors that are imaginative and creative. Such metaphors are capable of giving us
a new understanding of our experience.Thus, they
can give new meaning to our pasts, to our daily
activity, and to what we know and believe.
To see how this is possible, let us consider the
new metaphor LOVE IS A COLLABORATIVE WORK OF ART.
This is a metaphor that we personally find particularly
forceful, insightful, and appropriate, given
our experiences as members of our generation and
our culture.The reason is that it makes our experiences
of love coherent—it makes sense of them.
We would like to suggest that new metaphors make
sense of our experience in the same way conventional
metaphors do: They provide coherent structure,
highlighting some things and hiding others.
Like conventional metaphors, new metaphors
have entailments, which may include other metaphors
and literal statements as well. For example,
the entailments of LOVE IS A COLLABORATIVE WORK OF
ART arise from our beliefs about, and experiences
of, what it means for something to be a collaborative
work of art. Our personal views of work and
art give rise to at least the following entailments
for this metaphor:
Love is work.
Love is active.
Love requires cooperation.
Love requires dedication.
Love requires compromise.
Love requires a discipline.
Love involves shared responsibility.
Love requires patience.
Love requires shared values and goals.
Love demands sacrifice.
Love regularly brings frustration.
Love requires instinctive communication.
Love is an aesthetic experience.
Love is primarily valued for its own sake.
Love involves creativity.
Love requires a shared aesthetic.
Love cannot be achieved by formula.
Love is unique in each instance.
Love is an expression of who you are.
Love creates a reality.
Love reflects how you see the world.
Love requires the greatest honesty.
Love may be transient or permanent.
Love needs funding.
Love yields a shared aesthetic satisfaction from
your joint efforts.
Some of these entailments are metaphorical
(e.g.,“Love is an aesthetic experience”); others are
not (e.g., “Love involves shared responsibility”).
Each of these entailments may itself have further
entailments. The result is a large and coherent
network of entailments, which may, on the
whole, either fit or not fit our experiences of love.
When the network does fit, the experiences form
a coherent whole as instances of the metaphor.
What we experience with such a metaphor is a
kind of reverberation down through the network
of entailments that awakens and connects our
memories of our past love experiences and serves
as a possible guide for future ones.
Let’s be more specific about what we mean by
“reverberations” in the metaphor LOVE IS A COLLABORATIVE
WORK OF ART.First, the metaphor highlights certain features
while suppressing others. For example, the active
side of love is brought into the foreground through
the notion of WORK both in COLLABORATIVE WORK and
in WORK OF ART.This requires the masking of certain
aspects of love that are viewed passively. In fact, the
emotional aspects of love are almost never viewed
as being under the lovers’ active control in our conventional
conceptual system.
The surveys continue to show record pessimism 
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