''Metaphors We Live By'' is a book by
George Lakoff
George Philip Lakoff ( ; born May 24, 1941) is an American cognitive linguist and philosopher, best known for his thesis that people's lives are significantly influenced by the conceptual metaphors they use to explain complex phenomena.
The ...
and
Mark Johnson published in 1980. The book suggests metaphor is a tool that enables people to use what they know about their direct physical and social experiences to understand more abstract things like work, time, mental activity and feelings.
Concepts
The book offered the first extensive exploration of
conceptual metaphor
In cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor, or cognitive metaphor, refers to the understanding of one idea, or conceptual domain, in terms of another. An example of this is the understanding of quantity in terms of directionality (e.g. "the pr ...
and a detailed examination of its underlying processes. Since its publication, the field of
metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...
studies within the larger discipline of
cognitive linguistics
Cognitive linguistics is an interdisciplinary branch of linguistics, combining knowledge and research from cognitive science, cognitive psychology, neuropsychology and linguistics. Models and theoretical accounts of cognitive linguistics are cons ...
has increasingly developed, with several annual academic conferences, scholarly societies, and research labs contributing to the subject-area. Some researchers, such as Gerard Steen, have worked to develop empirical investigative tools for metaphor research, including the
metaphor identification procedure, or MIP.
In the field of
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
,
Raymond W. Gibbs, Jr., has investigated conceptual metaphor and
embodiment through a number of psychological experiments. Other
cognitive scientists, for example
Gilles Fauconnier, study subjects similar to conceptual metaphor under the labels "
analogy
Analogy is a comparison or correspondence between two things (or two groups of things) because of a third element that they are considered to share.
In logic, it is an inference or an argument from one particular to another particular, as oppose ...
", "
conceptual blending
In cognitive linguistics and artificial intelligence, conceptual blending, also called conceptual integration or view application, is a theory of cognition developed by Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner. According to this theory, elements and vit ...
" and "
ideasthesia
Ideasthesia (alternative spelling ideaesthesia) is a neuropsychological phenomenon in which activations of concepts (inducers) evoke perception-like sensory experiences (concurrents). The name comes from the Ancient Greek () and (), meaning 'se ...
".
Conceptual metaphors occur in language in everyday speech. Conceptual metaphors shape not just our communication - they may also shape the way we think and act.
In George Lakoff and Mark Johnson's work, ''Metaphors We Live By'' (1980), we see how everyday language is filled with metaphors we may not always notice. An example of one of the commonly-used conceptual metaphors is "argument is war".
Applications
Since its publication, people have used the ideas Lakoff and Johnson proposed to comment on a wide range of topics, from the
COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
On December 31, 2019, China announced the discovery of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan. The first American case was reported on January 20, and United States Department of Health and Human Services, Health and Human Services Secreta ...
to
conspiracy theories
A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources:
*
...
.
Related
*
*
*
*
*
*
References
{{reflist
Cognitive science literature
Books about metaphors
Books about persuasion
1980 non-fiction books
University of Chicago Press books
Collaborative non-fiction books