Prof. dr. sc.

Danica kara
University of Split
dskara@ffst.hr
Week 5:
Metaphor and its role in categorization and
conceptualization in language

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE/METAPHORS

Metaphors are very powerful and natural cognitive

processes, which help us to understand the complex issues
in nature and society.
Metaphors can be described as mediators between the
human mind and culture.
New metaphors change both the ordinary language we
use and the ways in which we perceive and understand
the world.

Metaphors cause the audience to see things in a new

light.
In politics, the explanatory function of metaphors is
often subjected to the goal of manipulation, which
means that metaphors are often primarily selected
for their emotional and strategic effect.
Prime candidates in political speeches in general are
metaphorical links with familiar words, e.g. WIND
(e.g. the new breeze, wind of change), ILLNESS
metaphors, e.g.
Our country can be healthy; it has friends, allies and
enemies.

Cognitive Linguistic theories see metaphor

as basic to human cognition and language
behavior (Lakoff and Johnson 1980;
Lakoff 1987)

Political mind:
http://fora.tv/2008/06/20/George_Lakoff_on_The_Politic
al_Mind

Metaphors are necessary for our basic

grasp of time, evaluation, emotions and
so on
Go back in time
in the distant future
in a black mood
their hot love cooled

What is a metaphor?

Metaphor is usually used to compare two

unlike things, which in result improve
our understanding.

Metaphor can be used as filter for our

perceptions. If inaccurately used, they
may distort information or cause false
generalizations.

G. Lakoff: (Lakoff and Johnson 1980; Lakoff

1987)
Lakoff argues that our worldviews are based
largely on different frames that provide us with
structure for our thinking.
Because conservatives have framed political
debate in their own terms for the past few
decades, our countryand its politicsare now
based on a conservative worldview. In order for
progressives to create change, they must reframe the way we think about politics,
ourselves, and America.

Every word evokes a frame. A frame is a

conceptual structure used in thinking. The
word elephant evokes a frame with an
image of an elephant and certain
knowledge: an elephant is a large animal (a
mammal) with large floppy ears, a trunk
that functions like both a nose and a hand,
large stump-like legs, and so on.

Every frame is realized in the brain by

neural circuitry. Every time a neural circuit
is activated, it is strengthened.
The more abstract the idea, the more layers
of "framing" or analogy are required to
explain the concept.

Definition of metaphor
The essence of metaphor is understanding one kind of
thing in terms of another.

It has been described in terms of transfer from one

cognitive domain (donor) to another (recipient)
domain: People tend to draw upon experiences in one
area of life in order to give fresh insights and
understanding to experiences in another, creating new
conceptual realities, e.g.
Life is battle.
the wolf in a sheeps clothing.
.

Example in Conventional Language

the ARGUMENT IS WAR metaphor

She attacked every weak point in my argument.

Your claims are indefensible.
They had to surrender to the force of our arguments.
Ive never won an argument with him.
Other terms: strategy, barrage of words, winning/losing an
argument
Being in an argument is viewed (and talked about) in terms of
fighting a war.

T wo important points about metaphor:

is a tool of cognition, i.e. helps us to
conceptualise the world

Allows us to deal with abstractions by

conceptualising them in terms of something
more concrete/basic/perceptual in our
experience of the world

Metaphorical Mapping (terminology)

A metaphor is a relation between two disparate

domains
(Conceptual) Domain any kind of coherent
organization of experience
Source domain from which the metaphors are
drawn
Target domain that we are trying to
understand , or where the concepts from the
source domains are applied

Source/Target relations
(2)

A metaphor is a relation between two disparate domains. Conventional

metaphors are stored domain relations.
A target domain can be conceptualised from more than one source
domain.
ARGUMENT IS A BUILDING metaphor
Source domain Target domain

ARGUMENT BUILDING

Your argument has a strong foundation

We demolished their theory

Time Examples

REMEMBER: direction of metaphors typically go from

basic/perceptual domains to more abstract domains
Concept of time is abstract
TIME is MONEY metaphor
Youre wasting my time.
You need to budget your time.
How do you spend your time these days?
You dont use your time profitably.

Time is a valuable commodity, it is in finite supply

UP is MORE metaphor
VERTICAL SPACE

vertical

up

QUALITY/QUANTITY
more
MORE IS UP
LESS IS DOWN

down

SOURCEDOMAIN

less
TARGETDOMAIN

MORE is UP

CONSCIOUS IS UP - UNCONSCIOUS IS DOWN

Wake up - He fell asleep
HEALTH AND LIFE ARE UP - SICKNESS AND DEATH ARE DOWN
He's at the peak of health - He came down with the flu.
HAVING CONTROL OR FORCE IS UP - BEING SUBJECT TO
CONTROL OR FORCE IS DOWN
I am on top of this situation - He fell from power.

MORE QUANTITY IS UP - LESS QUANTITY IS DOWN

The number of books printed every year keeps going up - The number of
errors he made is incredibly low.

HIGH STATUS IS UP - LOW STATUS IS DOWN

HIGH STATUS IS UP - LOW STATUS IS

DOWN
She'll rise to the top - She fell in status.
GOOD IS UP - BAD IS DOWN
Things are looking up - Things are at an
all-time low.
VIRTUE IS UP - DEPRAVITY IS DOWN
She is an upstanding citizen - That was a
low-down thing to do.
UNKNOWN IS UP - KNOWN IS DOWN
That's up in the air - The matter is settled.

Metaphor in categorisation and

conceptualisation

Metaphors are most of the time below our level

of conscious awareness.
Metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just
in language but in thought and action. Our
ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we
both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical
in nature. (Lakoff & Johnson , 1980:3 )

Summary of Metaphor in
Language

Metaphors are mappings across conceptual

domains. Each mapping is a fixed set of
correspondences between entities in a source
domain and entities in a target domain.
Mappings are not arbitrary, but grounded in the
body and in everyday experience and
knowledge.

Metaphor allows us to understand a relatively abstract or

inherently unstructured subject matter in terms of a more
concrete, or at least a more highly structured subject matter.
Metaphor is the main mechanism through which we
comprehend abstract concepts and perform abstract
reasoning.
Metaphor is fundamentally conceptual, not linguistic, in
nature.
(From George Lakoff. The Contemporary Theory of
Metaphor)

Body metaphors

Man is the measure of all things (proverb)

When the body is mentioned in literature,

philosophy or similar disciplines, it is often
conceptualized as a plant, an animal, a cage or
confinement of the soul, a machine, a container of
emotions, a computer, a communication network,
etc.
Plato describes humankind as a heavenly plant.
(family tree, the root of the tooth...). Women are
often perceived as fragile flowers.
The human body is often addressed as a metaphor
for society (e.g. the head of the state, the face of the
law, a legislative body, etc.)

the body parts have individual functions.

They can become symbolic models of
stable meanings in different parts of
ones experience, e.g.
head> the seat of the intellect; director,
leader; a container of thoughts, ideas,
memories.
heart >the seat of emotion (sadness,
fear, and love) and the center of bravery
hand > power/control, e.g. to have
someone in ones hands

heart

Metaphorically, it refers to a persons character, or the

place within a person where their feelings or emotions
(sadness, surprise, fear, love) are considered to
come. It is also the center of bravery/courage:
You are doing really well-dont lose heart now.
(=courage),
to break someones heart (=to cause emotional pain)
In some languages heart is considered as the centre of
the soul (heart=soul), e.g. Croatian: On je prava dusa
(= soul). > She is all heart.

Linguistic categorization of the body

reveals that all human beings have a
common set of conceptual metaphors
(universal/generic level metaphors) that
are based on the following:
common body structure
basic sensory experiences
common features of social organization
and behaviour>common cultural
environment
common features of the natural
environment
globalization (e.g. global village)