Metaphors We Live By 
by 

George Lakoff, 

 

Mark Johnson

 

Understanding One’s Native Tongue

It turns out there were really good existential reasons for paying attention in primary school English. All that business about grammar and figures of speech is actually essential for getting on in the world quite apart from speaking proper. This classic from the 1970’s shows why this is so in an entertaining and convincing way.

Language is a odd thing. It looks like something neutral, a tool for doing things, some good, some not so good depending on its user. But language is crafty; it seems to have its own interests more than ours at heart. The conspiracy of language becomes obvious as soon as one recognizes the fact that words are defined solely in terms of other words, never in terms of things outside of language. This is a difficult idea to hold onto, mainly because it suggests that none of us really knows what we might be talking about.

The way this works in daily life is by our inevitable and pervasive use of metaphors to describe the world and what we’re doing in it. We fall in love, offer food for thought, try not to waste time, and build theories. We don’t even notice that these sorts of activities are metaphorical. And “the essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another.” Of course, the ‘things’ in question are always other words. So language fools us into thinking its not even there.

Metaphors have their own agendas. For example we conduct an argument like we’re engaging in a war. We make defensible claims so that our thesis is not demolished by an attack by our opponents. These expressions are not without content or effect. Through them, at least in our Western European culture, we know that there are winners and losers in an argument just as in war. There are certainly other ways to consider argument - let’s say as leading to consensus in the culture of the North American Plains Indians for example - but not for us. We’re stuck with argumentative combat.

The pervasiveness of metaphors really can’t be overstated. They are literally in almost every sentence we utter. Our brains are effectively hardwired (!) by them. Metaphors We Live Bydocuments (!) hundreds of what might be called root (!) metaphors which ramify (!) uncontrollably throughout the language. From Time is Money to Happy is Up to a sight which Fills our Field of Vision, without a shared grasp (!) of these metaphors, communication would be impossible.

And then things get even more complicated. Metaphors not only morph, they also breed. So Love is a physical force, but it is also a patient to be cared for, a madness to be overcome, a form of magic which entrances, and even a war within ourselves and with the beloved. So-called Conduit metaphors form composites which may hide their origins in language rather than real things. Thus ideas or meanings are metaphorically physical objects; and linguistic expressions are metaphorical containers for these objects; and we communicate these containers by sending them from person to person as if they were parcels. This last step, ‘sending’ may not look metaphorical but it is indeed so, just in disguise as something that is actually done.

The idea of rationality itself, Reason as the philosophers call it, starts to look just a tad unreasonable when considered in terms of the metaphors involved. Look at the ambiguity of what we think of as reason sufficient to compel intellectual assent:
“... because I'm bigger than you. (intimidation)
... because if you don't, I'll... (threat)
... because I'm the boss, (authority)
... because you're stupid, (insult)
... because you usually do it wrong, (belittling)
... because I have as much right as you do. (challenging authority)
... because I love you. (evading the issue) ...
... because if you will..., I'll... (bargaining)
... because you're so much better at it. (flattery)”

Whether one agrees with the linguistic and philosophical foundations of Metaphors We Live By, the book is essential reading for any educated person. It is direct, understandable, and immense fun. It is also revelatory. Give it a go, metaphorically speaking.