Metaphors We Live By: George Lakoff and Mark Johnson

Metaphors We Live By is an influential book by linguists and philosophers George Lakoff and Mark Johnson published in 1980. It has since revolutionized the way we understand language and how we relate our own experiences to the world around us.

But what exactly are metaphors?

Lakoff and Johnson argue that metaphors aren’t just poetry, but a fundamental part of our brain conceptual system. That is, they’re central to the way we perceive ourselves, others, and the world.

Lakoff and Johnson write that the ‘essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another.’

One of the most common examples is all the world’s a stage – an example that draws similarities between acting for an audience and human life in general.

Metaphors aren’t simply rhetorical, artistic, and creative, they help us understand, structure and communicate experience that is difficult to communicate literally.

They write ‘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.’ Furthermore, ‘our conceptual system is largely metaphorical.’

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George Lakoff image:
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Sources:

George Lakoff & Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By

Carola Skott, Expressive Metaphors in Cancer Narratives

Sarah Higinbotham, Bloodletting and Beasts: Metaphors of Legal Violence

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