Metaphor by George Lakoff
Cecilia Velarde
English 100
08/08/13
In “Metaphors We Live By” by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson ague about how we use metaphor on a day-to-day basis. A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes a subject by asserting that it is in some point of comparison. It is not something that we think about often, but metaphors are part of our everyday lives. What I found interesting while reading this article is that Metaphors We Live By gives us examples that demonstrate metaphors used in everyday language. Lakoff and Johnson explained, our culture has significant influence on how we use metaphors; where we as Americans see arguing in terms of war, they want to get the high ground. Other cultures view arguing as a dance, methodical, precise and meant to entertain one another.
Metaphors are a part of everyday life. We are often unaware how much we really use them. For example, “Time is money” (11). Time is very important and precious in our culture. Time is like money, we don’t want every bit of it to go to waste because we want it to last a little longer. Lakoff and Johnson go on to argue that the "human thought processes are largely metaphorical" (8), which is a valid statement for the reason that they have analyzed phases that are utilized daily. In our thriving business world, the word time is a valuable asset, a limited resource, and is needed to be productive in our surroundings.
In the topic “Argument is War” the authors speak of arguments in terms of battles. I find these metaphors interesting because they make our experiences or literature vivid and exciting. Being that there is no physical battle, there is a verbal battle involved in the conversation, and an argument is thereby structured. An example mentioned in the article was, “He attacked every weak point in my argument” (Johnson, 1980). This metaphor is used to describe that this opponent found faults or holes in his argument and was left in the more passive position of defending his argument
English 100
08/08/13
In “Metaphors We Live By” by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson ague about how we use metaphor on a day-to-day basis. A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes a subject by asserting that it is in some point of comparison. It is not something that we think about often, but metaphors are part of our everyday lives. What I found interesting while reading this article is that Metaphors We Live By gives us examples that demonstrate metaphors used in everyday language. Lakoff and Johnson explained, our culture has significant influence on how we use metaphors; where we as Americans see arguing in terms of war, they want to get the high ground. Other cultures view arguing as a dance, methodical, precise and meant to entertain one another.
Metaphors are a part of everyday life. We are often unaware how much we really use them. For example, “Time is money” (11). Time is very important and precious in our culture. Time is like money, we don’t want every bit of it to go to waste because we want it to last a little longer. Lakoff and Johnson go on to argue that the "human thought processes are largely metaphorical" (8), which is a valid statement for the reason that they have analyzed phases that are utilized daily. In our thriving business world, the word time is a valuable asset, a limited resource, and is needed to be productive in our surroundings.
In the topic “Argument is War” the authors speak of arguments in terms of battles. I find these metaphors interesting because they make our experiences or literature vivid and exciting. Being that there is no physical battle, there is a verbal battle involved in the conversation, and an argument is thereby structured. An example mentioned in the article was, “He attacked every weak point in my argument” (Johnson, 1980). This metaphor is used to describe that this opponent found faults or holes in his argument and was left in the more passive position of defending his argument