Metaphor as a Cognitive Process

6. Metaphor as a Cognitive Process

In the classical theory, metaphor was defined as a novel or a poetic

linguistic expression where one or more words are used outside their normal
conventional meaning to express a similar concept.
The contemporary theory of metaphor claims that the locus of
metaphor is not in language but in thought, in the way we conceptualize one
mental domain in terms of another.
Everyday abstract concepts such as time, states, change, causation
and purpose can be characterized in terms of metaphor. Lakoff (1993:203)
argues that the study of literary metaphor is an extension of the study of
everyday metaphor. Everyday metaphor is characterized by a huge system
of thousands of cross-domain mappings and this system is made use of in
novel metaphor.
The term metaphorical expression refers to a linguistic expression, a
word, phrase or sentence, that is the surface realization or instantiation of a
cross-domain mapping (this is what the word 'metaphor' referred to in the
old theory).
6.1 Reddy's conduit metaphor
In 1979, Michael Reddy published an article about the 'conduit
metaphor' which George Lakoff (1993:204-5) praised as seminal for the
insight that metaphors are fundamental to human language and
conceptualizing. Reddy's (1979) claim was that human communication is
overwhelmingly understood in terms of a speaker or writer transmitting
meanings, packaged into words, to a listener or reader who, in turn,
'unpacks' the words to obtain the meanings. Thus, the CONDUIT metaphor is
made up of the following parts:
(i)THE MIND IS A CONTAINER (FOR IDEAS)
(ii) IDEAS (OR MEANINGS) ARE OBJECTS
(iii) LINGUISTIC EXPRESSIONS ARE CONTAINERS (FOR IDEA-OBJECTS)
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(iv) COMMUNICATION IS SENDING

According to the CONDUIT metaphor, a speaker takes ideas out of his
mind, puts them into words, and sends them (along a conduit) to a hearer,
who extracts the meaning-objects from the word-containers. The CONDUIT
metaphor is a complex conceptual entity which largely defines our idea of
what communication is and which is reflected automatically and
unconsciously in our everyday language. The conceptual structuring
provided by the CONDUIT metaphor gives us a coherent understanding of the
concept of communication itself.
The deep-rooted nature of this conduit metaphor was illustrated by a
plethora of examples of the following type: It is very difficult to put this
concept into words and His letter brought the idea to the French pilots.
In his famous essay, "The Conduit Metaphor", Michael Reddy
(1979) showed through a single, thoroughly analyzed example, that ordinary
everyday English is largely metaphorical. Lakoff also acknowledges that
Reddy has managed to demonstrate, for a single, very significant case, that
metaphor is a major and indispensable part of our ordinary, conventional
way of conceptualizing the world, and that our everyday behavior reflects
our metaphorical understanding of experience.
6.2 Conventional metaphors
The main focus of the contemporary theory of metaphor has been
everyday conventional metaphor because knowledge of the conventional
system is needed to make sense of most of the poetic metaphors. A mapping
is conventional in the sense that it is a fixed part of our conceptual system,
one of our conventional ways of conceptualizing something. Therefore, the
term conventional is used here in the sense of well established and well
entrenched. Since there are both conceptual metaphors and their
corresponding linguistic expressions, the issue of conventionality concerns
both conceptual metaphors and their linguistic manifestations.
The LOVE AS JOURNEY mapping involves the following submappings or correspondences: the lovers as travelers, the love relationship
as a vehicle, the lovers common goals as common destinations. Difficulties
in love correspond to impediments/obstacles to travel:
Our relationship has hit a dead end street.
Lovers cannot be going the way theyve been going
We are at a crossroads.
Our marriage is on the rocks.

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For the contemporary metaphor theorists metaphors are not mere

words. If they were mere linguistic expressions, we would expect different
linguistic expressions to be different metaphors. For example, We've hit a
dead-end street would constitute one metaphor, We can't turn back now
would constitute another, entirely different metaphor, and Their marriage is
on the rocks would involve still a different metaphor.
Although metaphor is seen as a phenomenon that involves both
conceptual mappings and individual linguistic expressions, Lakoff stresses
the importance of keeping them distinct and, given the fact that the
mappings are primary, he suggests the use of the term 'metaphor' for the
mappings rather than for the linguistic expressions.
Concerning the LOVE IS A JOURNEY metaphor, Lakoff uses a set of
ontological correspondences:
The lovers correspond to travelers.
The love relationship correspond to the vehicle.
The lovers' common goals correspond to their common destinations on the
journey.
Difficulties in the relationship correspod to impediments to travel.
The important idea to note here is that the general principle
governing how linguistic expressions about journeys are used to
characterize love is neither part of the grammar of English, nor the English
lexicon. Rather, it is part of the conceptual system underlying English
(Lakoff, 1993:206). For example, the lyrics of the song "We're driving in the
fast lane on the freeway of love" is comprehensible to speakers of English
because the metaphorical correspondences are already part of the English
conceptual system.
6.3 Novel extensions of conventional metaphors
The main ways in which poetic thought goes beyond the ordinary
way we use conventional metaphoric thought are extending, elaborating
and composing. An instance of extending can be found in Hamlets
soliloquy where Shakespeare extends the ordinary conventional metaphor of
DEATH IS SLEEP to include the possibility of dreaming.
To sleep? Perchance to dream! Ay Heres the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come.
The second way poets go beyond the normal use of conventional
metaphor, i.e. elaborating can be exemplified by Horaces use of the DEATH
IS DEPARTURE metaphor by adding considerable conceptual content and
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making it more specific. Thus, he refers to death as the external exile of the
raft, implying that death can be looked at as banishment, as being
unwanted while by raft he does not suggest something what would take us
swiftly, directly, luxuriously or securely to a given destination:
We are all driven to the same place
sooner or later, each ones lot is tossed
from the urn the lot which will come out
and will put us into the eternal exile of the raft
(Horace, bk.2, Carmen 2.28-28)1
The third and perhaps the most powerful of all ways that poets use
and invoke in their readers is composing or the formation of composite
metaphors, i.e. the simultaneous use of two or more unconventional
metaphors in the same passage or even in the same sentence. For example,
in Sonnet 73 by Shakespeare, one of the most exquisite poems in English
about death, there are at least five conventional conceptual metaphors
sculpted into the composite metaphorical conception of death. They are:
LIGHT IS A SUBSTANCE, EVENTS ARE ACTIONS, LIFE IS A PRECIOUS
POSSESSION, A LIFETIME IS A DAY and LIFE IS LIGHT:

In me thou seest the twilight of such day

As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away
Deaths second self that seals up all in rest.
The simple clause black night does take away contains a
composite of the metaphors that lifetime is a day and death is night, that
light is a substance, that life is a precious possession, and that events are
actions. Lakoff and Turner (1989: 71) argue that in this line virtually, as
many conceptual metaphors as words are used but the work here is
conceptual, a matter of putting complex metaphorical concepts together
rather than merely putting words together.

6.4 Structural, orientational and ontological metaphors

1

Quoted in Lakoff and Turner (1989 : 11). The two scholars further compare Horaces use
of death as departure with Robinsons elaborating (special case) of the same general
conventional metaphor.
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According to their cognitive function, conceptual metaphors can be of

three types: structural, orientational and ontological metaphors
Structural metaphors are cases where one concept is metaphorically
structured in terms of another.(Lakoff, 1980: 14). The cognitive function of
this kind of metaphors is to enable speakers to understand target A by means
of the structure of source B. This understansing takes place by means of
conceptual mappings beteen elements of A and elements of B. The concept
ARGUMENT is partially structured, understood, performed and talked about
in terms of WAR. The conceptual metaphor ARGUMENT IS WAR is reflected in
our everyday language by a wide variety of expressions:
Your claims are indefensible
He attacked every weak point in my argument.
His criticisms were right on target.
I demolished his argument.
Ive never won an argument with him.
If you use that strategy, hell wipe you out.
He shot down all of my arguments
Using our everyday experiences with money, limited resources and
valuable commodities, we conceive of the concept of TIME as
metaphorically understood as MONEY, RESOURCE, VALUABLE COMMODITY.
As Lakoff(1980: 9) notes, these metaphorical concepts form a single system
based on subcategorization since in our societies money is a limited
resource and limited resources are valuable commodities. These
subcategorization relationships characterize entailment relationships
between the metaphors. TIME IS MONEY entails that TIME IS A LIMITED
RESOURCE, which entails that TIME IS A VALUABLE COMMODITY.
The TIME IS MONEY metaphor is reflected in contemporary English
by expressions that refer specifically to money, e.g. spend, cost, invest, run
out, budget, use profitably, lose:
That flat tire cost me an hour.
You need to budget your time.
Other expressions point to limited resource (use, use up, have enough of,
run out of ) and others to valuable commodities (have, give, lose, thank you
for): Thank you for your time.
Orientational metaphors are cases that give concepts a spatial
orientation: up-down, in-out, front-back, on-off, centre-periphery. For
example, HAPPY IS UP, SAD IS DOWN can be accounted for by a physical
basis, namely a drooping posture typically goes along with sadness and
depression, while an erect posture with a positive emotional state:
Im feeling up.
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My spirits rose.
Youre in high spirits.
Im feeling down
Hes really low these days.
My spirits sank.
is an orientational metaphor that underlies these
linguistic realizations:
The number of books printed each year keeps going up.
His draft number is high.
My income rose last year.
The amount of artistic activity in this state has gone down in the past year.
The number of errors he made is incredibly low.
His income fell last year.
He is underage.
If youre too hot, turn the heat down.
Orientational metaphors have primarily an evaluative function.
Because they make a set of target concepts coherent in our conceptual
system, Kvecses (2002: 36) believes that the term coherence metaphor is
more in line with the cognitive function these metaphors perform. By
coherence he means that certain target concepts tend to be conceptualized
in a uniform manner. Thus, concepts like happy, healthy, conscious,
control, virtue, rational are associated with upward orientation, while
their opposites receive downward orientation:
HAPPY IS UP; SAD IS DOWN: She was on cloud nine.; Shes really low these
days
HEALTHY IS UP; SICK IS DOWN: Shes always in top shape; He fell ill.
CONSCIOUS IS UP; UNCONSCIOUS IS DOWN: Wake up!; He sank into a coma.
CONTROL IS UP, LACK OF CONTROL IS DOWN: Im on top of the situation, He
is under my
control.
VIRTUE IS UP, LACK OF VIRTUE IS DOWN : Shes an upstanding citizen; That
was a lowdown thing to do.
RATIONAL IS UP, NONRATIONAL IS DOWN: The discussion fell to an
emotional level. He
couldnt rise above his emotions.
As it has been pointed out in chapter 8, spatial image schemas are
bipolar and bivalent. Consequently, positive-negative evaluation is not
limited to the spatial orientation up-down. Whole, center, link, balance, in,
goal, front are regarded as positive while their opposites, not whole,
MORE IS UP, LESS IS DOWN

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periphery, no link, imbalance, out, no goal and back are regarded as

negative.
Ontological metaphors serve the purpose of understanding our
experiences in terms of objects and substances. Just as the basic experiences
of human spatial orientations provide an extraordinarily rich basis for
understanding concepts in orientational terms, so our experiences with
physical objects (especially our own bodies) allow us to view events,
activities, emotions, ideas, as entities and substances.
Although ontological metaphors do not provide elaborate structures
for abstract concepts, they enable us to see more sharply delineated structure
where there is very little or none; in other words, undelineated experiences
receive a more delineated status via ontological metaphors and then the
experience so conceptualized can be structured further by means of
structural metaphors. For example, if we conceptualise the mind as an
object, we can easily provide more structure for it by means of the machine
metaphor for mind.
Lakoff (1980:27) exemplifies the ontological metaphor THE MIND IS
AN ENTITY by two further elaborations in the American culture: THE MIND
IS A MACHINE and THE MIND IS A BRITTLE OBJECT . The former accounts for
the following instantiations:
My mind isnt operating today.
Im a little rusty today.
Weve been working on this problem all day and now were running out of
steam.
Were still trying to grind out the solution to this equation.
Boy, the wheels are turning now!
The latter metaphor, specifying a different object, focuses on different
aspects of mental experience:
Her ego is very fragile.
You have to handle him with care since his wifes death.
He broke under cross-examination. She is easily crushed.
The experience shattered him.
Im going to pieces.
His mind snapped.
Container metaphors
Lakoff (1980: 29) argues that the human body can be seen as a container
with a bounding surface and an in-out orientation. We project our in-out
orientation onto other physical objects that are bounded by surfaces. Thus
we also view them as containers with an inside and an outside. Not only
objects but also substances can be viewed as containers. The container
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metaphor can explain why we conceptualize our visual field in terms of a

container with the inside as the part that we can see:
The ship is coming into view.
I have him in sight.
I cant see him; the tree is in the way.
Hes out of sight now.
Thats in the centre of my field of vision.
Theres nothing in sigh.t
I cant get all of the ships in sight at once.
Ontological metaphors are used in interpreting events, actions,
activities and states. Events and actions are conceptualized metaphorically
as objects, activities as substances and states as containers.
Did you see the race? (the event of race as OBJECT)
Hes immersed in washing the windows right now. (the activity of window
washing as SUBSTANCE)
Activities in general are viewed metaphorically as SUBSTANCES and
therefore as CONTAINERS. Thus, Lakoff (!980: 31) concludes, activities are
viewed as containers for the actions and other activities that make them up.
Various kinds of states may also be conceptualized as containers:
Hes in love.
Were out of trouble now.
Hes coming out of the coma.
Im slowly getting into shape.
He entered a state of euphoria.
He fell into a depression.
He finally emerged from the catatonic state he had been in since the end of
the finals week.
The Invariance Principle
The Invariance Principle that Lakoff puts forward as a hypothesis
concerns constraints of fixed correspondences. According to this principle
metaphorical mappings preserve the cognitive topology (that is, the imageschema structure) of the source domain, in a way consistent with the
inherent structure of the target domain
If one looks at the existing correspondences, one would see what the
invariance principle holds: source domain interiors correspond to target
domain interiors, source domain exteriors correspond to target domain
exteriors, etc. There are no cases where a source domain interior is mapped
onto a target domain exterior, or where a source domain exterior is mapped
onto a target domain path.

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A corollary of the Invariance Principle is that image-schema

structure inherent in the target domain cannot be violated and the inherent
target domain structure limits the possibilities for mapping automatically.
This principle explains instances of expressions such as give
someone a kick, it explains why you can give someone a kick even if that
person doesnt have it afterward. If we consider the mapping ACTIONS ARE
TRANSFERS we can say that actions are conceptualized as objects,
transferred from one agent to a patient. We know that an action does not
exist after it occurs.
In the source domain, where there is a giving, the recipient possesses
the object given after the giving. But this cannot be mapped onto the target
domain since the inherent structure of the target domain says that no such
object exists after the action is over.
6.5 Idioms and their relationship to metaphor
As the literature on conventional metaphors has many examples of
idioms, Lakoff (1993:211) also addresses the issue of idioms and their
relationship to metaphor.
According to the classical view, idioms have arbitrary meanings, but
in cognitive linguistics, the possibility exists that they are not arbitrary, but
rather motivated. For instance, an idiom like to spin ones wheels is
motivated by the conventional mental image of the wheels of a car stuck in
some substance - mud, sand, snow or on ice - so that the car cannot move
when the motor is engaged and the wheels turn. The idea expressed is that a
lot of energy is used without any progress being made.
The meaning of another idiom, keep someone at arm's length, is also
motivated by a conventional image. Lakoff (1987:448) assumes that the
conventional image plus two metaphors that exist independently in our
conceptual system (i.e. INTIMACY IS PHYSICAL CLOSENESS and SOCIAL or
PSYCHOLOGICAL HARM IS PHYSICAL HARM ) provide the link between the
idiom and its meaning.

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The idiom spill the beans2 can be explained in terms of Reddy's

conduit metaphor in the following way: the beans correspond to
information, the container corresponds to the head; that is, it is supposed to
be kept secret. Spilling corresponds to letting the information out, either
accidentally or apparently by accident. The information goes all over the
place and the secret is out (the beans cannot all be retrieved). The result is
messy. Thus, the image plus the knowledge about the image plus THE
CONDUIT METAPHOR provide a link between the idiom and its meaning, a
link which makes the idiom motivated, not arbitrary.
Discussing the relationship between mappings and conceptual
hierarchies (as three level-taxonomies with superordinate categories at the
top level, basic-level categories at the middle level and subordinate
categories at the bottom level) Lakoff argues that mappings are at the
superordinate rather than the basic level.
Thus, it is the superordinate category VEHICLE, not the basic level
category CAR, that is on the general mappings. The superordinate category
VEHICLE includes such basic level categories as car (long bumpy road
"drum lung i anevoios") boat (like a boot on the rocks "ca petele pe
uscat"), plane (just taking off and bailing out "a se nfiripa"), train (off the
track "a deraia, a iei de pe un fga normal").
6.6 Conclusions
Metaphors can be conceptual and linguistic. Conceptual metaphors
involve two concepts and have the form A is B where concept A (the target
domain) is understood in terms of concept B (the source domain). Linguistic
metaphors or metaphorical linguistic expressions are linguistic
manifestations (instantiations) of conceptual metaphors.
Metaphors can be classified in many ways: according to the
conventionality, function, nature and level of generality of metaphor. Both
linguistic and conceptual metaphors may be highly conventionalized or they
may be unconventional or novel. Conceptual metaphors may be universal
2

In his "Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origin", Nigel Rees (1998:232) provides two
explanations for spill the beans; the first can be traced back to the ancient Greeks, and the
second is related to a Turkish custom. The ancient Greeks were said to hold secret ballots
for membership of clubs by using beans. A white bean was a 'yes' vote, a brown bean a 'no'
vote. The beans were counted in secrecy so that a prospective member would know how
many people voted for or against him. If the jar containing beans was knocked over, that
secret might get out. The other possible explanation is that gypsy fortune tellers in Turkey
do not have crystal balls, neither do they read tea leaves. One of the many ways they tell
fortunes is to spill beans out of a cup and interpret the resulting pattern.
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and culture-overlapping at a more abstract level and culture-specific at a

more specific level. Due to the large amount of human experience that is
universal or at least shared by several cultures, it is not the conceptual
metaphor that is culture-dependent, but its linguistic realization.

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