Cognitive Linguistics
Metaphor Mapping
Conceptual metaphor — Lakoff & Johnson's mappings between domains
Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), introduced in George Lakoff and Mark Johnson's "Metaphors We Live By" (1980), claims that metaphor is not merely a literary device but a fundamental cognitive operation. Abstract domains are systematically understood via mappings from concrete source domains to abstract target domains. ARGUMENT IS WAR ("he attacked my position," "I defended my claim," "her argument was indefensible") shows ARGUMENT (target) understood through WAR (source). LOVE IS A JOURNEY ("our relationship has hit a dead end"), TIME IS MONEY ("spend, save, invest time"), THEORIES ARE BUILDINGS ("foundation, support, collapse") are other classics. Mappings are systematic — once you know the metaphor, you can predict expressions. Lakoff's 1987 "Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things" extended the theory; Mark Turner and Gilles Fauconnier developed conceptual blending (1998).
- FoundersGeorge Lakoff & Mark Johnson (1980)
- Founding textMetaphors We Live By
- Core claimMetaphor is conceptual, not just linguistic
- DirectionConcrete (source) → abstract (target)
- Famous exampleARGUMENT IS WAR
- ExtensionConceptual blending (Fauconnier & Turner)
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Why metaphor mapping matters
- Cognitive linguistics. Foundational claim of the field.
- Discourse analysis. Political framing exploits conceptual metaphors.
- Translation. Source-target mappings differ; literal translation often fails.
- Lexical semantics. Polysemy patterns trace metaphor extensions.
- Linguistic relativity. Cross-cultural metaphor variation is empirical input.
- NLP. Metaphor detection is an active task (VU Amsterdam Metaphor Corpus).
- Therapy and rhetoric. Reframing metaphors changes how clients/audiences think.
Common misconceptions
- Metaphor is just literary decoration. CMT argues it's cognitive infrastructure.
- Metaphors are random. They are systematic, embodied, and predictable.
- All conceptual metaphors are universal. Many vary cross-culturally.
- Metaphor mapping is bidirectional. Default direction is concrete → abstract.
- Dead metaphors don't count. Even conventionalized metaphors structure thought.
- One target = one source. Many targets have multiple sources (LIFE IS JOURNEY/STORY/STRUGGLE).
Frequently asked questions
What's a conceptual metaphor?
A systematic mapping from a source domain (concrete, embodied) to a target domain (abstract). Notation: TARGET IS SOURCE in small caps. ARGUMENT IS WAR maps WAR concepts (attack, defense, battle, win, lose) onto ARGUMENT. The mapping is systematic: each source element corresponds to a target element. The metaphor licenses dozens of expressions; it's not a single phrase but a productive cognitive structure.
How is this different from literary metaphor?
Literary metaphor is one creative usage. Conceptual metaphor is a stable mental mapping that generates many literary and ordinary expressions. "Argument is war" is conceptual; "Juliet is the sun" is novel/literary. Lakoff's claim: most everyday language is metaphorical in the conceptual sense but invisible because we don't notice — "I see what you mean" (UNDERSTANDING IS SEEING), "rising prices" (MORE IS UP).
What are primary metaphors?
Joseph Grady (1997) proposed that complex metaphors decompose into "primary" metaphors grounded in embodied experience. AFFECTION IS WARMTH (correlation: hugs are warm), MORE IS UP (correlation: piles get taller as they grow), KNOWING IS SEEING (correlation: you see and know simultaneously). Primary metaphors are universal because human bodies share these correlations. Complex metaphors (LOVE IS A JOURNEY) combine primary metaphors.
Are conceptual metaphors universal?
Some are; many aren't. MORE IS UP is near-universal (probably embodied — piles, growth). TIME AS A LANDSCAPE varies: English speakers gesture forward for future; Aymara speakers (Núñez & Sweetser 2006) gesture forward for past (visible). Mandarin uses vertical time metaphors (上 "up" = previous, 下 "down" = next). Cultural variation falsifies extreme universalism but supports a constrained typology.
What's conceptual blending?
Fauconnier and Turner's extension (1996, "The Way We Think" 2002): two or more input mental spaces combine into a blended space with emergent structure. "This surgeon is a butcher" blends SURGEON and BUTCHER inputs to imply incompetence (emergent in the blend, in neither input alone). Blending generalizes beyond two-domain metaphor — it handles counterfactuals, jokes, hypotheticals, and creative innovations.
What's the evidence for CMT?
(1) Linguistic systematicity: many expressions cluster around one metaphor. (2) Polysemy patterns: time terms reuse spatial vocabulary cross-linguistically. (3) Gesture: speakers gesture along metaphorical paths. (4) Priming experiments (Boroditsky, Gibbs): activating source primes target. (5) Brain imaging (Rohrer 2007, Gallese 2005): some primary metaphors activate sensorimotor regions. Critics (Steven Pinker, Gregory Murphy) argue CMT overstates the cognitive reality.
What are critiques of CMT?
Several. (1) Methodological: armchair examples may be unreliable; corpus and experimental data needed. (2) Direction: not all metaphors map concrete-to-abstract. (3) Conventionalization: many "metaphors" are dead — speakers process literally. (4) Framing without metaphor: many abstract concepts are understood without source domain mapping. Modern cognitive linguistics (Steen 2008's MIPVU) refines the methodology to address these.