On metaphor:A review of Metaphors we live by

Kai Li2016/03/08

The authors

• George Lakoff (1941-) is an American cognitive linguist.

The authors

• Mark Johnson (1949-) is a professor in embodied philosophy, cognitive science, and cognitive linguistics.

Metaphor and simile

An example

TIME IS MONEY• You are wasting my time.• I’ve invested a lot of time in her.

The book in a nutshell• Metaphor is both omnipresent and important.

– Metaphor helps us understand one thing in terms of another by highlighting (and at the same time hiding) certain aspects of the things.

– Metaphor is the basic structure of our conceptual system. – Metaphor can also create new realities.

• Three sources of metaphors: – direction, physical objects, and human being

• There are relationships between metaphors:– Metaphors can be consistent or contradictory with each other. – Metaphors can be built upon/divided from one another.

More examples

TIME IS MONEY• You are wasting my time.• I’ve invested a lot of

time in her.

MONEY IS LIQUID• Money has been

flooding into the country.

TIME IS A MOVING OBJECT• The time will come when…• The time for action has

arrived...

TIME IS A STATIONARY OBJECT• We are approaching the

end of the year.• As we go further into the

1980s.

Gareth Morgan’s organization metaphors

http://bogost.com/writing/the-cathedral-of-computation/

More examples: Love

LOVE IS A JOURNEY• LOVE IS A CAR TRIP– This relationship is a dead-end street.

• LOVE IS A TRAIN TRIP– We’ve gotten off the track.

• LOVE IS A SEA VOYAGE– Our marriage is on the rocks.

The book in a nutshell (again)• Metaphor is both omnipresent and important.

– Metaphor helps us understand one thing in terms of another by highlighting (and at the same time hiding) certain aspects of the things.

– Metaphor is the basic structure of our conceptual system. – Metaphor can also create new realities.

• Three sources of metaphors: – direction, physical objects, and human body

• There are relationships between metaphors:– Metaphors can be consistent or contradictory with each other. – Metaphors can be built upon/divided from one another.

My review of the book

• Pros:– The authors talked about the concepts and reasoning

very in a very comprehensive and detailed way. – This book provided a important theoretical

contribution to the theory of social science in general.

• Cons:– The authors limited their discussions on the levels of

language and thought.

Why metaphor theory matters to us (PhD students/scholars)?

• Two arguments about the relationships between science and metaphor:– Scientific communication needs to resort to metaphors.

• “DNA as computer program” or “DNA as blueprint” (Fogle, 1995)

• “Illness as metaphor”– Science is metaphorical in nature.

• Theories try to explain (and predict) a phenomenon by highlighting and hiding certain aspects of it.

• Theological foundation of modern social science

Illness as metaphor

• Sontag (1977) analyzed the public discourse systems (metaphors) around the two diseases, cancer and tuberculosis, where both diseases are connected with personal psychological traits, in two very different ways.

Metaphor and scientific discoveries

• Scientific discoveries made possible through dreams:– Barrat (1993) listed 12

major scientific discoveries that were claimed to be achieved in the dreams. At least one of them, Kekulé’s discovery of benzene molecules is highly metaphorical.

Theological foundation of modern social science

• Marshall Sahlins (1996), an American anthropologist, argued that modern economics and anthropology are based upon a notion in Augustine theology. – Augustine argued that “man was destined to wear out

his body in the vain attempt to satisfy it, because in obeying his own desires he had disobeyed God.”

– Adam Smith’s economics tried to explore “how we make the best of our eternal insufficiencies, the most possible satisfaction from means that are always less than our wants.”

Why metaphor theory matters to us (information professionals)?

• The family of information-related metaphors:– Information-as-thing – Information-as-process– Information-as-

knowledge– Information-as-service– Information-as-system– Information-as-person

• Exercise: can you relate these terms with the metaphors on the left side?– Information object– Information overload– Information consumption– Information lifecycle– Information wants to be

free– Information seeking

Summary

• Theory (especially, of higher level) matters. • Reflexivity:– What does “INFORMATION IS A METAPHOR”

mean? How good can it explain information?

• Questions?

ReferenceBarrett, D. (1993). The“ committee of sleep”: A study of dream

incubation for problem solving. Dreaming, 3(2), 115.Fogle, T. (1995). Information metaphors and the human genome

project. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 38(4), 535–547.Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (2008). Metaphors we live by. University of

Chicago press. Sahlins, M., Bargatzky, T., Bird-David, N., Clammer, J., Hamel, J.,

Maegawa, K., & Siikala, J. (1996). The Sadness of Sweetness: The Native Anthropology of Western Cosmology [and Comments and Reply]. Current Anthropology, 37(3), 395–428.

Sontag, S., & Broun, H. H. (1977). Illness as metaphor. Center for Cassette Studies.

Thank you!