This is exactly what the Metaphor Map is designed to show. What has been missing from this field so far is an overall picture of metaphor within a language. This theory of conceptual metaphor was popularised by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) in the book Metaphors We Live By and has been hugely influential ever since. as a wave or as a flood) then this may predispose people to think about this issue in a particular way. Metaphor, then, might have an effect on the ways in which people understand the world around them: if immigration is presented in terms of a flow of water by the media (e.g. When we describe an argument in terms of warfare or destruction (‘he demolished my case’), we may be saying something about the society we live in. When we talk about ‘a healthy economy’ or ‘a clear argument’ we are using expressions that imply the mapping of one domain of experience (e.g. In fact it is difficult to talk about abstract ideas at all without using vocabulary from another area. We talk about our lives as if they were journeys with milestones, obstacles and end points.
We talk about the mind as if it were a container for ideas, which can be placed in there or taken out and passed to others.
Metaphor is fundamental to the ways in which we conceptualise and articulate even seemingly basic concepts. However, linguists would argue that metaphor is far more pervasive within our language and indeed within thought itself. This is unsurprising metaphor is usually described as a literary phenomenon used to create arresting images in the mind of the reader. When most people think of metaphor, they cast their minds back to school and remember examples from poetry and drama, such as Shakespeare’s “Juliet is the sun”.
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