.The Systematicity of Metaphorical Concepts Arguments usually follow patterns;that is,there are certain things we typically do and do not do in arguing.The fact Iliac we in part conceptualize arguments in terms of battle Mystematically influences the shape arguments take and the way we talk about what we do in arguing.Because the metaphorical concept is systematic,the language we use to talk about that aspect of the concept is systematic. We saw in the ARGUMENT IS WAR metaphor that expressions from the vocabulary of war, e.g.,attack a position,indefensible,strategy,new line of attack,win,gain ground,etc.,form a systematic way of talking about the battling aspects of arguing.It is no accident that these expressions mean what they mean when we use them to talk about arguments.A portion of the conceptual network of battle partially characterizes the concept of an argument,and the language follows suit.Since metaphorical expressions in our language are tied to metaphorical concepts in a systematic way,we can use metaphorical linguistic expressions to study the nature of metaphorical concepts and to gain an understanding of the metaphorical nature of our activities. To get an idea of how metaphorical expressions in every-day language can give us insight into the metaphorical na-ture of the concepts that structure our everyday activities,let us consider the metaphorical concept TIME IS MONEY as it is reflected in contemporary English. TIME IS MONEY You re wasting my time. This gadget will save you hours. (8) I don t have the time to give you. How do you spend your time these days?That flat tire cost me an hour. I've invested a lot of time in her. I don't have enough time to spare for that.You re running out oftime. You need to budget your time. Put aside some time for ping pong.Is that worth your while? Do you have much time left? He s living on borrowed time. You don't use your time profitably.I lost a lot of time when I got sick.Thank you for your time. Time in our culture is a valuable commodity.It is a limited resource that we use to accomplish our goals.Because of the way that the concept of work has developed in mod- ern Western culture,where work is typically associated with the time it takes and time is
2. The Systematicity of Metaphorical Concepts Arguments usually follow patterns; that is, there are certain things we typically do and do not do in arguing. The fact Iliac we in part conceptualize arguments in terms of battle Mystematically influences the shape arguments take and the way we talk about what we do in arguing. Because the metaphorical concept is systematic, the language we use to talk about that aspect of the concept is systematic. We saw in the ARGUMENT IS WAR metaphor that expressions from the vocabulary of war, e.g., attack a position, indefensible, strategy, new line of attack, win, gain ground, etc., form a systematic way of talking about the battling aspects of arguing. It is no accident that these expressions mean what they mean when we use them to talk about arguments. A portion of the conceptual network of battle partially characterizes the concept of an argument, and the language follows suit. Since metaphorical expressions in our language are tied to metaphorical concepts in a systematic way, we can use metaphorical linguistic expressions to study the nature of metaphorical concepts and to gain an understanding of the metaphorical nature of our activities. To get an idea of how metaphorical expressions in every-day language can give us insight into the metaphorical na-ture of the concepts that structure our everyday activities, let us consider the metaphorical concept TIME IS MONEY as it is reflected in contemporary English. TIME IS MONEY You' re wasting my time. This gadget will save you hours. ((8)) I don' t have the time to give you. How do you spend your time these days? That flat tire cost me an hour. I've invested a lot of time in her. I don' t have enough time to spare for that. You' re running out of time. You need to budget your time. Put aside some time for ping pong. Is that worth your while? Do you have much time left? He' s living on borrowed time. You don' t use your time profitably. I lost a lot of time when I got sick. Thank you for your time. Time in our culture is a valuable commodity. It is a limited resource that we use to accomplish our goals. Because of the way that the concept of work has developed in modern Western culture, where work is typically associated with the time it takes and time is
precisely quantified,it has become customary to pay people by the hour,week,or year.In our culture TIME IS MONEY in many ways:tele-phone message units,hourly wages,hotel room rates,yearly budgets,interest on loans,and paying your debt to society by "serving time. These practices are relatively new in the history of the human race,and by no means do they exist in all cultures.They have arisen in modern industrialized societies and structure our basic everyday activities in a very profound way.Corresponding to the fact that we act as if time is a valuable commodity-a limited resource,even money-we conceive of time that way.Thus we understand and experience time as the kind of thing that can be spent, wasted,budgeted,invested wisely or poorly,saved,or squandered. TIME IS MONEY,TIME IS A LIMITED RESOURCE,and TIME IS A VALUABLE COMMODITY are all metaphorical concepts. They are metaphorical since we are using our everyday experiences with money,limited resources,and valuable (9) .Ittmnodities to conceptualize time.This isn't a necessary Why for human beings to conceptualize time;it is tied to our vtllture.There are cultures where time is none of these things. The metaphorical concepts TIME IS MONEY,TIME IS A NI'sot)CE,and TIME IS A VALUABLE COMMODITY form a Mingle system based on subcategorization,since in our soci-Mly money is a limited resource and limited resources are Valuable commodities.These subcategorization relation-Nhlps characterize entailment relationships between the Metaphors.TIME IS MONEY entails that TIME IS A LIMITED tld5OURCE,which entails that TIME IS A VALUABLE COMMOUITY. We are adopting the practice of using the most specific Metaphorical concept,in this case TIME IS MONEY,to characterize the entire system.Of the expressions listed tinder the TIME IS MONEY metaphor,some refer specifically to money (spend,invest,budget,profitably,cost), others to limited resources (use,use up,have enough of,run out of),and still others to valuable commodities (have,give,lose,/hank you for).This is an example of the way in which metaphorical entailments can characterize a coherent system of metaphorical concepts and a corresponding coherent system of metaphorical expressions for those concepts. (10)
precisely quantified, it has become customary to pay people by the hour, week, or year. In our culture TIME IS MONEY in many ways: tele-phone message units, hourly wages, hotel room rates, yearly budgets, interest on loans, and paying your debt to society by "serving time." These practices are relatively new in the history of the human race, and by no means do they exist in all cultures. They have arisen in modern industrialized societies and structure our basic everyday activities in a very profound way. Corresponding to the fact that we act as if time is a valuable commodity—a limited resource, even money—we conceive of time that way. Thus we understand and experience time as the kind of thing that can be spent, wasted, budgeted, invested wisely or poorly, saved, or squandered. TIME IS MONEY, TIME IS A LIMITED RESOURCE, and TIME IS A VALUABLE COMMODITY are all metaphorical concepts. They are metaphorical since we are using our everyday experiences with money, limited resources, and valuable ((9)) •lttmnodities to conceptualize time. This isn't a necessary Why for human beings to conceptualize time; it is tied to our vtllture. There are cultures where time is none of these things. The metaphorical concepts TIME IS MONEY, TIME IS A Nlf sot)CE, and TIME IS A VALUABLE COMMODITY form a Mingle system based on subcategorization, since in our soci-Mly money is a limited resource and limited resources are Valuable commodities. These subcategorization relation-Nhlps characterize entailment relationships between the Metaphors. TIME IS MONEY entails that TIME IS A LIMITED tltl5OURCE, which entails that TIME IS A VALUABLE COMMOUITY. We are adopting the practice of using the most specific Metaphorical concept, in this case TIME IS MONEY, to characterize the entire system. Of the expressions listed tinder the TIME IS MONEY metaphor, some refer specifically to money (spend, invest, budget, profitably, cost), others to limited resources (use, use up, have enough of, run out of), and still others to valuable commodities (have, give, lose, /hank you for). This is an example of the way in which metaphorical entailments can characterize a coherent system of metaphorical concepts and a corresponding coherent system of metaphorical expressions for those concepts. ((10))
3. Metaphorical Systematicity:Highlighting and Hiding The very systematicity that allows us to comprehend one aspect of a concept in terms of another (e.g.,comprehend-ing an aspect of arguing in terms of battle)will necessarily hide other aspects of the concept.In allowing us to focus on one aspect of a concept (e.g.,the battling aspects of arguing),a metaphorical concept can keep us from focusing on other aspects of the concept that are inconsistent with that metaphor.For example,in the midst of a heated argument,when we are intent on attacking our opponent's position and defending our own,we may lose sight of the cooperative aspects of arguing.Someone who is arguing with you can be viewed as giving you his time,a valuable commodity,in an effort at mutual understanding.But when we are preoccupied with the battle aspects,we often lose sight of the cooperative aspects. A far more subtle case of how a metaphorical concept can hide an aspect of our experience can be seen in what Michael Reddy has called the "conduit metaphor."Reddy observes that our language about language is structured roughly by the following complex metaphor: IDEAS(Or MEANINGS)ARE OBJECTS.LINGUISTIC EXPRESSIONS ARE CONTAINERS. COMMUNICATION IS SENDING. The speaker puts ideas (objects)into words(containers)and sends them (along a conduit)to a hearer who takes the idea/objects out of the word/containers.Reddy documents this with more than a hundred types of expressions in English,which he estimates account for at least 70 percent of (10) HIGHLIGHTING AND HIDING the expressions we use for talking about language.Here are some examples: The CONDUIT Metaphor It's hard to get that idea across to him. I gave you that idea. Your reasons came through to us. It's difficult to put my ideas into words. When you have a good idea,try to capture it immediately in words. Try to pack more thought into fewer words. You can t simply stuffideas into a sentence any old way.The meaning is right there in the words. Don't force your meanings into the wrong words.His words carry little meaning. The introduction has a great deal of thought content.Your words seem hollow. The sentence is without meaning. The idea is buried in terribly dense paragraphs. In examples like these it is far more difficult to see that there is anything hidden by the metaphor or even to see that there is a metaphor here at all.This is so much the con- ventional way of thinking about language that it is some-times hard to imagine that it
3. Metaphorical Systematicity: Highlighting and Hiding The very systematicity that allows us to comprehend one aspect of a concept in terms of another (e.g., comprehend-ing an aspect of arguing in terms of battle) will necessarily hide other aspects of the concept. In allowing us to focus on one aspect of a concept (e.g., the battling aspects of arguing), a metaphorical concept can keep us from focusing on other aspects of the concept that are inconsistent with that metaphor. For example, in the midst of a heated argument, when we are intent on attacking our opponent's position and defending our own, we may lose sight of the cooperative aspects of arguing. Someone who is arguing with you can be viewed as giving you his time, a valuable commodity, in an effort at mutual understanding. But when we are preoccupied with the battle aspects, we often lose sight of the cooperative aspects. A far more subtle case of how a metaphorical concept can hide an aspect of our experience can be seen in what Michael Reddy has called the "conduit metaphor." Reddy observes that our language about language is structured roughly by the following complex metaphor: IDEAS (Or MEANINGS) ARE OBJECTS. LINGUISTIC EXPRESSIONS ARE CONTAINERS. COMMUNICATION IS SENDING. The speaker puts ideas (objects) into words (containers) and sends them (along a conduit) to a hearer who takes the idea/objects out of the word/containers. Reddy documents this with more than a hundred types of expressions in English, which he estimates account for at least 70 percent of ((10)) HIGHLIGHTING AND HIDING the expressions we use for talking about language. Here are some examples: The CONDUIT Metaphor It's hard to get that idea across to him. I gave you that idea. Your reasons came through to us. It's difficult to put my ideas into words. When you have a good idea, try to capture it immediately in words. Try to pack more thought into fewer words. You can' t simply stuff ideas into a sentence any old way. The meaning is right there in the words. Don't force your meanings into the wrong words. His words carry little meaning. The introduction has a great deal of thought content. Your words seem hollow. The sentence is without meaning. The idea is buried in terribly dense paragraphs. In examples like these it is far more difficult to see that there is anything hidden by the metaphor or even to see that there is a metaphor here at all. This is so much the conventional way of thinking about language that it is some-times hard to imagine that it
might not fit reality.But if we look at what the CoNDUIT metaphor entails,we can see some of the ways in which it masks aspects of the communieative process. First,the LINGUISTIC EXPRESSIONS ARE CONTAINERS FOR MEANINGS aspect of the CONDUIT metaphor entails that words and sentences have meanings in themselves,in-dependent of any context or speaker.The MEANINGS ARE OBJECTS part of the metaphor,for example,entails that meanings have an existence independent of people and con-texts.The part of the metaphor that says LINGUISTIC EXPRESSIONS ARE CONTAINERS FOR MEANING entails that words(and sentences)have meanings,again independent of contexts and speakers.These metaphors are appropriate in many situations-those where context differences don't (12) matter and where all the participants in the conversation understand the sentences in the same way.These two entailments are exemplified by sentences like The meaning is right there in the words, which,according to the CONDUIT metaphor,can correctly be said of any sentence.But there are many cases where context does matter.Here is a celebrated one recorded in actual conversation by Pamela Downing: Please sit in the apple juice seat. In isolation this sentence has no meaning at all,since the expression "apple juice seat"is not a conventional way of referring to any kind of object.But the sentence makes perfect sense in the context in which it was uttered.An overnight guest came down to breakfast. There were four place settings,three with orange juice and one with apple juice.It was clear what the apple juice seat was.And even the next morning,when there was no apple juice,it was still clear which seat was the apple juice seat. In addition to sentences that have no meaning without context,there are cases where a single sentence will mean different things to different people.Consider: We need new alternative sources of energy. This means something very different to the president of Mobil Oil from what it means to the president of Friends of the Earth.The meaning is not right there in the sentence-it matters a lot who is saying or listening to the sentence and what his social and political attitudes are.The CONDUIT metaphor does not fit cases where context is required to determine whether the sentence has any meaning at all and,if so,what meaning it has. These examples show that the metaphorical concepts we have looked at provide us with a partial understanding of what communication,argument,and time are and that,in doing this,they hide other aspects of these concepts.It is (13)
might not fit reality. But if we look at what the CONDUIT metaphor entails, we can see some of the ways in which it masks aspects of the communieative process. First, the LINGUISTIC EXPRESSIONS ARE CONTAINERS FOR MEANINGS aspect of the CONDUIT metaphor entails that words and sentences have meanings in themselves, in-dependent of any context or speaker. The MEANINGS ARE OBJECTS part of the metaphor, for example, entails that meanings have an existence independent of people and con-texts. The part of the metaphor that says LINGUISTIC EXPRESSIONS ARE CONTAINERS FOR MEANING entails that words (and sentences) have meanings, again independent of contexts and speakers. These metaphors are appropriate in many situations—those where context differences don't ((12)) matter and where all the participants in the conversation understand the sentences in the same way. These two entailments are exemplified by sentences like The meaning is right there in the words, which, according to the CONDUIT metaphor, can correctly be said of any sentence. But there are many cases where context does matter. Here is a celebrated one recorded in actual conversation by Pamela Downing: Please sit in the apple juice seat. In isolation this sentence has no meaning at all, since the expression "apple juice seat" is not a conventional way of referring to any kind of object. But the sentence makes perfect sense in the context in which it was uttered. An overnight guest came down to breakfast. There were four place settings, three with orange juice and one with apple juice. It was clear what the apple juice seat was. And even the next morning, when there was no apple juice, it was still clear which seat was the apple juice seat. In addition to sentences that have no meaning without context, there are cases where a single sentence will mean different things to different people. Consider: We need new alternative sources of energy. This means something very different to the president of Mobil Oil from what it means to the president of Friends of the Earth. The meaning is not right there in the sentence—it matters a lot who is saying or listening to the sentence and what his social and political attitudes are. The CONDUIT metaphor does not fit cases where context is required to determine whether the sentence has any meaning at all and, if so, what meaning it has. These examples show that the metaphorical concepts we have looked at provide us with a partial understanding of what communication, argument, and time are and that, in doing this, they hide other aspects of these concepts. It is ((13))
important to see that the metaphorical structuring involved here is partial,not total.If it were total,one concept would actually be the other,not merely be understood in terms of it. For example,time isn't really money.If you spend your time trying to do something and it doesn't work,you can't get your time back.There are no time banks.I can give you a lot of time,but you can't give me back the same time,though you can give me back the same amount of time.And so on.Thus,part of a metaphorical concept does not and cannot fit. On the other hand,metaphorical concepts can be ex-tended beyond the range of ordinary literal ways of thinking and talking into the range of what is called figurative,poetic, colorful,or fanciful thought and language.Thus,if ideas are objects,we can dress them up in fancy clothes,juggle them,line them up nice and neat,etc.So when we say that a concept is structured by a metaphor,we mean that it is partially structured and that it can be extended in some ways but not others. (14)
important to see that the metaphorical structuring involved here is partial, not total. If it were total, one concept would actually be the other, not merely be understood in terms of it. For example, time isn't really money. If you spend your time trying to do something and it doesn't work, you can't get your time back. There are no time banks. I can give you a lot of time, but you can't give me back the same time, though you can give me back the same amount of time. And so on. Thus, part of a metaphorical concept does not and cannot fit. On the other hand, metaphorical concepts can be ex-tended beyond the range of ordinary literal ways of thinking and talking into the range of what is called figurative, poetic, colorful, or fanciful thought and language. Thus, if ideas are objects, we can dress them up in fancy clothes, juggle them, line them up nice and neat, etc. So when we say that a concept is structured by a metaphor, we mean that it is partially structured and that it can be extended in some ways but not others. ((14))