Quote: "In cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor, or cognitive metaphor, refers to the understanding of one idea, or conceptual domain, in terms of another."
The use of one domain of knowledge to understand another domain. For example, understanding emotions in terms of temperature (hot-headed, cool customer).
Metaphor: Metaphor is a figure of speech that describes one thing in terms of another. It helps us understand abstract concepts in terms of concrete experiences.
Conceptual metaphor: Conceptual metaphor is a framework that suggests that we understand abstract concepts through our experiences of physical and sensory aspects of the world.
Domains: Domains refer to the areas of our experience that help us understand abstract concepts. For example, the domain of time helps us understand the abstract concept of change.
Source domain: The source domain is the domain that is used to explain the target domain in a metaphorical expression. For example, the source domain of "love is a flower" is the domain of plants.
Target domain: The target domain is the abstract concept that is described in terms of the source domain. For example, the target domain of "love is a flower" is the abstract concept of love.
Mapping: Mapping refers to the process of linking the source domain to the target domain in a conceptual metaphor. For example, the mapping in the metaphor "love is a flower" is the relationship between the physical properties of a flower and the emotional properties of love.
Cognitive models: Cognitive models refer to the mental structures that we use to understand abstract concepts. They are shaped by our experiences and understanding of the world.
Schemas: Schemas are mental structures that organize our experiences and knowledge about the world. They help us understand and interpret new information.
Embodied cognition: Embodied cognition is the idea that our physical experiences shape our mental representations of the world. It suggests that our understanding of abstract concepts is rooted in our bodily experiences of the world.
Conceptual blending: Conceptual blending refers to the process of combining two or more conceptual domains to create a new idea. It is used to explain how we create new metaphors and understand complex concepts.
Structural Metaphors: These are metaphors that structure one concept in terms of another, highlighting similarities and differences. Example: Theory is a Building.
Orientational Metaphors: These are metaphors that make use of our sense of direction and spatial relationships to understand abstract concepts. Example: Happy is Up.
Ontological Metaphors: These are metaphors that make use of our understanding of objects and things in the world to help us understand abstract concepts. Example: Time is a Resource.
Event Structure Metaphors: These are metaphors that help us understand complex events by relating them to simpler, more familiar activities. Example: Argument is War.
Personification Metaphors: These are metaphors that attribute human qualities to objects or concepts. Example: The Wind Whispers.
Source-Path-Goal Metaphors: These are metaphors that relate the source, the path, and the goal of an action to conceptualize abstract concepts. Example: Life is a Journey.
Metonymy-based Metaphors: These are metaphors that use metonymies or symbolic substitutions to construct a new meaning. Example: The Crown vs. The Monarchy.
Quote: "An example of this is the understanding of quantity in terms of directionality (e.g. 'the price of peace is rising') or the understanding of time in terms of money (e.g. 'I spent time at work today')."
Quote: "A conceptual domain can be any mental organization of human experience."
Quote: "The regularity with which different languages employ the same metaphors, often perceptually based, has led to the hypothesis that the mapping between conceptual domains corresponds to neural mappings in the brain."
Quote: "The conceptual metaphor theory proposed by George Lakoff and his colleagues arose from linguistics but became of interest to cognitive scientists due to its claims about the mind and the brain."
Quote: "The empirical evidence for the theory has been mixed to negative."
Quote: "Lakoff asserts that human thinking works effortlessly thanks to metaphorical thinking."
Quote: "Psychological research has found that metaphors are actually more difficult to process than non-metaphoric expressions."
Quote: "When metaphors lose their novelty and become conventionalized, they eventually lose their status of being metaphors and become processed like ordinary words."
Quote: "Therefore, the role of the conceptual metaphor in organizing human thinking is more limited than what was claimed by the linguists."