{"id":1306,"date":"2021-08-02T00:01:25","date_gmt":"2021-08-01T23:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/denverharrington.com\/main\/?p=1306"},"modified":"2025-11-18T10:37:31","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T10:37:31","slug":"conceptual-metaphors-meaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/denverharrington.com\/main\/conceptual-metaphors-meaning\/","title":{"rendered":"Conceptual Metaphors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/denverharrington.com\/main\/conceptual-metaphors-meaning\/conceptualmetaphors1\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1357\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1357 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/denverharrington.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/CONCEPTUALMETAPHORS1-1024x538.jpg\" alt=\"Conceptual Metaphors\" width=\"1024\" height=\"538\" srcset=\"https:\/\/denverharrington.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/CONCEPTUALMETAPHORS1-1024x538.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/denverharrington.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/CONCEPTUALMETAPHORS1-300x158.jpg 300w, https:\/\/denverharrington.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/CONCEPTUALMETAPHORS1-768x403.jpg 768w, https:\/\/denverharrington.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/CONCEPTUALMETAPHORS1-500x263.jpg 500w, https:\/\/denverharrington.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/CONCEPTUALMETAPHORS1-800x420.jpg 800w, https:\/\/denverharrington.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/CONCEPTUALMETAPHORS1-762x400.jpg 762w, https:\/\/denverharrington.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/CONCEPTUALMETAPHORS1.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Conceptual metaphors are not just tools for poetry. They reflect the way we think and understand our reality. A great deal of our subjective life is rich in judgements about abstract things. Consider the phrases &#8220;<em>I got a good grasp of her idea,&#8221; <\/em>or &#8220;<em>that idea flew right over my head.&#8221;<\/em> We use these conceptual metaphors to talk about one domain of experience (<em>ideas as a subjective experience<\/em>) in terms of another (<em>sensorimotor experiences to catch or miss.<\/em>) Metaphors as linguistic expressions are possible because there are metaphor circuits <em>(gestalts)<\/em> in our brains. And this leads to some very interesting conclusion about how we see the world and make meaning. But what is most striking about this discovery is that there are universal conceptual metaphors in all human cultures around the world that present a common understanding of how meaning is made.<\/p>\n<h2>From Physical To Abstract Concepts<\/h2>\n<p>How we experience reality grounds how we conceptualise something else. This is why<em> &#8216;stock markets fall&#8217;<\/em> and why &#8216;<em>rates skyrocket,&#8217; <\/em>because we conceptualise the non-physical in terms of the physical. In their groundbreaking book\u00a0<em>Metaphors We Live By,\u00a0<\/em>George Lakoff and Mark Johnson explore how the brain makes meaning from an embodied mind. A deeper dive into these discoveries can be found in the book <em>Philosophy In The Flesh,\u00a0<\/em>which explores in detail how the brain does this, crediting discoveries and investigations by prominent figures in cognitive science.<\/p>\n<h2>Primary Metaphors<\/h2>\n<p>The most important realisation was the significance of <em>Primary Metaphors.<\/em> Since most of how we reason and conceptualise things come from our physical sensorimotor domains of experience, it stands to reason that the sensorimotor cortex became the locus of inquiry. What emerged from the research were metaphors consistently appearing cross-culturally in many languages, such as <em>Affection Is Warmth<\/em> (the primary experience being initiated as a baby held affectionately.) Another is <em>Important Is Big,\u00a0<\/em>(a primary experience based in the childhood experience of your giant guardians watching over you.) Or what about <em>Happy Is Up<\/em> (an experience primarily in being happy and energetic as upright in posture and orientation.) Our bodies are always sensing temperature, verticality and objects, which is why these experiences are the prime domains for other metaphorical networks.<\/p>\n<p>These associations are not conscious, they are a product of millions of neural connections being recruited to communicate an experience coherently in any given culture. This coherence relates to how we reason about reality and understand one another, and is also why new metaphors may only find niche appeal to subcultural groups. But how do our brains first make these connections? What are the conditions <em>before\u00a0<\/em>the conceptual metaphors that allows the brain to achieve these neural recruitments?<\/p>\n<h2>Conflation &amp; Language Development<\/h2>\n<p>During his research into <em>conflation<\/em>, Christopher Johnson learned that connections between two domains in early childhood development (like\u00a0<em>seeing\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0<em>knowing)\u00a0<\/em>are coactive and experienced together. Later in development there is a secondary stage of differentiation, whereby these previously coactive domains are metaphorical sources and targets for more complex expressions and understandings. So, <em>knowing is seeing<\/em> for a baby, while something can be <em>illuminating<\/em> for an older child who can differentiate the meaning from the coactive experience. It is from this conflation that primary metaphors are made, later growing to more complex metaphors. But this raises more questions. How is the brain able to make assessments about the world outside itself? Is there are way it specifically speaks to its various different elements? And when we use terms like <em>into\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0<em>out of,\u00a0<\/em>how can the brain manage these concepts as merely a structure for sensory inputs?<\/p>\n<h2>Image Schema &amp; Spatial-Relations<\/h2>\n<p>It turns out that the heart of our conceptual system are concepts of spatial-relations that help us make sense of our environments.\u00a0 These concepts are not simple and vary wildly from language-to-language. We impose them onto our physical world. Take for instance, a rock. We impose upon the rock object a front-back orientation. (E.g. <em>Where is the ball? It&#8217;s in-front of the rock<\/em>.) A rock doesn&#8217;t have an inherent front or back until we put it there.<\/p>\n<p>Another example of this is the phrase <em>into,\u00a0<\/em>a composite of the elementary relations\u00a0<em>in\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0<em>to.\u00a0<\/em>The word\u00a0<em>on\u00a0<\/em>is composed of elementary spatial relations\u00a0<em>above, in contact with,\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0<em>supported by. <\/em>These are called <em>image schema.\u00a0<\/em>A\u00a0<em>container\u00a0schema\u00a0<\/em>frames how we understand containment, from boxes to rooms to houses &#8211; anything with an interior, a boundary and an exterior. Another sort of frame is a <em>source-path-goal<\/em> schema with a trajectory that moves through it. Incredibly, we infer from this metaphors that express time passing by, or ideas as objects we didn&#8217;t catch<em>. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>You can think of image schemas as circuit maps in the brain. How these maps communicate determines how well we understand new concepts.<\/p>\n<h2>Neural Binding<\/h2>\n<p>Hold tight, this bit gets a little <em>heavy. <\/em>Thoughts are physical circuits embodied in the brain. People&#8217;s brains have several functions and each function has a map of the body. The motor cortex has one, so too does the sensory cortex, your visual cortex and so on. Brain chemicals help to bind neurons in order to build these topographical maps and these circuits fire repeatedly to strengthen the synapses and reinforce learning. (This is known as Hebbian learning.) So when we see a glass fill with water, we understand <em>more <\/em>is <em>up<\/em>. Two parts of the brain are being activated, a schema for <em>verticality, <\/em>and for <em>quantity. <\/em>The more they activate together the stronger the circuit, until it becomes the metaphor <em>More Is Up<\/em>. With the right connections across maps, our brains compute containment, motion, lines, and a range of other image schema in much the same way.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, when we understand\u00a0<em>into,\u00a0<\/em>our brain links several maps through neural binding. For example, <em>In <\/em>is a containment schema. It links to the source-path-goal schema <em>To, <\/em>which itself is a whole schema with three semantic roles (<em>a source domain, a path and a goal.<\/em>) When we understand new concepts, our brains recruit pre-existing neural maps (neural recruitment) to make sense of new ideas.<\/p>\n<h2>Systematic Metaphor<\/h2>\n<p>So, you may be wondering at this point, why is this important? The systematicity of metaphorical concepts means the way we understand one thing shapes how we talk about it. Since it shapes how we talk about it, it also shapes our behaviour. For example, consider the metaphor <em>Argument Is War.\u00a0<\/em>There are linguistic expressions for talking about argument in terms of warfare.\u00a0<em>She shot down my argument. He&#8217;s dodging the point. She&#8217;s gaining ground. His position is indefensible.\u00a0<\/em>When we talk about the aspects of battle, we highlight the\u00a0<em>conflict\u00a0<\/em>aspects but inevitably hide other concepts, like collaboration or constructive learning as in the metaphor\u00a0<em>Arguments are Buildings.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>&#8220;Corporations Are People, My Friend&#8221;<\/h2>\n<p>In 2011, Presidential Candidate, Mitt Romney, set the record straight during the Iowa State Fair. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KlPQkd_AA6c\">&#8220;Corporations are people, my friend.&#8221;<\/a> The statement caused quite a stir with his audience, but not long after, corporate personhood was endorsed by the Supreme Court. What&#8217;s more, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/corporations-are-people-a_b_5543833\">Huffpost<\/a>, these institutions have been legally endowed with more rights than individuals. What this demonstrates is the powerful nature of conceptual metaphors in changing our reality. Supposing, in our crisis-ridden-world, that the COVID19 virus had been framed as a <em>Thief<\/em>, or <em>the Earth as a Person<\/em>, how different our understanding of complex systems like viruses and climate change might be. What systematic entailments would follow if such aspects were more common place in our conceptual metaphors? Would it make them easier to understand? Would that understanding change our behaviour?<\/p>\n<p>Well, yes and no &#8211; as with most things, there&#8217;s a catch. Just as we don&#8217;t all accept that corporations are people, many would not so easily accept other innovative metaphors. They first need to be grounded based on coherent structures. And to do that, we must meet people where they are at and understand their values. Truth depends on understanding, and we are not all equipped to understand a new domain of experience when the gestalt circuits are not in place to do so.<\/p>\n<h2>New Realities<\/h2>\n<p>Nevertheless, metaphors are pervasive in our lives and these discoveries have come at a time most needed. Our myths of pure objectivism can no longer weave together the fabric of our fragile world. Science and innovation alone can no longer promise to save us from a horrifying path of mass extinction. Humanity has always been able to change the world through its ability to conceptualize cognitively and reinvent itself, a stable fact we must not take for granted now. We have the ability to think and build something new, and it seems we will need new metaphors and narratives to do so. Cognitive science has overcome a traditional view of mind and matter as separate and distinct. In fact, they appear to be two aspects of life &#8211; process and structure. If mind is process and matter is structure, then we have the power to construct and actualize new realities.<\/p>\n<p>To change your mind is to change your brain, a potential that can change the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Conceptual metaphors are not just tools for poetry. They reflect the way we think and understand our reality. A great deal of our subjective life is rich in judgements about abstract things. Consider the phrases &#8220;I got a good grasp of her idea,&#8221; or &#8220;that idea flew right over my head.&#8221; We use these conceptual [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"content-sidebar","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[43,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-metaphors-in-use","category-the-art-of-metaphor","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Conceptual Metaphors - Denver Harrington<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In this article, I discuss how conceptual metaphors play a ubiquitous role in how we orient out reality and create new meaning.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/denverharrington.com\/main\/conceptual-metaphors-meaning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Conceptual Metaphors - 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