Reading response – Metaphor
- Lakoff + Johnson give several examples throughout the text of linguistic metaphorical systems. Are there any you found odd, outdated, or different from metaphorical systems that you use, either personally or in your language, culture, or social sphere? For instance, do you speak about conversation as battle, or use orientational metaphors the same way the authors describe?
One example I found different from the metaphorical system I use is argument. To a certain extent, argument can be related to war, but in Chinese, the concept of argument emphasizes more on the idea of “exchange”. Winning is the goal of an argument, but the process is not the same as war. In a war, you kill people. The more powerful you are, more people you kill, and in the end, winning the war. But that not the same with argument. When you argue with others, you are exchanging thoughts and ideas, instead of killing ideas. You win an argument not by eliminating other’s ideas with power, but by convincing others to understand and agree with your point.
- Can you identify a metaphorical system that you commonly use? What do you think is the motivating rationale (“experiential basis”) behind that system – or is there one? Have you ever intentionally (or unintentionally) changed the metaphorical system that you use to speak about a certain subject, to reflect a different experience or worldview?
In Chinese, there is a type of phrase called “Chengyu”, a kind of idiom that all made up of four characters. Each of these idioms has an apparent meaning and a metaphoric meaning, which relates to a story in the history. As time passes, the meanings of some idioms are understood and used differently from its origin. For example, there is a phrase “kong xue lai feng” (空穴来风), the apparent meaning is “wind blowing from an empty cave”. Its original metaphorical explanation is that for wind to blow through, there needs to be a cave or a hole, meaning that there needs to be reasons for rumors to get spread. In nowadays, this idiom is used in a different way, meaning information that has no basis, since the wind is coming from an “empty” cave. in this idiom, information is compared with wind, they both flow from place to place. However, our understanding of this idiom changes. Before people believed that there is always a reason for information to be passed on. But nowadays, with internet and social media, too much information is transferred every day, too much information coming from nowhere. Under this situation, people started to change the use and understanding of this idiom.
- What metaphors/systems of metaphor are commonly used when discussing your topic? If “the essence of a metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another” (5), what other kinds of metaphors might be useful for discussing your topic, or an aspect of your topic?
I would use the metaphor “planation is colony” to discuss my topic. In fact, colony is a actual metaphoric meaning of planation in the dictionary. I think the word colony is a good representation of plantation, they have a lot in common. In a colony, people occupy an area of land that are not owned by them; while in planation, people occupy a land that originally belongs to other animals and living things. People gain profit in a colony by gathering things and resources; in planation, people also gain profits by harvesting fruits from the cash crops. I think that’s a useful metaphor for describing planation.