Metaphors We Live By

• 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 Are there any you found odd, outdated, or different from metaphorical systems that you use, either personally or in your language, culture, or social sphere?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.

• 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?

I resonate with Lakoff & Johnson’s linguistic metaphorical systems. In Chinese background, we use metaphor everywhere and it is an important part in Chinese language. We have the same metaphor which is “唇枪舌战” about conversation as battle. To translate, “唇” is lip; “枪” is spear; “舌” is tongue and “战” is battle. It assimilates lip and tongue as weapons, which more vividly display an intense debate. Besides, orientational metaphors are also been used frequently in Chinese language. For example, the most common slogan in Chinese school, “好好学习天天向上”, means study hard and make progress every day. The words “向上” represents going up, which means positive is up, negative is down.

• 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?

The metaphorical system I commonly use is the “copy” and “paste” operations on computer. For the logic behind this, the word copy means making a same object. On computer, I think the “copy” command’s function is pretty straight forward. It duplicates selected items.  For the paste word, it means stick something to something. On computer, the function of “paste” operation is putting copied items on a selected area. We can easily understand the function of “copy” and “paste” by just looking at the two operation names. I intentionally use the two words in real life context when I see two people have similar appearance or action. 

• 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?

When discussing my “quilting” topic, I would say connection may be the metaphor. For my understanding, connection means the relationship and link between two objects, peoples, communities, etc. The joint between two objects moved from physical one to transparent one(the connection of tradition and modern,  handicraft and mechanization，etc). For the other kinds of metaphors I would use bridge and gap as the metaphors which also demonstrate the connection and disconnection between different groups people, communities and social environment.

Q1: 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?

I think  “Time is money” might be different in some other culture. It is definitely a proper metaphor in modern western culture and also makes sense for people living in China now. However, in some religious countries, for example, Thailand or Bhutan, people values faith more than money. So maybe in their conceptual system, though time is valuable, there could be some other metaphors for time.

In ancient times in China, there are several metaphors for time – e.g: arrow, white horse and water.

Q2: 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?

When describing about life, I like to say that “life is a journey”. Because I believe that what really matters in life is to explore and experience. Sometimes, when the context is related to career or learning , I will unintentionally change the metaphorical system and say that “life is like a marathon.” I think the reason behind is that career and learning both implies competition, which makes me unconsciously associate life with marathon.

Q3: 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?

Regarding my topic of “Code of Arms”,  I will use identity as the metaphor. “Code of Arms” manifests the identity of the recognition or expectation of a family or institution. Speaking of other kinds of metaphors related to this topic, I think of inheritance and tradition.

• 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?

As a non-native speaker of English, I have two different language systems in my brain. For some sentences in English, I can understand it’s meaning but cannot translate them into Chinese directly. For example: “It’s difficult to put my ideas into words.” is a form we don’t use in Chinese. We usually say 只可意会不可言传 (can only be felt and understood in one’s heart but cannot be explained in words.) or 难以言喻 (beyond expression) to express the same meaning. In the phrase 难以言喻, 难 means hard, 以 equals “to, “言 means say/speak,  and 喻 means metaphor.

• 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?

I love to use metaphors in my daily life. Metaphors and analogies help to think and express myself a lot. I like to analog my thought into something that is world-wild consensus to break through the limits of language. When I answered the “Who are you outside of IMA Low Res?” I said,  “I am a star in the sky who wish to light the moon up.” This comes out from a fact: the sun light up the earth. The moon is usually neglected when compared to the sun. However, the moon also lights up the night silently. I want to be like the star around the moons in society to accompany them when they try their best to light up the night.

Also, in Chinese, there are 歇后语 (a two-part allegorical saying). In a 歇后语, the former part is a metaphor or metaphor, and the latter part is an interpretation of the meaning. It’s commonly used in my daily life. Here are some examples of 歇后语:

黄鼠狼给鸡拜年–不怀好意。 A weasel wishing Happy New Year to a chicken —  bad intentions

肉包子打狗–有去无回。 Chasing a dog by throwing meat dumplings at it — no return.

兔子尾巴长不了。 The tail of a rabbit — cannot be extended; won’t last long.

• 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?

This is the main difficulty I face when working on my topic: fenestra. Fenestra itself is used as a metaphor. The word initially meant window, but it’s now used for small openings on the bones, blood vessels, and insects’ wings. Fenestras are usually used for transporting molecules and balancing pressure. This makes me think about the underground water system,  funnels, sluices, and filter papers.

• 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 metaphorical saying that has never quite clicked in my brain is when someone says “shoot”, and they mean “go for it”, like Lakoff and Johnson mention, “You disagree? Okay, shoot!“. Though this is a pretty common phrase in English, and in my culture, my brain usually interprets the word “shoot” as a euphemism for “shit”.  So my first instinct is to understand the person as saying, “shit, you disagree with me”, rather than the intended meaning of, “okay, you disagree with me, let’s hear your argument”.
• 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? 

  This is so hard to identify! I usually don’t know when I speak in common metaphors and idioms until I’m speaking with someone who English isn’t their first language – because I recognize that English has a lot of idioms that don’t make much sense when taken literally. But trying to come up with something on my own is difficult!One system I have been able to identify is “north is up or straight ahead” and I think this is mostly because when looking at a map, North is usually oriented at the top. This has some cascading implications that “south is down or behind”, “west is left”, “east is right”. This obviously gets tricky, and becomes untrue when I am not in fact facing north. Furthermore, I realize that I internally think of specific places as being up, down, left or right from my current location, or possibly from where I grew up. For example, even if I were always facing north, when I think of “the west coast”, I often envision a place that is to my left. But, this is very dependent on where I am, and which “west coast” we’re talking about. The west coast of Ireland for example is actually to the east of me, and is “to the right”. So in this case west is not left.

• 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? 

  The term “colonial organism” itself could be part of a system of metaphors. It is using a human-centric idea of colonies and applying that to organisms as a way for humans to understand how they live and survive. But the organisms themselves likely don’t have any concept that their way of living, and being dependent on one another for life is “different” in any way. Scientists also seem to use the term “kin” or “kinship” when talking about microorganisms that are genetically similar, and use this metaphor to understand how the interact with organisms that are genetically different. This has become especially interesting to me since talking with Margaret about slime mold – she mentioned that science doesn’t know if the slime mold amoebas even “care” that their neighbors are kin or not. Based on their behavior of self-sacrificing in order for others to survive, it is unknown if this is done because they are competing with those that are different, of if they are just cooperating to that life can continue. Humans use a human-centric metaphor system when looking at anything that is not human as a way to understand their biology, behavior, relationships, etc. And though that metaphor system makes sense, since it is a way to compare, it is not always accurate.

One metaphor that Lakoff and Johnson discussed, “time is money,” initially struck me as a little off, or not as universal in my culture as the others. My first reaction was to think “yeah, we say that sometimes, but it’s more about time being a limited resource.” When I turned the page to see “time is a limited resource,” I laughed. I didn’t even think of how closely related “time is money” and “time is a limited resource” really are, and how money, resources, and value are employed in metaphors all over our language. So many of these — “happy is up,” “future is forward/up” — feel so fundamental that it almost doesn’t feel like a metaphor. It FEELS like happy IS up. And I think that’s the point. The feeling of things impacting our language and understanding is powerful — and can also be limiting.

One metaphorical system that is commonly used amongst my friend group is that of pets being children. We refer to them as “fur babies,” dogs go to “doggie daycare,” fancy or expensive kennels are “spas” or “camp.” I think the motivating rationale for this is that many of us do NOT have kids yet, but we do have this special bond with our pets, and we need to take care of them. The deep love, connection, responsibility, and other mix of feelings motivates this connection.

I think that one of the ways that I have somewhat intentionally changed the metaphorical system that I use is when speaking out things and about groups of people as gendered. It is common to hear “she’s a beaut” when talking about things like cars or boats or other objects that one is excited about. This is starting to feel really dated though, and gets into an objectification of women/women as objects system that is deeply problematic. I’m also trying to be more aware of gendered terms for people that are not as inclusive as I’d like to be, like “guys.”

Gardens are commonly discussed as paradise, oases, natural, peaceful, and purity. But sometimes gardens are serious drains on the environment. Some gardens actually decrease biodiversity and encourage the spread of invasive species. They are sometimes far from the “natural” landscape. It might be useful to consider plants inhabitants.

The new knowledge that shocked me is just common sense in the eyes of the Great God.

For me, this book is subversive. Although I know this is nothing new in the eyes of the great gods because this is a publication more than 30 years ago, I am still very happy to encounter this book, even though it is 2022 this year. This kind of epoch-making book, no matter when you come across it, is worthy of gratitude because it can make people figure out things that they can’t figure out ever before.

The most shocking thing in this book for me is the construction of metaphors, the exposition of empiricism, and a series of discoveries that have been reflected from the perspective of metaphors. Now I want to say something that is not absolutely relevant to this book.

What I want to talk about is the meaning of literature. I didn’t like to read literature books much before simply because theoretical books can explain the truth clearly. The questions are clear, the answers are clear, and the process is also clear. While literary books often release the complexity behind things, with ambiguous questions, ambiguous answers, and ambiguous processes. Before reading a book, there is always a pre-set standard in my heart—“whether the hidden truth is explained clearly”. Therefore, literature books are often not as appealing to me as theoretical books.

Sometimes I see other people posting book lists on forums and reading hundreds of books in a year, most of which are literature books, I suddenly feel puzzled and even pity. Why do they waste a lot of time on this kind of thing? Of course, I never dare to deny or despise literature. Because among the people I admire, there are many people who spend a lot of time reading and studying literature. But I don’t understand that no matter the complexity or possibility, I can look for other disciplines to replace the inspiration of literature, such as history, anthropology, etc. What is unique about literature?

If “the essence of a metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another”, the literature itself is just metaphors that are useful for enjoying a totally different angle of life. Some linguistics books have inspired me to find the irreplaceable and vital meaning of literature from an unusual angle. Let’s talk about the story first.

How to quickly find out the meaning of your life? One of the ways is to write a novel about the life you are currently experiencing, and see if it has an inner coherence and if the meaning is contained in the coherence. What is the meaning? To quote Whig: “Meaning does not come from empirical facts, but is given to it by the observer, so as long as he pleases and finds it convenient, meaning can be given to phenomena at any level at which the empirical facts are organized into a structure, Give it a name and think of it as an “entity” with some coherence and identifiable boundaries.” To condense life into a story is to delineate our lives into comprehensible empirical facts. If there is any inherent coherence to this story, it is the so-called “meaning of life”. Many great literary works, such as Margaret Duras’ “The Lover” and Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”, maybe the author trying to write autobiographical novels to find the meaning of his life.

The meaning of life found above is facing the past, and literature can also provide the meaning of life facing the future. In the modern age of “God is dead”, the lack of meaning is a very common status quo. We always feel that the choice of meaning in life is too many and too difficult, because we have to consider the attractiveness of a certain meaning to ourselves, and also consider the problem of how to walk in the future. As a result, many people gave up the difficulty of comparing meanings with each other, and either turned back to the embrace of religion, or fell into the emptiness of meaning. Specifically, it is very obvious in developing countries like China. For example, in China there are The number of Christians has exceeded the number of members of the Chinese Communist Party.

However, by reading some classic and serious literary books, we can experience a virtual life, feeling the various encounters, thinking, and countermeasures after a certain meaning choice, and the final look back-whether such a life has any meaning and meaning. For example, Goethe spent 60 years writing “Faust”, which makes people see the journey of an intellectual who is willing to sell his soul for the endless desire for knowledge. Another example is Huxley’s “Brave New World”, which will make people see how a life of unconditional pursuit of happiness has become boring and terrifying. Another example is “The Great Gatsby”, which makes people see the reality that in order to realize their dreams, they finally have to be disillusioned. The reason why literature is ambiguous is that the coherence in it needs to be defined by readers. Just like modern life, the meaning of life needs to be found and affirmed by itself. These are areas where theoretical books cannot help people make choices. Stories inspire people to find their own coherence through the experiences of others in finding coherence.

After talking about literature, I also want to talk about poetry.

What is poetry? Poetry is an attempt to be infinitely close to things. This definition is interesting as if the classic definition of information is “information is something that removes random uncertainty”. These definitions go beyond the relatively narrow field and rise to the height of philosophy. While it may seem that these definitions “do not live up to their name,” what is important is that they inspire us to look at the world from a different perspective. Just as someone went on to think above and said that information is the essence of the world, and poetry, in a sense, is the feeling of things that we can best grasp.