Metaphors We Live By --Notes
Lakoff & Johnson
Ch 1. Paragraph 2 good intro. to the issues.
1. conceptual system defines daily reality
2. conceptual system is metaphorical
therefore: what we think & do daily is built on metaphor
(we are not normally aware of our conceptual systems. The class will be
conducting a phenomenological analysis of ‘being-in-the-world’)
Ch. 12 on grounding our conceptual system is also important. What is the
authorizes the metaphors we use to think & live by? Why do we employ the
metaphors & concepts that we do?
See para. 2 and page 57. physical & cultural influences
Page 59 we conceptualize non-physical in terms of the physical. (Nature as a
abstract concept is us vs. nature in battle metaphor. Then there are different
garden metaphors: restrained French and 18th century British garden as
taming nature vs. farmer’s garden of today –i.e. Pollan’s book)
Ch. 3 Hiding and Highlighting. What gets used & what gets hidden?
Razor & words.
Conduit metaphor Ideas go into words as containers and sent to hearer.
This notion is that meaning as object is independent of culture & context.. untrue.
*Orientation Metaphor Ch. 4
We have bodies:
Up/down , verticality. .. . … … look at page 20 illustration. The experiential basis
is what we’re exploring in our course.
--Understanding “is” grasping. Grasp  control & look  understand.
--Role of stasis vs. motion. (as in landscape painting & also in draughtsman
contract. Think of spaces in film such as wood, garden, manor house, library)
Also, think of light/dark & true/false as relates to seeing “is” understanding in the
film.
*Ontological Metaphors Ch. 6
categorize things in experience as objects; allows for identification, quantification,
causes.
Provides boundaries (what counts as a boundary?)  ex. street corner,
mountain, inflation.
For Greenaway film: what happens when these boundaries move or ideas behind
the metaphor are overturned?
 Land in-out (human instinct for territory)
 Visual field container

Also, event as container
*Structural Metaphors Ch. 13
One structured concept in terms of another, ex. Labor is Resource & Time is
Resource. P. 66-67