Lakoff and Johnson - Assignment Example

Structural Metaphors Affiliation Structural Metaphors A metaphor is a mind’s fundamental mechanism that can allow to usewhatever they know about the social and physical experiences to give the understanding of other subjects. A metaphor is the poetic device of imagination and rhetoric involving an extraordinary language. Human thoughts possess many metaphorical thoughts, which are not mere words but concepts (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). Words and statements have various meanings regardless of the speaker, for example, the metaphor "the linguistics expressions are containers for meanings" means that sentences and words have meanings for themselves.

According to Lakoff and Johnson, metaphorical concepts are beyond the ordinary meaning and far from the literal thinking and talking as they contain figurative, colorful, or poetic language (1980). Structural metaphors are conventional metaphors in which one of the concepts can be expressed in terms of another that is structured and sharply defined. For example Their claims are indefensible.Her criticisms were right on target.He demolished my argumentThey attacked every weak point in his arguments.

According to Lakoff and Johnson, structural metaphors are cases in which source domains give the frameworks for the target domains in arguments (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). In structural metaphors, economic activity is equal to war and relates various economic activities as war and the economy as the battlefield. The competitors in the businesses are warriors or armies that fight against each other. The economic activities take the concepts of attack and defense as in the example. “Due to the crises, the Indians will strike back meaning the country will work hard to revive the economy.

Another example is "Labor is a resource and time is a resource”. The metaphors relate to economic resources especially in developed countries where labor and time are valuable assets for development.ReferencesLakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.