The Metaphorical Structure of the Human Conceptual System

If anything is central to Cognitive Science, it is the nature of the human conceptual system. We have found that that system is fundamentally metaphorical in character. That is, it contains metaphorical as well as nonmetaphorical concepts, and the metaphorical structure is extremely rich and complex. Nonmetaphorical concepts are those that emerge directly from our experience and are defined in their own terms. These include at least (1) spatial orientations (e.g., UpDOWN, IN-OUT, NEAR-FAR, FRONT-BACK), (2) ontological concepts arising in physical experience (e.g., ENTITY, SUBSTANCE, CONTAINER, PERSON), and (3) structured experiences and activities (e .g . , EATING, MOVING, TRANSFERRING OBJECTS FROM PLACE TO PLACE, etc.). Metaphorical concepts are those which are understood and structured not merely on their own terms, but rather in terms of other concepts. This involves conceptualizing one kind of object or experience in terms of a difSerent kind of object or experience. ,Paralleling the kinds of nonmetaphorical concepts, there are roughly three types of metaphorical concepts, which are realized by a vast number of linguistic expressions: