Chapter 2: The Systematicity of Metaphorical Concepts

芋圆

My Summary of Chapter 2
1.        Based on the example: ARGUMENT IS WAR mentioned in Chapter 1, authors take a further step to explain the fact that because the metaphorical concept is systematic, the language we use to talk about that aspect of the concept is systematic. There is a close relationship between metaphorical expressions in our language and metaphorical concepts in a systematic way.
2.        In order to explain how metaphorical expressions in everyday language can give us insight into the metaphorical nature of the concepts that structure our everyday activities, the authors use another example: TIME IS MONEY. Through this example, we know that how people conceptualize a thing is closely related to their culture.
3.        The metaphorical concepts TIME IS MONEY, TIME IS A RESOURCE and TIME IS A VALUABLE COMMODITY form a single system based on subcategorization, because in our society money is a limited resource and limited resources are valuable commodities.
4.        Entailments can characterize a coherent system of metaphorical concepts and a corresponding coherent system of metaphorical expressions for those concepts.
My Reflection
After reading this chapter, I have a better understanding of one feature of metaphorical concepts—systematicity—through two interesting examples the authors mentioned. I think this will help me to understand metaphors we use in our daily lives.
For example, in Chinese movies and television plays, I often see such an expression: “人生是一场旅行。(Life is a journey.)” This metaphor systematically compares existence to travel. This metaphor compares life to a journey. A person is a traveler, with birth as the starting point and death as the destination. The path represents the choices we make in life, with obstacles as challenges and other people as relationships. How fast you go is how fast life is; stopping to rest is having a break, and the baggage you carry is your emotional burden. Getting lost mirrors uncertainty, while dead ends represent failures.
I find learning metaphorical knowledge is much more interesting than I thought before!