The reason why I chose to read Metaphors We Live By

芋圆

I think there are three reasons why I chose to read this book.
First, recommendations from multiple teachers. In the past two years after entering the university, many teachers mentioned this book in class and recommended that we read it. What impressed me most was that in my general linguistics class, Mr. Li mentioned this book. There is a book in the bibliography on page 334 of our textbook, Linguistics: A Course Book (Fifth Edition). The teacher used the title of the book Metaphors We Live By to explain to us that the same verb has different meanings when it is combined with different prepositions by mentioning the difference in the meaning of three phrasal verbs: live on, live by, and live off. After that, I wanted to read this book in my free time.
Second, there is a need for an in-depth study of linguistic knowledge. After studying language and culture, comparison between English and Chinese, sociolinguistics, general linguistics, semantics, and other courses, I found that understanding metaphor is very important for learning linguistic knowledge. I am taking semantics this semester, and the teacher mentioned the importance of understanding metaphors in the process of learning semantics.
Third, metaphors are everywhere. We all use metaphors unconsciously in our lives; we just take them for granted and don't pay much attention to them. When I was browsing TikTok yesterday, I saw a sentence: "虽然我们无法延长生命的长度，但却可以延伸生命的宽度( Although we can't extend the length of our own life, we can stretch the width of life.)” Then I began to wonder if the sentence was a metaphor. I think it compares life to a fixed length of a line. We cannot change the length of the line, but we can change the width of the line. Such a metaphor concretizes the abstract concept of life and makes it easier for people to understand. There are so many metaphors that we ignore in our daily communication. So, it is necessary for us to know something about metaphors.
All in all, as a linguistics major in English, I am not only interested in but also need to understand the relevant knowledge of metaphor, so I chose to read this book. I can't wait to dive into the world of metaphor!

恨如冰

a nice thinking