Editing Conceptual metaphor (section)

== Language and culture as mappings ==
In their 1980 work, [[George Lakoff|Lakoff]] and [[Mark Johnson (philosopher)|Johnson]] closely examined a collection of basic conceptual metaphors, including:
* {{Smallcaps|{{lc:Love is a journey}}}}
* {{Smallcaps|{{lc:Life is a journey}}}}
* {{Smallcaps|{{lc:Social organizations are plants}}}}
* {{Smallcaps|{{lc:Love is war}}}}

The latter half of each of these phrases invokes certain assumptions about concrete experience and requires the reader or listener to apply them to the preceding abstract concepts of love or organizing in order to understand the sentence in which the conceptual metaphor is used.

There are numerous ways in which conceptual metaphors shape human perception and communication, especially in mass media and in public policy. Recent experiments by Thibodeau and Boroditsky substantiate this line of thought, termed "[[Framing (social sciences)|framing]]". In the experiments, conceptual metaphors that compared crime to either a beast or a disease had drastic effects on public policy opinions.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Thibodeau|first1=Paul H.|last2=Boroditsky|first2=Lera|date=2011-02-23|title=Metaphors We Think With: The Role of Metaphor in Reasoning|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=6|issue=2|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0016782|issn=1932-6203|pmc=3044156|pmid=21373643|page=e16782|bibcode=2011PLoSO...616782T|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Conceptual metaphors are commonplace in language. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson suggest that metaphors may unconsciously shape the way we think and act in their founding work, ''Metaphors We Live By'' (1980). For example, take the commonly used conceptual metaphor, {{sc|argument is war}}.<ref>Lakoff and Johnson, Ch.1-3</ref> This metaphor shapes our language in the way we view argument as a battle to be won. It is not uncommon to hear someone say "He won that argument" or "I attacked every weak point in his argument". The very way argument is conceptualized is shaped by this metaphor of arguments being a war. Argument can be seen in other ways than a battle, but we use this concept to shape the way we think of argument and the way we go about arguing. The same applies for the other conceptual metaphors.

Similarly, [[Colin Murray Turbayne]] suggested in his ''The Myth of Metaphor'' (1962) that ancient "[[dead metaphor]]s" have also influenced the evolution over time of modern scientific theories in a subtle manner. As examples of mankind's victimization by dead metaphors, Turbayne points to the incorporation of mechanistic metaphors first developed by [[Isaac Newton]] and [[René Descartes]] into modern theories developed by philosophers including: [[Immanuel Kant]], [[George Berkeley]] and [[David Hume]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=DsKvAwAAQBAJ&dq=Colin+Murray+Turbayne&pg=PA2451 ''Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers'' Shook, John. 2005 p. 2451 Biography of Colin Murray Turbayne on Google Books]</ref><ref name=Hesse1966>{{cite journal |last1=Hesse |first1=Mary |title=Review of The Myth of Metaphor |journal=Foundations of Language |date=1966 |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=282–284 |jstor=25000234 }}</ref><ref>[https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/metaphor/#MetaMakeBeli "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Metaphor"  Stanford University, August 19, 2011 Revised August 12, 2022 "Section 5. Recent Developments 5.3 Metaphor and Make Believe" ISSN 1095-5054. Colin Turbayne's "The Myth of Metaphor" and "Metaphor"  See Hills, David, "Metaphor", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2024 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2024/entries/metaphor/>. on plato.stanford.edu]</ref> In his ''Metaphors for the Mind: The Creative Mind and Its Origins'' (1991), he also points to the manner in which metaphors first found in Plato's ''[[Timaeus (dialogue)|Timaeus]]'' have exerted a profound influence upon the development of modern theories of both thought and language in general.<ref name="Turbayne1991">{{cite book | last=Turbayne | first=Colin Murray | title=Metaphors for the mind : the creative mind and its origins | publisher=University of South Carolina Press | publication-place=Columbia, S.C. | date=1991 | isbn=0-87249-699-6 | oclc=21675468}}</ref><ref name="Bracken1994">{{cite journal | last=Bracken | first=Harry M. | title=Colin Murray Turbayne., Metaphors for the Mind: The Creative Mind and Its Origins | journal=International Studies in Philosophy | publisher=Philosophy Documentation Center | volume=26 | issue=2 | year=1994 | issn=0270-5664 | doi=10.5840/intstudphil1994262171 | pages=151}}</ref>

Lakoff and Johnson focus on English, and cognitive scholars writing in English have tended not to investigate the discourse of foreign languages in any great detail to determine the creative ways in which individuals negotiate, resist, and consolidate conceptual metaphors. [[Andrew Goatly]] in his book ''Washing the Brain'' (2007)<ref name="washing the brain">{{cite book|title=Washing the Brain Metaphor and Hidden Ideology|last1=Goatly|first1=Andrew|date=January 17, 2007|publisher=[[John Benjamins Publishing Company]]|isbn=978-9027227133|author-link1=Andrew Goatly}}<!--| access-date = 2012-06-04 --></ref> considers ideological conceptual metaphors as well as Chinese conceptual metaphors.

James W. Underhill, a modern Humboldtian scholar, attempts to reestablish [[Wilhelm von Humboldt]]'s concern for the different ways languages frame reality, and the strategies individuals adopt in creatively resisting and modifying existing patterns of thought. Taking on board the Lakoff-Johnson paradigm of conceptual metaphor, he investigates the way in which Czech communists appropriated the concept of the people, the state and struggle, and the way German Communists harnessed concepts of eternity and purity. He also reminds us that, as Klemperer demonstrates, resisting patterns of thought means engaging in conceptual metaphors and refusing the logic that ideologies impose upon them. In multilingual studies (based on Czech, German, French & English), Underhill considers how different cultures reformulate key concepts such as truth, love, hate and war.<ref>'Ethnolinguistics and Cultural Concepts', Cambridge University Press 2012, and 'Creating Worldviews', Edinburgh University Press 2011. {{ISBN|978-0748643158}}</ref>