Metaphors We Live By

Area 1:

In Metaphors We Live By Lakoff and Johnson discuss the way we communicate using metaphor. They say that the way we comprehend concepts is metaphorical. This means we use one idea to understand another. They push the idea further by saying that we relate a system of concepts with another using orientational metaphor, these references a physical orientation with other concepts. For example, we reference many things with up and down, How we feel, our social status, and our health. They also say that depending on our culture or our lifestyle some metaphors will have a different meaning or some may even base their metaphors on a different concept. Essentially what they are saying is that as humans we use relationships between things or ideas to learn and to understand one another.

Area 2:

I do agree that most of our understanding of concepts is found using metaphors. Also, I found it interesting how unaware I was of how much we use metaphors in our everyday conversation. While reading through the excerpts I was remembering all the times I had used any of the phrases they used as examples just that day. I had just been telling my husband that I was feeling down because my general manager had undermined my authority as assistant manager by validating one of our shift leads' thoughts about how shifts were run before communicating with me about the situation, giving this person a false sense of superiority. There are a few metaphors right there and that's just in one small amount of communication I had that day. I'm always using phrases like I’m fading fast when I'm getting tired. Trying to help someone understand a situation without metaphor would be very difficult. I also think that without metaphor our communication would sound really flat and monotonous.