Conceptual Metaphor Theory Essay

Introduction

George Lakoff’s and Mark Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) fundamentally transferred the locus of research in metaphor from linguistic function to cognitive operations (). Metaphors We Live By (1980) proclaimed the thinking system itself to be metaphorical in nature (). Through the metaphorical statements like “TIME IS MONEY, IDEAS ARE FOOD, ARGUMENT IS WAR, etc (Lakoff & Johnson, 2008), exemplars of conceptual metaphors; Lakoff and Johnson explicated the process by which abstract concepts were comprehended by individuals. Conceptual metaphor also known as cognitive metaphor socialised the use of metaphors, which was till then viewed in the paraphernalia of literature and imagination. CMT challenged the notion of metaphors as merely a matter of conventional wisdom of words and applied it as a tool for understanding the process of cognition (Landau et al., 2014). This raised the critical questions like say what comprises conceptual metaphors? Why and how do individuals employ it? And How far are they pervasive in real life situations? The research in conceptual metaphors has flourished in the various fields mainly, in linguistics and cognitive psychology.

Theoreticians on one hand identified the presence of conceptual metaphor in various fields, but on the

As Gerard Steen in “Paradox of Metaphor” contends for a three dimensional study of metaphor assessing the cognitive, linguistic as well as communicative performances (Steen 2008); authors have posited a triadic model, analysing the interaction between the three levels of mental states: unconscious, conscious and meta-conscious (Winkielman & Schooler 2011). Through the unconscious level, the participation of the cognitive elements is recognised. The conscious level looks at the involvement of conceptual components and the meta-conscious level analyses the representational