Conduit Metaphor: our language about language is structured by a complex metaphor.Structural Metaphors: one concept is metaphorically structured in terms of another.Metaphorical Systematicity: Highlighting and Hiding It is tied to our culture – there are cultures where time is none of these things.This isn’t a necessary way for humans to conceptualize time.Thus, we understand and experience time as the kind of thing that can be spent, wasted, budgeted, invested wisely or poorly, saved, or squandered.In “Time is Money,” because we act as if time is a valuable commodity, we conceive of time that way.In the “Argument is War” metaphor, expression from the vocabulary of war form a systematic way of talking about the battling aspects of arguing.Because the metaphorical concept is systematic, the language we use to talk about that aspect of the concept is systematic.

The Systematicity of Metaphorical Concepts Metaphors as linguistic expressions are possible precisely because there are metaphors in a person’s conceptual system.Human thought processes are largely metaphorical.The language of argument is literal – we talk about arguments that way because we conceived of them that way – and we act according to the way we conceive of things.The concept is metaphorically structured, the activity is metaphorically structured, and, consequently, the language is metaphorically structured.Argument is partially structured, understood, performed, and talked about in terms of war.

The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another.

If a culture viewed argument as a dance, one would say that we have a discourse structured in terms of battle and they have one structured in terms of dance.

Though there is no physical battle, there is verbal battle, and the structure of an argument-attack, defense, counterattack, etc-reflects this.

Many things we do in arguing are partially structured by the concept of war.

For example, take the metaphor “Argument is War”.

The way we think, what we experience, and what we do every day is very much a matter of metaphor.

Our conceptual system thus plays a central role in defining our everyday realities.

Our concepts structure what we perceive, how we get around in the world, and how we related to other people.

Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature.

Metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action.

Lakoff johnson