Metaphors and their Impact on our Lives

Written By Shelby Carter

Final Essay for Psychology of Language (LINGUIST207) taught by Dr. Michael Tomasello 

October 2024

Author Daniel H. Pink once said: "If a picture is worth a thousand words, a metaphor is worth a thousand pictures." Metaphors are fundamental linguistic tools that allow us to articulate abstract ideas by relating them to what we know about our concrete physical and social experiences. Not only do metaphors enrich language, making it more vivid and relatable, but they also provide a common reference point to decode something unfamiliar or inaccessible. The word metaphor itself, composed of meta (beyond) and pherein (to carry), comes from the Greek word Metaphora, meaning "to transfer" or "to carry across," and describes the very process it represents. Just as metaphor means to carry or transfer something beyond, metaphors transfer meaning between concepts or ideas.

Humans are inherently curious beings, and we've spent our time on earth cultivating our knowledge and ability. We've assembled a massive collective database of human intellect from which we've been able to explain complex phenomena like gravity, evolution, quantum mechanics, and metalinguistics. We understand the world through science, reason, philosophy, and technology, which is why we are particularly effective at taking in and making sense of the concrete, observable, and testable. Despite our undeniable cognitive power and long history of discovery and theory, many abstract and subjective phenomena remain challenging to grasp and nearly impossible to communicate without a linguistic medium.

In human language, those mediums are conceptual representations, such as the metaphor, and they play a fundamental role in how we organize and communicate complex thoughts. Metaphors help bridge the gap between abstract ideas and our concrete experiences, allowing us to express and understand notions that might otherwise be too elusive or complicated to articulate. For example, because time cannot be seen or touched, we often understand it through concrete experiences. Time is money treats time as a familiar valuable resource and is a metaphor rooted in the concept of scarcity. Time cannot be replenished once it is used, and just as we have a limited amount of money, we also have a limited amount of time in each day, week, year, or lifetime. This metaphor encourages people to view time as something to be carefully managed and optimized in a culture where efficiency, productivity, and results are highly prized. Language is filled with metaphors that may typically go unnoticed, but are actually foundational to communicating the complexities of the human experience. From everyday conversations to scientific discourse, our brains rely on metaphors to process and express ideas that resist easy explanation and comprehension, giving the metaphor power to shape how we approach and interpret the complexities of life. 

In their formative book Metaphors We Live By, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson coined the two conceptual domains that the metaphor serves to bridge: the source domain, from which we draw metaphorical expression, and the target domain, which we are trying to understand. The process of metaphorical mapping, describes the mental organization of a concept into these domains and how a source domain relates to and describes aspects of the target domain. In the time is Money metaphor, the source domain is money, and we map what we understand about it onto the target domain of time. 

This conceptual mapping allows us to make sense of concepts distant from our immediate sensory experiences. Metaphors draw their meaning, and therefore their power, from their roots in the physical experiences of our bodies in the world. Author James Geary states, "The only way we learn something new is by comparing it to something we already know." Our experiences are grounded in sensory and motor activities, which are easily processed in our brains and can be projected onto abstract domains to illuminate related aspects and strip away their elusivity. We build mental representations from our interactions with the world, and these schemas can serve as a model to decode the indecipherable. For instance, spatial metaphors like "moving forward" or "falling behind" are meaningful because they are grounded in our universal sensory-motor experiences, such as direction, position, orientation, and momentum. Moving forward likens life to a journey or a path, where forward motion indicates advancement towards goals, improvement, or celebrating milestones. Moving forward implies positive momentum and direction, whereas falling behind conveys the opposite- a lack of progress or stagnation. By suggesting life is a race or a competition, falling behind indicates a sense of inadequacy- like one is outpaced or has failed to meet life's demands or expectations. 

Similarly, because we understand the idea of one thing being physically on top of another, we can understand what is meant when someone says, "I am on top of the situation." In this metaphor, the physical concept of being on top is mapped onto the intangible situation, which could refer to a problem, task, or unfolding event. If you are on top of the situation, you are in control, have a comprehensive understanding, and can effectively manage the situation. Just as being physically on top of something may give you a strategic controlling position or a vantage point, the metaphor implies a position of authority or command with the ability to oversee or handle the unfolding circumstances. In this case, the direct experience of physical elevation and its perceived advantages is used to shed light on one's grasp of an elusive situation.

Many human experiences are inherently abstract, lacking explicit, tangible references to the physical world. Emotions like love, fear, and joy; concepts such as time, knowledge, and identity; and even our relationships are all deeply complex and difficult to fully articulate. As a result, we constantly rely on metaphorical language to communicate these experiences in ways that others can understand and relate to. Metaphors allow us to take these abstract, elusive aspects of life and make them more concrete by comparing them to familiar, sensory experiences we can visualize and grasp.

Metaphors can be powerful in shaping how we navigate life. They may serve as mental frameworks that influence our perceptions, decisions, and behaviors. By framing abstract concepts such as success and relationships, through a metaphorical lens, we gain new ways to understand and approach these aspects of life. We can use a well-rounded metaphor as a model to guide our actions and foster certain attitudes and beliefs that may make our circumstances easier to confront. Lakoff and Johnson demonstrate this by introducing the chemical metaphor as an alternative to the common puzzle metaphor of our problems. The chemical metaphor provides a novel perspective of life's problems as a chemical solution, rather than as a puzzle to which there is only one correct solution. Problems as a puzzle suggests that life is full of incomplete pieces, considered solved once assembled correctly, to be preserved and shelved completely. While this may encourage a proactive attitude, it also creates a static view of problem-solving, in that there is exactly one correct way to overcome a problem and little flexibility once solved. Alternatively, Lakoff and Johnson introduce life as a solution- in which life is a "large volume of liquid, bubbling and smoking, containing all of your problems, either dissolved or in the form of precipitates, with catalysts constantly dissolving some problems and precipitating out others." This metaphor suggests a dynamic view of problems and their solutions, one in which it is okay if the problem remains present, either dissolved in solution or in a solid, heavy form. They reason that: 

"The best you can hope for is to find a catalyst that will make one problem dissolve without making another one precipitate out. And since you don't have complete control over what goes into the solution, you are constantly finding old and new problems precipitating out and present problems, dissolving, partly because of your efforts and partly despite anything you do." 

Life as a puzzle and life as a solution offer two different frameworks for approaching challenges and growth. Depending on which view you adopt, the metaphor can shape your attitude and mindset, igniting a sense of optimism, patience, and persistence. At any given point, your problems may take the shape of either metaphor. You may find it easier to approach a situation by viewing it as a puzzle, in which you simply need to find and assemble the given pieces to form a complete picture. A different problem, on a different day, may seem like another substance added to your reactive solution of challenges, and you may be more motivated to search for a catalyst that may lighten the load of one aspect (dissolve) and solidify (precipitate) another.

 It is not that one metaphorical view of life is more accurate than another, but rather that more than one metaphor can describe life, highlighting different elements of the same experience. Because cultural and individual experiences influence metaphors, different metaphors can emerge to describe the same phenomenon based on context and attitudes and can be framed to evoke distinct emotional responses or interpretations.

Additionally, it is rare that a single metaphor can encapsulate the whole of an experience. We are constantly confronting and using multiple metaphors. More than one conceptualization is often needed to describe real-world phenomena, and fixed, static explanations typically fail to grasp all aspects of an experience. 

Consider the idea of love. Love is often considered the most important human experience because it fulfills essential emotional, social, and psychological needs while offering a sense of meaning, purpose, and connection. Whether experienced in romantic relationships, family bonds, friendships, or love for humanity, it is a central force that shapes our lives and makes us feel truly alive. Love is often expressed metaphorically because it is an abstract, complex emotion that involves multiple layers of feeling, thought, and behavior. Because love is an emotional experience that cannot be easily observed or quantified, and everyone experiences love differently, it is unlikely that any single metaphor can describe the human experience of love as a whole. Love is a flame conveys passion and intensity but doesn't highlight the nurturing, gentle, and caring side of love. Love is a journey emphasizes growth and progress throughout a relationship, while love is a dance highlights the coordination, balance and mutual effort required for a successful relationship. Love is a rollercoaster accentuates the contrasting emotions that may make up love- feeling warm and easy on some days, and painful and all-encompassing on other days. One's playful courting stage may be described as a game, but as love evolves, it may come to feel more like a battle, enduring the conflicts that must be weathered when one loves another.

Love is not only romantic; it can exist in many forms, including familial, platonic, and self-love. Love as a garden may accurately describe the slow, fragile self-love one may find while looking in the mirror, which may grow and require time and care. Love is a combination of all of these metaphors, each of which contributes a different perspective and understanding, coming together to provide the complete picture. Blending metaphors can be a flexible tool to express the complex, individualistic, subjective, and dynamic aspects of an experience that may otherwise be lost in a singular perceptual model. 

Metaphors are more than just literary devices or figures of speech. They serve as mental maps and perceptual anchors to frame our experiences and guide our actions in ways that often go unnoticed. Lakoff and Johnson state: "The metaphor is one of our most important tools for trying to comprehend partially what cannot be comprehended totally." By transforming abstract, intangible experiences into concrete, familiar terms, metaphors bridge the gap between thought and communication, making human existence's deeply personal and elusive aspects more accessible and relatable. Whether describing emotions and relationships, or time and growth, metaphors help us structure our understanding of the world, influencing how we communicate, think, and act. The metaphors we use profoundly impact our worldview and how we interact with others. Understanding the power of metaphors allows us to recognize their role in shaping our language and thought, and encourages their use to foster meaning, intention, clarity, and purpose in human existence.

Sources 


Shelby Carter
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