Metaphor as a “Matter of Thought”: Conceptual Metaphor Theory

In this chapter we address Lakoff and Johnson’s (J Philos 77(8):453–486, 1980) Conceptual Metaphor Theory, which, building on the earlier philosophical tradition, argues that people “speak in metaphors” because they “think in metaphors” and therefore “act in metaphors” and which emphasizes the role of metaphor in our thought and language processes. After an introduction to Conceptual Metaphor Theory, we will give examples that demonstrate the ubiquity of metaphor in our everyday language. We will then distinguish between a conceptual and a linguistic level of metaphor, reflected in the distinction between conceptual metaphor and metaphorical expression, and we will offer a typology of metaphorical expressions showing how, according to Lakoff and Johnson, the different types of metaphor can be traced back to the same semantic-conceptual structure and understood through the same process. Finally, we will analyze the main criticisms of Conceptual Metaphor Theory.