Conceptual Metaphor

The idea that human reasoning is largely (but not exclusively) based on Metaphor Systems 𓇯. Originated in a Michael J. Reddy essay on the Conduit Metaphor𓍯, taken up with vigor by Lakoff and Johnson».

Explained in a podcast episode, How Do Metaphors Work?

An example of such a system is Love Is a Journey𓍯. It's easy to list individual metaphors that are examples of this system:

* Look how far we’ve come since that first date. * Our marriage is at a crossroads. * This relationship isn’t going anywhere. * We may have to go our separate ways.

In the jargon, Love is the Target Domain𓇯 and Journey is the Source Domain𓇯.

Two domains, T for target, S for Source

You can think of both domains as being concerned with similar things:

Ideas and relationships and attributes, oh my!

In a love affair, you'll face choices, just as you're likely to face in a journey. You also have goals – some sort of destination – in both cases. In the case of a love affair, the goal might be to have someone to care when you're on your deathbed. For a journey, it might be see the Longaberger Big Basket Building in east Newark, Ohio, USA.

**The claim of conceptual metaphor is that often understanding and problem solving are done *in the source domain* and then translated into the target domain.**

Mapping between source and target domains (source on the right)

Note that not everything in the source domain has a corresponding thing in the target domain, and vice versa.