"Metaphors We Live By" Part 1

I use to think a metaphor simply referred to the obvious deeper meaning of a word or phrase, such as feeling blue, a rollercoaster of emotions or the stench of failure. These basic phrases are used widely across the English language to help better describe topics that aren’t necessarily logical but do help a speaker illustrate their point more accurately. The book Metaphors We Live By fundamentally shifted my basic understanding of metaphors as George Lakoff and Mark Johnson masterfully demonstrate how nearly every part of our English language revolves around metaphors.

I found this fascinating as I read thorough the first half of this book and thought I knew everything I needed to know to properly use metaphors and the like while writing. I soon found this not true, these two show us that metaphors can actually be seen working and playing out in nearly every corner of the English language. This point is fascinating, because it shows how truly unique our language is, however I would not know if all or any other languages are based in metaphors like the English language?

This would be interesting to further research to see if other languages are rooted in metaphors such as English. In ways one could argue that all human language, as long as it is sight based such as English, would need to have metaphors jam-packed in every corner of the language such as Lakoff and Johnson are suggesting about the English language. If all language could be bound in metaphors than this would be a profound step in creating a “universal” language. In fact, if lines could be drawn between all our own languages than we could be able to find some sort of way to communicate with extraterrestrials if we were able to find them someday in the future. Which really would define a language as “universal” if it covered and was used by multiple planets’ creatures.

Obviously, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson did not mean to have their book Metaphors We Live By used in the same conversation with otherworldly life forces, but if some similarities can be sourced in multiple human languages why could we not source the same information from other “sight-based” languages used by aliens? Lets be honest, most languages on this planet might as well be alien to any one-language user.