The Hamssa is an Israeli symbol for luck. Photo by Ronit Geller.
Concepts We Live By
Most people think they can get along perfectly well without metaphor.
We have found, on the contrary, that metaphor is pervasive in everyday
life, not just in language but in thought and action. Our ordinary conceptual
system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical
in nature.
The concepts that govern our thought are not just
matters of the intellect. They also govern our everyday functioning, down
to the most mundane details. Our concepts structure what we perceive, how
we get around in the world, and how we relate to other people. Our conceptual
system thus plays a central role in defining our everyday realities. If
we are right in suggesting that our conceptual system is largely metaphorical,
then the way we think, what we experience, and what we do every day is
very much a matter of metaphor.
But our conceptual system is not something we are
normally aware of. In most of the little things we do every day, we simply
think and act more or less automatically along certain lines. Just what
these lines are is by no means obvious.
Lakoff, George & Johnson, Mark. Metaphors We Live By, the University of Chicago Press 1980, p. 3.
