astronomy

Metaphors We Live By

Metaphors We Live By is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Metaphors We Live By rather than just read about it. In short: Metaphors We Live By is a book by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson published in 1980. The book suggests metaphor is a tool that enables people to use what they know about their direct physical and social experiences to understand more abstract things like work, time, mental activity and feelings.

Key takeaways

Metaphors We Live By belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Metaphors We Live By to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Metaphors We Live By from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Metaphors We Live By is a book by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson published in 1980. The book suggests metaphor is a tool that enables people to use what they know about their direct physical and social experiences to understand more abstract things like work, time, mental activity and feelings.

Concepts The book offered the first extensive exploration of conceptual metaphor and a detailed examination of its underlying processes. Since its publication, the field of metaphor studies within the larger discipline of cognitive linguistics has increasingly developed, with several annual academic conferences, scholarly societies, and research labs contributing to the subject-area. Some researchers, such as Gerard Steen, have worked to develop empirical investigative tools for metaphor research, including the metaphor identification procedure, or MIP. In the field of psychology, Raymond W. Gibbs, Jr., has investigated conceptual metaphor and embodiment through a number of psychological experiments. Other cognitive scientists, for example Gilles Fauconnier, study subjects similar to conceptual metaphor under the labels "analogy", "conceptual blending" and "ideasthesia". Conceptual metaphors occur in language in everyday speech. Conceptual metaphors shape not just our communication - they may also shape the way we think and act. In George Lakoff and Mark Johnson's work, Metaphors We Live By (1980), we see how everyday language is filled with metaphors we may not always notice. An example of one of the commonly used conceptual metaphors is "argument is war".

Applications Since its publication, people have used the ideas Lakoff and Johnson proposed to comment on a wide range of topics, from the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States to conspiracy theories.

Related Conceptual metaphor – In cognitive linguistics, relating conceptual domains Experientialism – Philosophical viewpoint Metonymy – Figure of speech Linguistic relativity – Hypothesis of language influencing thought Synecdoche – Figure of speech Subjectivism – Philosophy that accords primacy only to human thought

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Metaphors We Live By

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Metaphors We Live By claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Metaphors We Live By before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Metaphors We Live By ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Metaphors We Live By

In research: Metaphors We Live By appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Metaphors We Live By in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Metaphors We Live By is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1980 non-fiction books, Books about metaphors, Books about persuasion, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Metaphors We Live By outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Metaphors We Live By in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Metaphors We Live By means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Metaphors We Live By out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Metaphors We Live By in simple terms?

Why does Metaphors We Live By matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Metaphors We Live By?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Metaphors We Live By.