Metaphors We Live By

George Lakoff · Mark Johnson

Dec 2008 · University of Chicago Press

About this ebook

The now-classic Metaphors We Live By changed our understanding of metaphor and its role in language and the mind. Metaphor, the authors explain, is a fundamental mechanism of mind, one that allows us to use what we know about our physical and social experience to provide understanding of countless other subjects. Because such metaphors structure our most basic understandings of our experience, they are "metaphors we live by"—metaphors that can shape our perceptions and actions without our ever noticing them.

In this updated edition of Lakoff and Johnson's influential book, the authors supply an afterword surveying how their theory of metaphor has developed within the cognitive sciences to become central to the contemporary understanding of how we think and how we express our thoughts in language.

Ratings and reviews

Well reasoned and written. The text could have been shorter but its repetitive lessons can be useful for those reading this subject the first time. If you are new to this academic area you should like it particularly in light of the political drama of these last few years. Basically, this book will orient you towards a deeper direction in how to understand culture through language. This is a teaching text and I applaud all those who are learning for the first time or just refreshing what they once knew. Keep on learning and reading books like this when you can. It will keep you fresh and probably help you be a better voter. Or at least a better thinker when evaluating the motives of others through their use of language.

About the author

George Lakoff is a professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of, among other books, Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things and Moral Politics, both published by the University of Chicago Press. Mark Johnson is the Knight Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Oregon. He is the author of The Body in the Mind and Moral Imagination, both published by the University of Chicago Press. Johnson and Lakoff have also coauthored Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought.