Conceptual metaphor theory seeks to explain how abstract conceptualization works

At a previous post I’ve discussed Mark Johnson’s overview of a theory related to the concept of an embodied mind.

I began by highlighting the first paragraph of the third chapter of Embodied Mind, Meaning, and Reason (2017).

Later in the same chapter, the authors offer an overview of the role of metaphors in the operation of the embodied mind with a focus among other things on conceptual metaphor theory, “which proposes that abstract conceptualization works via conceptual metaphor, conceptual metonymy, and a few other principles of imaginative extension” (p. 87).

The discussion in this chapter regarding metaphors – including conceptual metaphors – is highly engaging.

The discussion offers a structured overview of ongoing research involving “metaphor analyses of key concepts in nearly every conceivable intellectual field and discipline.” It would never have occurred to me – as a lay person with a life-long interest in the role of metaphors – that research about metaphors had progressed to such an extent.

Update

Of related interest, a July 29, 2018 Guardian article is entitled: “How the ‘brainy’ book became a publishing phenomenon.”