Why metaphor works?

2008/02/22

Why metaphor works?


The question, which arose was - why metaphor works? Should it not be formed according to our life experiences, religious beliefs, country we live and surrounding environment? The answer is somewhat moody - if you do not have experience and archetypes when creating metaphor - your expression could be not so effective, but in general the topic is about universal things. Metaphor in deeper sense is not some kind of language figure, but it is cognitive process, which starts before we say (get) our words, which is fundamental in every human being. Lakoff and Johnson says, that metaphor is closely related to human perception of space and time and motoric reactions, which are defined by body and brain functions. This implies that (as every human has a body and a brain) conceptual structures and alike in all mankind. When using metaphor one can describe unknown ideas using very simple descriptions, which are very known to a person, due to the fact, that she is familiar with them from within. So metaphor is a description of physical and perceivable state of a person, which could be communicated using words only (visual, verbal means of communication), which create resonance within unconscious mind.

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