Role in Metaphor
Michael J. Reddy (1979) discovered and has demonstrated that much of the language we use to talk about language is conceptualized and structured by what he refers to as the conduit metaphor. This paradigm operates through two distinct, related frameworks.
The major framework views language as a sealed pipeline between people:
1. Language transfers people's thoughts and feelings (mental content) to others
2. Speakers and writers insert their mental content into words
ex: You have to put each concept into words more carefully.3. Words are containers
ex: That sentence was filled with emotion.4. Listeners and writers extract mental content from words
ex: Let me know if you find any new sensations in the poem.The minor framework views language as an open pipe spilling mental content into the void:
1. Speakers and writers eject mental content into an external space
2. Mental content is reified (viewed as concrete) in this space
ex: That concept has been floating around for decades.3. Listeners and writers extract mental content from this space
ex: Let me know if you find any good concepts in the essay.Read more about this topic: Metalanguage
Famous quotes containing the words role in, role and/or metaphor:
“Always and everywhere children take an active role in the construction and acquisition of learning and understanding. To learn is a satisfying experience, but also, as the psychologist Nelson Goodman tells us, to understand is to experience desire, drama, and conquest.”
—Carolyn Edwards (20th century)
“Today, only a fool would offer herself as the singular role model for the Good Mother. Most of us know not to tempt the fates. The moment I felt sure I had everything under control would invariably be the moment right before the principal called to report that one of my sons had just driven somebody’s motorcycle through the high school gymnasium.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)
“If we are a metaphor of the universe, the human couple is the metaphor par excellence, the point of intersection of all forces and the seed of all forms. The couple is time recaptured, the return to the time before time.”
—Octavio Paz (b. 1914)