Text 10. The Objects of Metaphorical Definition: Natural Kinds of Experience

The Objects of Metaphorical Definition: Natural Kinds of Experience

(from “Metaphors We Live By”)

Wе have found that metaphors allow us to understand one domain of experience in terms of another. This suggests that understanding takes place in terms of entire domains of experience and not in terms of isolated concepts. The fact that we have been led to hypothesize metaphors like LOVE IS A JOURNEY, TIME IS MONEY, and ARGUMENT IS WAR suggests to us that the focus of definition is at the level of basic domains of experience like love, time, and argument. These experiences are then conceptualized and defined in terms of other basic domains of experience like journeys, money, and war. The definition of sub concepts, like ВUDGЕNNG TIМЕ and ATTACКING A CLAIM, should fall out as consequences of defining the mоrе general concepts (TIМЕ, ARGUMENT, etc.) in metaphorical terms.

This raises a fundamental question: What constitutes a "basic domain of experience"? Each such domain is a structured whole within our experience that is con­ceptualized as what we have called an experiential gestalt. Such gestalts are experientially basic because they charac­terize structured wholes within recurrent human experi­ences. They represent coherent organizations of our ex­periences in terms of natural dimensions (parts, stages, causes, etc.). Domains of experience that are organized as gestalts in terms of such natural dimensions seem to us to be natural kinds of experience.

They are natural in the following sense: These kinds of experiences are a product of

Our bodies (perceptual and motor apparatus, mental capacities, emotional makeup, etc.)

Our interactions with our physical environment (moving, manipulating objects, eating, etc.)

Our interactions with other people within our culture (in terms of social, political, economic, and religious in­stitutions)

In other words, these "natural" kinds of experience are products оf human nature. Some maу bе universal, while others will vary from culture to culture.

Wе are proposing that the concepts that are used in metaphorical definitions are those that correspond to natu­ral kinds of experience. Judging by the concepts that are defined by the metaphors we have uncovered so far, the following would bе examples of concepts for natural kinds of experience in our culture: LOVE, TIME, IDEAS, UNDER­STANDING, ARGUMENTS, LABOR, HAPPINESS, HEALTH, CONTROL, STATUS, MORALITY, etc. These are concepts that require metaphorical definition, since they are not clearly enough delineated in their own terms to satisfy the purposes of our day-to-day functioning.

Similarly, we would suggest that concepts that are used in metaphorical definitions to define other concepts also correspond to natural kinds of experience. Examples are PHYSICAL ORIENTATIONS, OВJECTS, SUBSTANCES, SEEING, JOURNEYS, WAR, MADNESS, FOOD, BUILDINGS, etc. These concepts for natural kinds of experience and objects are structured clearly enough and with enough of the right kind of internal structure to do the job of defining other con­cepts. That is, they provide the right kind of structure to allow us to get a handle оn those natural kinds of experience that are less concrete or less clearly delineated in their own terms.

It follows from this that some natural kinds of experience are partly metaphorical in nature, since metaphor plays an essential role in characterizing the structure of the experi­ence. Argument is an obvious example, since experiencing certain activities of talking and listening as an argument partly requires the structure given to the concept ARGU­MENT by the ARGUMENT IS WAR metaphor. The experience of time is a natural kind of experience that is understood almost entirely in metaphorical terms (via the spatialization of TIME and the TIME IS A MOVING OВJECT and TIME IS MONEY metaphors). Similarly, all of the concepts (e.g., 'CONTROL, STATUS, HAPPINESS) that are oriented by UP­DOWN and other spatialization concepts are grounded in natural kinds of experience that are partly understood in metaphorical terms.

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