meanings and concepts

[white camellia]

"Metaphors reflect the ways in which their users conceptualize reality. In this respect they also do not differ fundamentally from the 'normal' use of words."
This suggests the equivalence of meanings and concepts when metaphors are used as the new application of words? Meanings are traditionally viewed as the mental image, being objective, that refer to the real world.
She is a boat.
The metaphor "boat" can be seen as the conceptualization from the concrete boat. Thus there is a direct relation between meaning and concept?

[vili]

I think that what you are referring to here is something that is known as "conceptual metaphors", which come from a theory proposed by cognitive linguists Mark Johnson and George Lakoff. Their argument is that metaphors are not linguistic, but cognitive, mapping certain concepts to other concepts on a pre-linguistic level. They also go on to suggest that most thought is metaphoric.

Zoltán Kövecses has written a relatively good and understandable introduction to the theory, titled simply Metaphor (Oxford University Press, if my memory serves me well). It is worth a look, if you are interested.

[PeterL]

"Metaphors reflect the ways in which their users conceptualize reality. In this respect they also do not differ fundamentally from the 'normal' use of words."
This suggests the equivalence of meanings and concepts when metaphors are used as the new application of words? Meanings are traditionally viewed as the mental image, being objective, that refer to the real world.
She is a boat.
The metaphor "boat" can be seen as the conceptualization from the concrete boat. Thus there is a direct relation between meaning and concept?

Metaphors are analogies, parallels in meaning. Meanings are concepts. If this subject interests you, then I would suggest that you read a few books on semiotics, the study of signs. As for metaphors in particular, you might want to read The Role of the Reader by Umbertio Eco, especially the chapter on metaphor; and some of his writings in semiotics are excellent.

BTW, I don't understand your last sentence. Concrete boats are boats, and concrete is superior to some materials for particular kinds on boats. Because concrete boats are real boats, how do you regard them as metaphorical?

[white camellia]

BTW, I don't understand your last sentence. Concrete boats are boats, and concrete is superior to some materials for particular kinds on boats. Because concrete boats are real boats, how do you regard them as metaphorical?

She is a boat.

If this statement is not metaphorically said, what is it then? Apparently, she cannot be a real boat. When we regard "boat" as a real boat, "she" and "boat" are not based on the similarity of semantic features, but "boat" is then established on a conceptual level, thus the metaphorical meaning may reflect the concept of the speaker.

Thank you so much for your replies, vili and PeterL. I'll try to find out these recommended works.

[PeterL]

She is a boat.

If this statement is not metaphorically said, what is it then? Apparently, she cannot be a real boat. When we regard "boat" as a real boat, "she" and "boat" are not based on the similarity of semantic features, but "boat" is then established on a conceptual level, thus the metaphorical meaning may reflect the concept of the speaker.


When the pronoun 'she' is used in regard to boats or ships, in English it harkens back to a time when all nouns had gender. During the transition from Old English to Middle English, most inflectioons were dropped, and with them gender was dropped from most nouns. Now we are left with a few nouns that have gender, either through an inflection (actress) or implicit in the word, as with ships.