The Metaphorical existance

I have long regarded the use of metaphors in written and spoken language as being fundamental parts of the form and function of language, but until reading "Metaphors We Live By", i had never given much consideration to the credibility of their establishment in regards to being fundamentally rooted within concrete elements of our society. Far from the superficial traits of which i had previously ascribed to the form and function of metaphorical statements, Lakoff and Johnson emphasize the relevance of the construction of metaphorical statements to the fabric of our society itself.

In the article "metaphors we live by", authors Lakoff and Johnson content that the simple structure of a metaphorical statement is anything but simple, and in fact the construction of a metaphorical statement can been observed to structure the perception and understanding of any individuals who live in a society which recognizes the value of metaphorical statements, as desribed in the exerpt "our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature"(Johnson/Lakoff).

We use metaphorical construction and analysis on a daily basis, whether we consciously realize it or not, as metaphorical constructions and correlations have become so commonplace as a structure to relate the meanings of language that we rarely recognize how often we use such metaphors. "Time is Money" is used by Johnson and Lakoff as a principle metaphorical construction meant to emphasize not only how such a commonplace correlation within our society is characteristic of our society, as opposed to a less capitalistic one, but also to display the structure by which metaphors derive their meaning. In the example of "Time is Money", although time isn't itself directly identical to money, it is emphasized to be a valuable commodity because of it's relation to time in our current social structure.

Metaphors help to shape our conception of cetain things, and also help to form the structure by which we attempt certain practices, such as the practice of conducting an argument. In our contemporary society, the popular metaphor is "Argument is war", which equates the act of conducting an argument with the act of conducting a battle. This structure that the metaphor provides allows for arguments to be constructed around the premises of "attacking an opponet's position" or "defending your view" in order to conduct an argument to the logical conclusion of the "victor"