Unidirectionality of conceptual metaphors: A criticism based on Persian metaphors

Abstract

Conceptual Metaphor Theory was first proposed by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in 1980 as one of the earliest theoretical frameworks of the cognitive semantics. Although it is not a novel view of metaphor and its tradition goes back to the historical-philological semantics, Conceptual Metaphor Theory attempts to adduce different kinds of evidence for the conceptual nature of metaphors. According to this theory, metaphors are not just rhetorical, but human thought is metaphorical in nature and conceptual structures are organized according to cross-domain mappings or correspondences between these domains. However, conceptual metaphors are made based on embodied experiences and human interaction with the world. According to this view, conceptual metaphors are unidirectional and they cannot be bi-directional. The present study criticizes the methodology with which metaphor is studied emphasizing bi-directionality of mapping instead of unidirectionality based on examples of spoken Persian. Also, the study points to the fact that there is no constraint on forming the conceptual metaphors and that everybody can add new conceptual metaphors of special domains.

Keywords

• metaphor
• conceptual metaphor
• cognitive semantics
• mapping
• unidirectionality