book data
242 ratings, 4.30 average rating, 36 reviews
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published
November 1st 1980
(first published 2003)
by University of Chicago Press
binding
Hardcover, 256 pages
isbn
0226468003
(isbn13: 9780226468006)
description
The now-classic Metaphors We Live By changed our understanding of metaphor and its role in language and the mind. Metaphor, the authors explain, is a ...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 425)
This book changed my life. It has short chapters, 5-10 pages. you can get most of what you need from chapters 1-3 and the epilogue.
It explains the structure of metaphor. Turns out, at least for me, that theory is metaphorical, language is metaphorical, life itself is metaphorical.
So what does that do for us? It makes it possible to realize the perspectivism is not an ideal to shoot for in some pristine Kantian space, but the very quantum material of social life. ...more
It explains the structure of metaphor. Turns out, at least for me, that theory is metaphorical, language is metaphorical, life itself is metaphorical.
So what does that do for us? It makes it possible to realize the perspectivism is not an ideal to shoot for in some pristine Kantian space, but the very quantum material of social life. ...more
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Read in October, 2006
A ground-breaking book written by two scholars of linguistics. The primary author, George Lakoff, teaches at UC Berkeley and was a student of Noam Chomsky. He has done extensive, well-regarded research that completely shifts our current view of "how we are" in the world. Some observations that can be derived from this book include (1) Images play a fundamental role in human intelligence and reasoning. (2) Imagination also plays a fundamental role in human intelligence and reasoning. (3...more
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This read will turn your world around. And metaphorically, that is the only thing you need to know about it.
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Read in February, 2008
My expectation was that a work that does such a good job of reworking fundamental elements of how we look at the world would have as its ultimate goal some sort of radical intellectual or societal revolution, so I kept waiting for L & J to present some conclusion that would cause me to rebel against the whole system that they so convincingly presented, but that never happened.
The fact that they tear down the edifice of literal, objective knowledge without erecting something in it...more
The fact that they tear down the edifice of literal, objective knowledge without erecting something in it...more
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Read in July, 2008
So much of how we read nowadays has its foundations in Lakoff's writings. While he can be very political, this is one of his least overtly so. If one says context is king, this explains how it was crowned. I suggest you look it up - and down - if you like linguistics, anthropology, user experience, literature and how all of this is installed into our brains.
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Read in October, 2008
There are some interesting ideas thus far, but I'm concerned that Johnson/Lakoff haven't addressed the possibility that the words we use for spatial experiences, for instance, are actually metaphors for their usage in other ontological categories. What I mean by this is that we talk about there being a "deep well" and a "deep depression", and J/L want to say that our sense of emotional depths and such is a metaphor for sense-data type experiences--what if it's the other way a...more
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Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
Jody, Nadeje, Paula, Kyra, Nicole
This book will probably have to go back to the library before I finish it, but I definitely going to have to buy it. If you are interested in language and how we describe the world with it, this is a must read. It is a little dry, but these guys demonstrate really well how the language we speak is filled with metaphors and how we can't avoid them. They shape how we think and how we create relationships between ideas and objects. I mean have you ever really thought about why good is up and no...more
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
those with plenty of time to connect the disjointed dots
this was a fun, or at least necessary, read for anyone interested in the humanities (although it has implications for the sciences as well). it's very detailed, so you may get bored with its textbook-like feel, and although he provides several illustrations of metaphor in daily life and action, most of the Umph(!) you have to contemplate on your own. There is a life changing and liberating message here, but it's between the lines. Maybe you could compare it to 300 and something pages of 4-pla...more
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Read in February, 2006
This book is not perfect. it starts slowly and then gets a little bit redundant in the middle(unless you're slow) that said, i think it's something everyone should read because it makes some pretty fundamental connections about how we think and communicate. it's a philosophy/writing book. there was a period when i talked about it the way a baptist talks about the new testament and even though i've since adopted a more secular approach to metaphor, i think this book is important. borrow my copy s...more
Read in August, 2008
Pretty fascinating, though it could take the idea of metaphor a little farther, the a=b reduction of speech removes from the equation the speaker, making all metaphor making a transference of meaning from one thing to another, rather than a connection of two things to a common un-manifest meaning, not to get too platonic on this shit....
POets should read this, as it is what many of them already think about.
POets should read this, as it is what many of them already think about.
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Read in April, 2006
This is Lakoff's classic book. I found it interesting in demonstrating how the use of language affects our perspectives and perceptions of one another. I find it interesting how we dress up our language in different clothes (as Lakoff puts it) for different purposes. Read this when in conjunction with studying hypnotherapy; hence, through that lens, I found it quite intriguing.
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This book changed everything for me. It made everything seem so... ambiguous. In a good way. Everything is a metaphor. Even the simplest idea is based on us being in bodies and in space. "in love" as if love is a substance and not some abstract idea...
I got bored with some of the more technical parts of the book, but the ideas in here are worth looking through.
I got bored with some of the more technical parts of the book, but the ideas in here are worth looking through.
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Read in February, 2006
Nice ideas that are interesting to contemplate and make the reader much more aware of certain language characteristics in a conceptual context. But mediocre in terms of writing style and ability to hold interest. I almost wish i could find Mr. Lakoff and have an actual conversation with him rather than read what can often be rather dry writing.
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I think this is by FAR the best of Lakoff's books. It's the conceptual foundation on which all of the political books rest (and I think those books are much less satisfying than this one). Articulates a very cool and pretty convincing theory about how we use metaphors to understand all kinds of complex ideas.
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This is the first book that piqued my interest in linguistics. Straight-forward and remarkably quick to read. I highly recommend this piece of work to anyone who wants to feel twenty times smarter than they really are. Really got me started on my road to rhetorical studies as well...
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Read in January, 2000
This book challenges the way we think that we think. Rather than seeing things directly, the authors argue, we understand largely through metaphors. This book changed the way I read and write. I great read for just about anyone in the social sciences.
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Read in January, 2007
This was assigned to me in my cognitive linguistics class and I found it more fascinating than Moral Politics as it gets into the issues of metaphors, idioms and metonymics: what they are and why it is that all societies have them.
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Read in October, 2008
Excellent food for thought. I think that most everyone has read bits of this book, but it was worth it to read the whole thing - it digs further into philosophy at the end, which is really wonderful and interesting.
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I think every teacher--especially English teachers--would benefit from this book...gives a really interesting lens to look at literature as well as self and others....this man is a fabulous linguist and contemporary thinker.
Read in January, 2007
This is more than just a book about a figure of speech; it's a book that diagnoses how we think. The book is of great interest to those in the fields of anthropology, philosophy, literature, and religion, among others.
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