The Body in the Mind by Mark Johnson;

Author:Mark Johnson; [Johnson, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Chicago Press

How Image Schemata Constrain Metaphorical Projections

Throughout this book I have analyzed cases in which metaphorical structures in our understanding are the basis for meaning relations and for inferential patterns in our reasoning. For this to be the case, there must be sufficient internal structure to these metaphorical systems to permit specific inferences. We must answer the charge that metaphors are too ambiguous, too lacking in internal structure, to constrain our reasoning. To respond to this criticism, I want to consider more fully the internal structure of certain basic source-domains that determine the nature of metaphorical projections.

It is well beyond the scope of this book to survey the full range of possible source-domains, to explore their structure, and to show how they can be mapped onto various target-domains. I have done this in a partial way for a few instances, such as metaphors based on image schemata for CONTAINMENT, FORCE, and BALANCE. In this section I want to examine, in addition, the schemata for PATHS, CYCLES, SCALES, LINKS, and CENTER-PERIPHERY to identify the internal structure of each image schema as it maps onto the target-domain in various related metaphors. The central problem in each case is always to identify the structure of the source-domain that constrains the metaphorical mapping onto a target-domain. In this way one is able to show that metaphorical projections are not arbitrary (i.e., that not just anything can be mapped onto anything else), and that they do influence our reasoning.

Basically, what we are interested in is why certain metaphorical mappings exist, that is, why certain source-domains get mapped onto certain target-domains. And we also want to know what constraints govern the nature of the metaphorical mapping.8 In general, to explain how specific metaphorical projections constrain meaning relations and patterns of inference, we need to explore the structure of the image schemata upon which they are based, and we need to determine why the particular mappings of source-domains onto target-domains occur the way they do. In the remainder of this section, then, I want to consider a few additional image schemata that play prominent roles in recurring metaphorical projections. I will begin with a relatively detailed treatment of the PATH schema as it constrains one pervasive metaphorical projection in our understanding, and I will describe much more briefly the structure of a few other experientially basic image schemata.

Paths

Our lives are filled with paths that connect up our spatial world. There is the path from your bed to the bathroom, from the stove to the kitchen table, from your house to the grocery store, from San Francisco to Los Angeles, and from the Earth to the Moon. Some of these paths involve an actual physical surface that you traverse, such as the path from your house to the store. Others involve a projected path, such as the path of a bullet shot into the air. And certain paths exist, at present, only in your imagination, such as the path from Earth to the nearest star outside our solar system.

In

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