The introductory paragraphs of the first chapter, Concepts We Live By, describe my opinion and understanding I had of metaphors prior to the completion of the first three chapters of the book. I envisioned metaphors to be part of the language poets and writers use to provide imagery and connections for their readers. After Layoff and Johnson analyzed mundane speech metaphorically, ” Time is Money,” I noticed my thoughts drift to culture. The authors mentioned that our perceptions of considering argument to be war and time to be money is largely due to the way we have been socialized to view them. They go on to say that if we look at different cultures, perceptions of these concepts may differ. And so, I came to the conclusion that these concepts mentioned and not mentioned in the book may be the studied cultural universals (marriage, funeral rights, taboos, currency or exchange methods, gender roles, etc). Distinct cultures come up with their own metaphors for their cultural universals.
In relation to gender roles, our culture established two metaphors: masculinity is strength and femininity is weakness. (Although I am not quite sure I can define these as metaphors; I would have to define explicitly what strength and weakness are.) (Similarly, although strides have been made to socially eradicate these notions, these assumptions still exist.) Assuming I have defined plausible measures, I went on to think of every day speech to support these statements. Often times we hear ” You run like a girl,” or “Don’t cry, you’re a man,” establishing that running like a girl means running almost childlike and that men aren’t to cry because that shows weakness. The notion of gender roles are present in all cultures; however, the way cultures value gender roles differ. Just because in egalitarian societies women pick berries and cook food while the men hunt, doesn’t mean that the jobs the women do aren’t equally as important to survival.
I think that these ways and examples of metaphors are showing how they are similar to stereotypes. Saying to someone you run like a girl, is simply saying that all girls run in the same feminine way, which obviously is not true, but conveys to them that feminine message. This comes off as an insult to a man who strives to be manly and act tough.
When you wrote that “Distinct cultures come up with their own metaphors for their cultural universals”… It made me think about how analyzing a certain language/culture/population’s use of metaphors may actually help us better understand the values or priorities (etc) of their culture. It’s an interesting concept to think about. You bring up a great example with gender roles and how metaphors can be applied to it with different meanings, depending on the culture! Here too, the metaphor may shed light about what that language/culture’s values and priorities are!
When i was reading through the chapters i also saw a connection between metaphorical concepts and sociology. It’s interesting that you mentioned what the authors were referring to were cultural universals, and i would have to agree with you. These universal aspects exist in all cultures and define the way people do certain things. So it seems as if Lakoff and Johnson were trying to describe cultural universals in terms of metaphorical concepts. On the other hand, these metaphors only attempt to teach us to “understand and experience one kind of thing in terms of another.”