I enjoyed reading Metaphors We Live By because it provided insightful details about new perspectives on metaphors. Before reading the first few chapters written by George Layoff and Mark Johnson I had not given much thought about the importance of metaphors in language and how often I use them. Layoff and Johnson claim that metaphors “govern our everyday functioning, down to the most mundane details. Our concepts structure what we perceive, how we get around in the world, and how we relate to people”. Just from this excerpt we can see the importance of metaphors in the opinions of Layoff and Johnson. Further on in the chapter, Layoff and Johnson begin to discuss the concept of argument and how argument is perceived as war in our culture. This often has to do a lot with the metaphors we use when arguing with someone which often results in a variety of expressions that could dictate whether we win or lose the argument. In chapter 2, they discuss the value of time in our culture and how metaphorical expressions in our language can give us insight into the nature of our concepts. For example, the metaphor “time is money” implies that time is extremely limited and valuable a lot could be accomplished.

I agreed with many of the points Lakoff and Johnson made throughout the first few chapters. Because I can speak a variety of languages (Urdu, Punjabi and Hindi) I see the use of metaphors in more than just one language. This ties into what Dr. Alvarez was discussing in class were he said “no language is more complex than another, all languages are equally as complex”. The use of metaphors is extremely important in all of these languages and I use metaphors not only in English but all of those languages in a lot of my discussions with another individual. That is why I was able to agree with a lot of the points Lakoff and Johnson made through the first three chapters.