George Lakoff and Mark Johnson begins by listing a list of credentials in the acknowledgements, as if to assure the reader that they have the proper authority to write about the topic. Lakoff and Johnson gets straight to the point–that “our conceptual system is largely metaphorical” (3). According to Reddy documents, 70% of the English language that we speak contains metaphors (10). Lakoff and Johnson list examples of metaphors such as “argument is war” and “time is money”. Lakoff and Johnson states that metaphors are relative to the culture that is being used. Metaphors are dependent on the context or it would be meaningless.

There is another perspective as to why metaphors are so heavily engrained into one’s culture and language. By definition, metaphor is a figurative form of speech used to compare two objects. Metaphors can allow the listener to see a comparison and determine the relative importance to a concept that would be hard to grasp without a metaphor. For example, “time flies”; flying is a motion that allows for rapidity. By comparing time to flying, the listener can get a sense of the pace of time–it’s fast.

“Time flies” would be considered a conduit metaphor by Lakoff and Johnson. If hearing it for the first time, “time flies” is a confusing phrase. After all, time did not grow a pair of wings and start flying. Though, after hearing it for a few times, it’s easy to get the sense without the context. It’s been engrained into our knowledge. In that sense, conduit metaphors do not necessarily need a context unless the listener is being exposed to it for the first time.