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 fundamental mechanism of mind, one that allows us to use
what we know about our physical and social experience to provide
understanding of countless other subjects. Because such metaphors
structure our most basic understandings of our experience, they are
"metaphors we live by"--metaphors that can shape our perceptions and
actions without our ever noticing them.
In this updated edition of Lakoff and Johnson's influential book, the
authors supply an afterword surveying how their theory of metaphor has
developed within the cognitive sciences to become central to the
contemporary understanding of how we think and how we express our
thoughts in language.