ChapterIII
3.1
IntroducingTheoriesofMetaphor
Theuniversalexistenceofmetaphoricphenomenoninhumancognition
o
Uptodate,wedon’tyetunderstandenoughofthebrainmechanismsunderlyinghuman
use
ofmetaphor
to
makeboldstatementsabout“wheremetaphorcomesfrom’’
no
We
have
no
ideaaboutmetaphorusedbyearlyhumansbecausewehave
recordsof
whattheysaid.Certainlybythetimeofearliestwritingforwhichwehavesophisticatedmetaphorandanalogyof
a
are
records,
clearlyinuse.Forinstance,hereisthetranslation
poemthatisabout4000yearsoldfromancientEgypt:Death.is
before
I?le
today
Likethe
s砂when
wish
itclears
Like
a
mantosee
home学er
are
numberlessyem。Sot'captivityfromtheChauvet。pont-ck'arc
possibly
caves
.TheoldestrecordedpaintingsFrance—likerhinocerosesandago.Perhapsthesewere
insouthern
panthers(orhyenas)datedatover30;000years
a
just
drawingsforfunfromtheequivalentof
localartist’Ssketch
pfid,butitisnormallyassumedthattheymusthavehadsymbolicOrmagicalsignificance.
Archaeological
symbolic
or
evidenceforreligious
even
or
magicalpractices,which
are
often
as
metaphorical,goesback
a
furtherthanthat.
as
an
Soitis
reasonableguessthatmetaphorandanalogyhavebeenaround
a
importantpartofhumanlifefor
languageitself。
verylongtime—perhaps
as
farback
as
human
SincetheGreekphilosopherPlato,some2500yearsago,“serious’’thinkershavetendednothing
to
beveryscathingaboutmetaphor,preferringlanguagethat“tellsitlikeitis”一
andclearlyreasonedexplanations.
fancy—justplainfacts
Duringtheperiodinthelate1600sand1700sknownas“theenlightenment”,theflowerylanguageof
theElizabethans
wentoutof
fashion.SamuelParker
in
1666