176 Chapter 4 Turner, the theory has been embraced and further developed in cognitive linguistics.579 Its main premise is that metaphors reveal and (partially) shape how we conceive of particular concepts. As such they may be studied to unravel thought patterns of hagiographers. Informed by CMT, this chapter will take such a cognitive approach to metaphor, rather than focussing on the discursive potential of metaphors.580 Before further introducing the main ideas of CMT, it is necessary to first explain some terminology. Metaphor research conventionally refers to a non-literal linguistic expression as a source domain (roller coaster) and the idea expressed as the target domain (doing a PhD). Aspects of the source domain are understood to correspond to the target domain. The process of conceiving one domain in terms of another is called mapping (see figure 1). Mappings are the elements of the source domain that, as conceived by language users, correspond to (aspects of) the target domain.581 For example, sudden (and unexpected) changes from being in a calm state to an adrenaline-filled state is a correspondence between experiences of being in a roller coaster and experiences of doing a PhD. The aspect of unexpected sudden changes that we may associate with roller coasters are thus mapped to an understanding of the PhD trajectory. Or to use another conventional metaphor, the experience of ups and downs in a PhD trajectory corresponds to the physical ups and downs when being in a roller coaster. This correspondence in experience is mapped onto an understanding of doing a PhD (the target domain). Figure 1: Conceptual metaphors: the mapping process CMT holds that metaphors reflect and shape thinking. The process of understanding one thing in terms of another is not just a language convention, but reveals aspects of how the target domain is understood (e.g., the experience of doing a PhD as having ‘ups and downs’). In their seminal work Metaphors we live by, Lakoff and Johnson advocated for this cognitive understanding of metaphor.582 To put such an understanding of metaphor on the map, they first showed that metaphors pervade (English) language, including many conventional expressions. Secondly, they showed that many individual expressions of 579 This view on metaphors was introduced by Lakoff and Johnson in Metaphors we live by in 1980 and elaborated on by Lakoff and Turner in More than cool reason in 1989. Lakoff and Johnson (1980); Lakoff and Turner (1989). For a literature review of subsequent CMT research, see Han et al. (2022). 580 For a discussion of the debate between a communicative approach, focussing on the discursive effects of metaphor, and a cognitive approach in metaphor research, as well as an attempt to bring these two approaches together as complementary rather than contradictory, see Hampe (2017); Gibbs (2017a). 581 Kovecses (2002), p. 7. 582 Lakoff and Johnson (1980).
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