In English, Lakoff and Johnson say, we talk about argument through the framework—the “conceptual metaphor”—that argument is war. Among the examples they list: “He demolished my argument.” “I’ve never won an argument with him.”

Meanwhile, time is money. “You’re wasting my time,” “He’s living on borrowed time.” We also metaphorically map a huge... See more

a writer’s habits with regard to metaphor (and figurative language generally) were key to their entire worldview. Heavy users of figurative language, she said, see the world as interconnected, full of unseen ties and parallels. Whereas those who abstain from figurative language think that the world is made up of discrete things: every situation is... See more