Chapter by Chapter

Chapter 3
This chapter talks about how metaphors have limitations and that they hide/mask other aspects of their target. I liked this and found it interesting especially the conduit metaphor. It reminded me of those "shoots" at a bank drive through where they give you a container, you put your checks in, and then it shoots up and goes back to the bankers.
Chapter 4
I found some of their explanations weak and others strong. His explanation for "rational is up" was weird. How does "control is up" lead to "man is up" and then to "rational is up?" This answered a previous question I had. Can a metaphor become part of its target's definition eventually? According to page 18, yes. I can't believe we don't know much about experiential basis. Is the experience of grasping an experiential basis?
Chapter 5
I didn't like the metaphor: "The future will be better," because I think A LOT of people say the opposite. It's about optimism and pessimism, not culture. t the bottom of page 22 starting at "we are not claiming..." and going to the end of the paragraph on page 23 -- does that make any sense? You know what else seemed to not make sense? The small car analogy. I think that might be a typo. All the ups and downs are getting confusing.
Chapter 6
How are mountains, street corners, and hedges not discrete or bounded? I don't understand that. We treat inflation as an entity rather than what? I was unclear what else we can treat inflation as. Out of all the ontological metaphors, I didn't understand "referring." I liked the whole "in the tub" and "in the water" analogies on page 30. It gets interesting because it's like a Seinfeld "did you ever notice" routine (except not as funny, more intriguing). On page 30, they characterize events as objects -- not containers. So why do they call a race an event and then say it's a container? Are they saying that there aren't any specific categories for anything?
Chapter 7
This one wasn't very illuminating, but I never really realized how specific personification is. It's not just saying "inflation is human," it's picking out a specific human trait to compare it to.
Chapter 8
After reading this section, i feel like i have a much better understanding of the difference between metonymy and metaphor. A metonymy uses representational strategies and, unlike personification, shows something to represent an actual person (not just qualities). It said metonymy gets very specific (can't metaphor be very specific too, though?). I REALLY enjoyed the comparison and his face on page 37. I have NEVER heard the "object used for user" metonymy. It seemed made up. It seems like metonymy also serves as a shortcut for language -- like slang. So it's easier to say Alamo instead of the "attack on the Alamo." Although, Pearl harbor I don't think is metonymy. We have named the event "Pearl Harbor." IT'S WHAT IT'S CALLED, you know?
Chapter 9
I'm kind of impressed. They were able to work through these "inconsistencies" logically and were able to explain why they happen. Well done. I understood and agreed with everything. Just one question: You've got car voyage, train voyage, and boat voyage. What about plane voyage? EX: "Our marriage took off!"
Chapter 10
You know, some of these things are legit, but a lot of them are very strange. They're stretching things a bit thin I think. They repeat themselves a lot in their examples for their metaphors (cheaters). What the hell is this, "That idea is OLD HAT????" The "ideas are fashion" was strange. What did he mean by fashion? Like clothing? "He keeps up-to-date by reading" seemed more generic to me. A lot of these were branches of metaphorical coherence I think. Maybe not. How is THIS a metaphor: "That was one of the greatest moments in US history?" That was stupid. So were the ones about physical and emotional states being inside people. They are inside people! Literally! Disease infects the inside of the body and emotional states occur in the mind -- inside the body!
Chapter 11
I think this chapter can really help someone write better and more poetically. What we have to do is find the "unused" parts of metaphors and USE them to make imaginative poems and stories ("the mountain made a joke" plays on the unused part of "mountain is a person"). Very helpful and interesting.
Chapter 12
At first I agreed that maybe "UP" is not easily understood without metaphor. It has to do with culture they say. Then I thought that maybe it had nothing to do with culture. It's a natural experience that can be explained without metaphor -- we are humans and we all have a sense of up. Therefore, we can all understand it without metaphor. None of us are interplanetary beings floating in outer space. we are human. So we DO understand it. Male-female is also non-metaphorical. It's A or B. Simple as that. It's funny how "IN" starts becoming complicated on pages 59 and 60. Very interesting. I still don't know if there is a concept that can be understood w/o metaphor. They never answered their own question.
Chapter 13
I found it very interesting how verbal argument has been grounded by our knowledge and experience of physical combat -- hence "argument is war." These metaphors are truly grounded through years and years and years. I liked the comparisons of "rational" and "primitive" argument on page 64. I still feel like TIME IS A RESOURCE is not a metaphor because time IS a resource. We don't have an infinite amount of time on earth. Therefore, it can be "wasted" per say or used up. I don't care what these people say. And FYI Lakoff and Johnson, labor is defined in the dictionary as difficult, exhausting exertion. So there. It's so true though that leisure has turned into a kind of labor. People can't just sit and do nothing anymore because it's not productive.
METAPHOR LIST (some may not be metaphors)
that was the shit
let me be straight with you
what's up
I'm wasting my time
she can bring one up
I'm hungry, man
my parents called him out on that point
I snapped on her
you know more than the American Red Cross
he kept getting in between us
me and my buddy were hangin' out
sometimes I have to put him in his place
I think I can take you
she's not really my type
you're going to have to pursue a masters degree
she's really hot
you don't want to get into a career that will dry you up
keep in mind...
this gives you an idea
where do your interests lie?
we've got all our plans laid out
what career bath will you take?
there are lots of skills you can learn outside of the classroom
a resume is your market tool
you're interests might be all over the map