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The Importance Of Metaphors In Daily Life

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Common sense seems to dictate that metaphors are common tools used in everyday life to enhance our reading, writing and language. In addition to metaphors enhancing our reading, writing and language, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson imply in their book, Metaphors We Live By, that metaphors do more than those three things, that they also make up our conceptual system. In Lakoff and Johnson’s view, “Our ordinary conceptual system…is fundamentally metaphorical in nature…[and] is not something we are normally aware of” (3). In other words, the way we act and think is metaphorical and we don’t know even know it. Furthermore, Lakoff and Johnson go into detail on why metaphors are important by suggesting, “Our concepts structure what we perceive, how one gets around in the world, and how one can relate to other people” (3). Their point is that if our concepts, structure our everyday life and our conceptual system is metaphorical than what we do each day is, “… a matter of metaphor” (3). With this better understanding of how metaphors are used daily without us realizing it, we can see more clearly where metaphors can be used, therefore one can also analyze how they relate to our everyday lives. The metaphors I chose to analyze and contrast that we’ve done in our lives are academic reading is learning how to tie your shoes and fun reading is a rollercoaster. First, I will start with how academic reading is learning how to tie your shoes. Academic reading is typically something

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