Construct · 3 fields · 3 citations

metaphor: one construct, many systems

One name. One construct. Different systems. One map.

● invariant · one construct, three systems Nearest construct by meaning·not indexed
from figure of speech to mechanism of thoughtthe same mapping put to work in scientific modelsmetaphor3 SYSTEMSFigure of transferARISTOTLE · TRANSFERConceptual metaphorLAKOFF & JOHNSON · 1980Theory-constitutive metaphorORTONY (ED.) · MODELS

Spokes are the systems the one construct recurs in; dashed arcs are shared lineage. Tap a field for its definition, unit, and measures.

1980Conceptual metaphor1993Theory-constitutive metaphor1996Figure of transfer
2026

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Poetics & rhetoric

Carrying a name across to an unlike thing

In poetics and rhetoric a metaphor is the transfer of a name from the thing it ordinarily denotes to something else on the basis of a likeness, as when a life is called a voyage. Aristotle's Poetics (ca. 335 BCE) defines it as giving a thing a name that belongs to another and calls a command of metaphor the mark of genius, since it perceives similarity in dissimilars. The referent is a figure of language, a mapping from a familiar source to an unlike target, and the same source-to-target mapping is what later reappears as a mechanism of ordinary thought and as a tool of scientific theory.[1]

Unit
A single cross-domain mapping realised in a word or phrase
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Analysed by identifying the source and target domains and the correspondences the figure projects between them

Cognitive science

Thinking of one domain in terms of another

In cognitive science metaphor is not merely a feature of language but a structure of thought: a systematic mapping by which an abstract target domain is understood in terms of a more concrete source domain, so that "argument is war" or "time is money" organise how people reason and speak. Lakoff and Johnson's Metaphors we live by argued that such conceptual metaphors are pervasive and largely unconscious, shaping inference and everyday expression alike. It is the same cross-domain mapping Aristotle located in the poetic figure, relocated to the conceptual system and claimed to be constitutive of ordinary cognition rather than a decorative departure from it.[2]

Unit
A systematic set of correspondences mapping a source domain onto a target domain in thought
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Evidenced by patterns of conventional expressions, inference, and gesture that share a common source-to-target mapping

Philosophy of science

Models and theory-terms that import structure

In philosophy of science metaphor is treated as a working part of theory rather than mere illustration: a scientific model imports the structure of a better-understood system onto a new one, and theory-constitutive metaphors (the atom as a solar system, the mind as a computer) help fix the reference of new terms and guide inquiry. The essays collected in Ortony's Metaphor and thought develop this view of metaphor as a cognitive and heuristic instrument in science. It is recognisably the same cross-domain mapping as the poetic figure and the conceptual metaphor, here doing epistemic work in model-building and theory change.[3]

Unit
A mapping that transfers the structure of a source system onto a scientific target
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Assessed by how a model's borrowed structure licenses predictions and shapes the development of a theory's vocabulary

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Nearby constructs

trope3 fields · 5 citationsjingle · one word, three constructsirony3 fields · 5 citationsjingle · one word, three constructsfigure2 fields · 3 citationsjingle · one word, two constructs

References

  1. Aristotle. (1996). Poetics (M. Heath, Trans.). Penguin Books. (Original work published ca. 335 BCE) ISBN 9780140446364
  2. Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (2003). Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago Press. (Original work published 1980) ISBN 9780226468013
  3. Ortony, A. (Ed.). (1993). Metaphor and thought (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521405614

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