organises a whole system of concept with respect to the other one Lakoff and Johnson, 1980.
Lakoff and Johnson 1980: 14 proposed that “orientational metaphor refers to spatial orientation like: up-down, in-out, front-back, on-off, deep-
shallow, central-peripheral arising from the fact that people have bodies of the sort they have and do in our physical environment.” The examples can be
considered as below. A.
HAPPY IS UP; SAD IS DOWN I’m feeling up Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 15.
I fell into depression Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 15. B.
CONSCIOUS IS UP; UNCONSCIOUS IS DOWN Wake up Kövecses, 2002: 36.
He sank into a coma Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 15. C.
HEALTH AND LIFE ARE UP; SICKNESS AND DEATH ARE DOWN He’s in top shape Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 15.
He dropped dead Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 15. D.
MORE IS UP; LESS IS DOWN My income rose last year Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 16.
He is underage Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 16.
2.3.1.3 Ontological Metaphor
2.3.1.3.1 ENTITY and SUBSTANCE METAPHOR As what Lakoff and Johnson 1980 stated about ontological metaphor that
“like what the basic experience of human spatial orientations lead to orientational
metaphors, so human’s experiences with physical objects especially our own bodies provide the basis for an extraordinary wide variety of ontological
metaphors, that is, ways of viewing events, activities, emotions, ideas, etc., as entities and substances.”
Fundamentally, Kövecses 2002: 34 proposed that “ontological metaphors provide much less cognitive structuring for target concepts than structural ones
do. Their cognitive job seems to be to ‘merely’ give an ontological status to general categories of abstract target concepts, this simply means that we conceive
of our experiences in terms of objects, substances, and containers, in general. The kinds of experiences that require this the most are those that are not clearly
delineated, vague, or abstract.” Let now turn to the examples of this type of the conceptual metaphor
briefly. Herein, the noun Inflation is considered as the target domain of the metaphorical expressions, with the metaphorical concept INFLATION IS
ENTITY. 1.
We need to combat inflation Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 26. 2.
Inflation makes me sick Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 26. Viewing inflation as an entity allows someone to refer to it, quantify it,
identify a particular aspect of it, see it as a cause, act with respect to it, and perhaps even believe we understand it Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 26.
