Lakoff and Johnson は，メタファー (metaphor) を，単に言語上の技巧としてではなく，人間の認識，思考，行動の基本にあって現実を把握する方法を与えてくれるものととしてとらえている．今や古典と呼ぶべき Metaphors We Live By では一貫してその趣旨で主張がなされているが，そのなかでもとりわけ主張の力強い箇所として，"New Meaning" と題する章の末尾より以下の文章をあげよう (145--46) ．

   Many of our activities (arguing, solving problems, budgeting time, etc.) are metaphorical in nature. The metaphorical concepts that characterize those activities structure our present reality. New metaphors have the power to create a new reality. This can begin to happen when we start to comprehend our experience in terms of a metaphor, and it becomes a deeper reality when we begin to act in terms of it. If a new metaphor enters the conceptual system that we base our actions on, it will alter that conceptual system and the perceptions and actions that the system gives rise to. Much of cultural change arises from the introduction of new metaphorical concepts and the loss of old ones. For example, the Westernization of cultures throughout the world is partly a matter of introducing the TIME IS MONEY metaphor into those cultures.
   The idea that metaphors can create realities goes against most traditional views of metaphor. The reason is that metaphor has traditionally been viewed as a matter of mere language rather than primarily as a means of structuring our conceptual system and the kinds of everyday activities we perform. It is reasonable enough to assume that words alone don't change reality. But changes in our conceptual system do change what is real for us and affect how we perceive the world and act upon those perceptions.
   The idea that metaphor is just a matter of language and can at best only describe reality stems from the view that what is real is wholly external to, and independent of, how human beings conceptualize the world---as if the study of reality were just the study of the physical world. Such a view of reality---so-called objective reality---leaves out human aspects of reality, in particular the real perceptions, conceptualizations, motivations, and actions that constitute most of what we experience. But the human aspects of reality are most of what matters to us, and these vary from culture to culture, since different cultures have different conceptual systems. Cultures also exist within physical environments, some of them radically different---jungles, deserts, islands, tundra, mountains, cities, etc. In each case there is a physical environment that we interact with, more or less successfully. The conceptual systems of various cultures partly depend on the physical environments they have developed in.
   Each culture must provide a more or less successful way of dealing with its environment, both adapting to it and changing it. Moreover, each culture must define a social reality within which people have roles that make sense to them and in terms of which they can function socially. Not surprisingly, the social reality defined by a culture affects its conception of physical reality. What is real for an individual as a member of a culture is a product both of his social reality and of the way in which that shapes his experience of the physical world. Since much of our social reality is understood in metaphorical terms, and since our conception of the physical world is partly metaphorical, metaphor plays a very significant role in determining what is real for us.

　この引用中には，本書で繰り返し唱えられている主張がよく要約されている．概念メタファーは，認知，行動，生活の仕方を方向づけるものとして，個人の中に，そして社会の中に深く根を張っており，それ自身は個人や社会の経験的基盤の上に成立している．言語表現はそのような盤石な基礎の上に発するものであり，ある意味では皮相的とすらいえる．メタファーとは，言語上の技巧ではなく，むしろその基盤のさらに基盤となるくらい認知過程の深いところに埋め込まれているものである．
　Lakoff and Johnson にとっては，言語を研究しようと思うのであれば，人間の認知過程そのものから始めなければならないということだろう．この前提が，認知言語学の出発点といえる．

　・ Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago and London: U of Chicago P, 1980.

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