Motivation for target and source
Given that metaphorical mappings are unidirectional, two points of interest arise. The first relates to whether there is a pattern in terms of which conceptual domains typically function as source domains and which function as targets. The second point relates to what might motivate such a pattern. Based on an extensive survey, Kövecses (2002) found that the most common source domains for metaphorical mappings include domains relating to the HUMAN BODY (the heart of the problem), ANIMALS (a sly fox), PLANTS (the fruit of her labour), FOOD (he cooked up a story) and FORCES (don’t push me!). The most common target domains included conceptual categories like EMOTION (she was deeply moved), MORALITY (she resisted the temptation), THOUGHT (I see your point), HUMANRELATIONSHIPS(they built a strong marriage) and TIME (time flies).
Turning to the second point, the prevalent explanation until the mid-1990s was that target concepts tended to be more abstract, lacking physical characteristics and therefore more difficult to understand and talk about in their own terms. In contrast, source domains tended to be more concrete and therefore more readily ‘graspable’. As Kövecses (2002: 20) puts it, ‘Target domains are abstract, diffuse and lack clear delineation; as a result they ‘cry out’ for metaphorical conceptualization.’ The intuition behind this view was that target concepts were often ‘higher-order concepts’: although grounded in more basic embodied experiences, these concepts relate to more complex and abstract experiential knowledge structures. Consider the conceptual domain TIME, an abstract domain par excellence. Time is primarily conceptualised in terms of SPACE, and MOTION through space, as illustrated by the examples in (19).
Lakoff and Johnson (1999) argue that TIME is structured in terms of MOTION because our understanding of TIME emerges from our experience and aware ness of CHANGE, a salient aspect of which involves MOTION. For instance, whenever we travel from place A to place B, we experience CHANGE in location. This type of event also corresponds to a temporal span of a certain duration. From this perspective, our experience of time – that is, our awareness of change– is grounded in more basic experiences like motion events. Lakoff and Johnson argue that this comparison of location at the beginning and end points of a journey, gives rise to our experience of time: embodied experiences like MOTION partially structure the more abstract domain TIME. This gives rise to the general metaphor TIME IS MOTION.
