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'''Primary metaphors''' are proposed connections between relatively basic dimensions of experience, such as quantity and vertical height. '''Complex metaphors''' combine simpler connections with richer knowledge about activities, objects and social situations. The distinction belongs to a development of [[Conceptual Metaphor Theory]]; it is an explanatory proposal about how metaphorical concepts are organised and acquired.

In the 2003 afterword to ''Metaphors We Live By'', Lakoff and Johnson discuss Joseph Grady's work on primary metaphor and its relationship to developmental and neural accounts. They distinguish recurring correlations in everyday experience from the culturally elaborated frames involved in complex metaphors.<ref name="afterword">George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, [https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo3637992.html ''Metaphors We Live By''] (University of Chicago Press, 2003), “Afterword, 2003”, sections “Metaphor Composition” and “Primary Metaphor and the Neural Theory”. The original book appeared in 1980; these sections belong to the later afterword.</ref>

== The proposed role of recurring experience ==
When liquid is added to an upright glass, its level normally rises. Quantity and height are experienced together. In a primary-metaphor account, repeated correlations of this kind help explain why increasing quantities can be described through upward movement even when no physical pile or liquid is present.

The correlation is not a claim that quantity literally equals height. More people can arrive in a room without the room becoming taller. The proposal concerns a learned connection that can support expressions and inferences across domains. It also does not establish that this one experience is the sole origin of every expression involving increase.<ref name="afterword" />

Lakoff and Johnson also discuss the proposed connection between affection and the warmth of bodily closeness. Their account is a theoretical explanation of an association. It should not be converted into the stronger assertion that every warm sensation produces affection, or that an individual's metaphor reveals a particular childhood event.

== From a simple connection to a detailed scene ==
The following table separates a proposed mapping from its illustrative use. The example sentences are constructed for this article.

{| class="wikitable"
! Level of analysis !! Constructed example !! What the analysis describes
|-
| A relatively simple association || “The number of applications rose.” || Quantity is represented through vertical change.
| A more elaborated scene || “The project has reached a crossroads.” || Progress becomes travel, with alternatives located ahead of an agent.
| An extended discourse || “We chose the longer route, met resistance and revised the destination.” || The passage develops choices, effort and goals across several connected images.
|}

The table is not a developmental sequence demonstrated by these sentences. Nor does each row necessarily represent a separate mental mechanism. It shows why explaining a detailed journey image requires more than naming one association: one also needs a traveller, routes, possible destinations and knowledge of what choices on a journey involve.

== Complex metaphors include cultural knowledge ==
Consider the constructed comparison “Building a career”. A building can suggest foundations, supports, stages of construction and the possibility of collapse. A career contributes its own expectations about work, progression, qualifications and achievement. The interpretation depends on which parts of this knowledge the passage activates.

Kövecses argues that variation can occur within the source domain itself. An apparently shared source such as “family” can involve different models of authority, care and obligation. Consequently, two uses of the same broad metaphor label may project different relationships into their target domains.<ref name="culture">Zoltán Kövecses, [https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/metaphor-in-culture/818345C1B0F60FC6AD67AE47460095EE ''Metaphor in Culture: Universality and Variation''] (Cambridge University Press, 2005), chapter 6, especially pp. 117–120.</ref>

This matters when comparing myths, personal accounts and political language. Identifying a journey or a container is a beginning. An account still needs to establish the actual route, boundary, agents and relevant cultural assumptions. A familiar structure does not supply an identical meaning wherever it appears.

== Primary metaphor and image schemas ==
An '''image schema''' is a recurring pattern such as containment, balance or a path. It can structure a literal spatial event. A primary metaphor, in the theory discussed here, connects aspects of different kinds of experience. The two concepts are therefore related without being interchangeable.

For example, a literal journey has a starting point, path and destination. Applying that pattern to the development of an argument involves additional correspondences: a conclusion may function as a destination and intermediate claims as stages. The path structure alone does not tell us which target is being described or what counts as successful arrival. See [[Image Schemas: Containment, Paths, Balance and Connection]].

== What kinds of evidence are needed? ==
Different claims call for different evidence. A collection of expressions can support a linguistic pattern. Experiments can test how particular expressions influence processing or judgement. Developmental observations can investigate when children use an expression and in what circumstances. Cross-language research can test the scope of a proposed commonality.

Neural proposals add another level. The 2003 afterword presents a strong account in which learned neural connections realise mappings. That theoretical account should be distinguished from directly observing the acquisition of a particular metaphor in a particular person's brain.<ref name="afterword" /> [[The Neuroscience of Metaphor Comprehension]] discusses why task design and competing explanations matter when interpreting brain evidence.

For a wiki analysis, state the proposed mapping, give contextual examples, and identify what the source actually investigated. Use “may help explain” where the evidence is an explanatory theory. Treat a claim of universality as a research question requiring broad evidence, rather than as a consequence of finding an English example.

== Related pages ==
* [[Conceptual Metaphor Theory]]
* [[Embodied Cognition]]
* [[Metaphor Across Languages and Cultures]]
* [[How Children Learn to Understand Metaphor]]
* [[Mixed Metaphors and Coherence]]
* [[Metaphor Research Library]]

== References ==
<references />

[[Category:Concepts and language]]

@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 The following table separates a proposed mapping from its illustrative use. The example sentences are constructed for this article.
 {| class="wikitable"
-! Level of analysis !! Constructed example !! What the analysis describes
+! scope="col" | Level of analysis !! scope="col" | Constructed example !! scope="col" | What the analysis describes
 |-
 | A relatively simple association || “The number of applications rose.” || Quantity is represented through vertical change.
@@ Line 22: / Line 23: @@
 | An extended discourse || “We chose the longer route, met resistance and revised the destination.” || The passage develops choices, effort and goals across several connected images.
 |}
 The table is not a developmental sequence demonstrated by these sentences. Nor does each row necessarily represent a separate mental mechanism. It shows why explaining a detailed journey image requires more than naming one association: one also needs a traveller, routes, possible destinations and knowledge of what choices on a journey involve.

Primary and Complex Metaphors - Revision history

User: Accessibility: make 1 table(s) keyboard-scrollable with column headers

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