Home / Authors / George Lakoff

George Lakoff

George Lakoff Quotes

Linguist

George Lakoff, born on May 24, 1941, is an American cognitive linguist. His research focuses on the relationship between language and thought, and he has made significant contributions to the field of linguistics with his theories on cognitive linguistics.

Filter quotes by topic

All Reason Metaphor Philosophy People Embodied Mind Cognitive Science Mind Barack Body Political Psychology Term Empathy Language Medicine Metaphorical Senses Soma Structure Thinking Values

Famous George Lakoff Quotes

“In all aspects of life... we define our reality in terms of metaphors and then proceed to act on the basis of the metaphors. We draw inferences, set goals, make commitments, and execute plans, all on the basis of how we in part structure our experience, consciously and unconsciously, by means of metaphor.”

Mean Reality Goal Term Plans Draws Commitment Aspect Bases Structure Metaphor Setting Goals Aspects Of Life Inference

Author:George Lakoff

“The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another.”

Kind Understanding Term Essence Metaphor

Book:Metaphors We Live By

Source: Metaphors We Live By

“Metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action. Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature.”

Thinking Action Language Term Ordinary Everyday Metaphor Everyday Life Metaphorical Thoughts And Actions

Book:Metaphors We Live By

Source: Metaphors We Live By

“Moreover, metaphor is typically viewed as characteristic of language alone, a matter of words rather than thought or action. For this reason, most people think they can get along perfectly well without metaphor. We have found, on the contrary, that metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action. Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature.”

Source: Metaphors We Live By

“For centuries, we in the West have thought of ourselves as rational animals whose mental capacities transcend our bodily nature. In this traditional view our minds are abstract, logical, unemotionally rational, consciously accessible, and, above all, able to directly fit and represent the world. Language has a special place in thie view of what a human is - it is a privileged, logical symbol system internal to our minds that transparently expresses abstract concepts that are defined in terms of the external world itself.”

World Mind Humans Able Language Term Animal Views Special Century Fit Concepts Capacity West Rational Traditional Symbols Defined Abstract Internals Logical Annoying Privileged Special Places

Author:George Lakoff