Chapter11-30

Tony带水

Reader: 英语2302班阳佳玲
Reading Time: 5.12-5.29
Reading Task: Chapter11-30

Summary of the Content:
Since the “battleline” of reading this book is stretched too long, I won't summarize this part. Perhaps you have already noticed it, in the above sentence, a common metaphor in Chinese is applied , which might not be expressed in the same way in the West. The metaphor “battleline” here refers to the prolonged process of reading, similar to a military front that extends over time.

Evaluation and Reflection:
When reading this book, I can clearly follow the analysis on the page for each step of deriving the metaphor "time is a resource" -- from the "hourly wage system" in industrial society to the "division of study time through class schedules," the logical chain is tightly linked. However, when I close the book, I suddenly feel confused: Why do humans insist on using a "physical" or "spatial" framework to understand all abstract concepts? Is this cognitive pattern innate or culturally shaped?
    The authors say we use metaphors unconsciously every day, but when I deliberately try to capture metaphors in daily conversations (e.g., "His words hit the nail on my sore spot"), every word suddenly feels unfamiliar -- "hit the nail" is clearly a physical action, so how does it become associated with "psychological feelings"? Does this cross-domain "intuitive association" rely on some universal cognitive code shared by humans? The book explains it through "bodily experiences," but I always feel this answer is not thorough enough, as if there are deeper neuroscientific or anthropological principles hidden behind it, which I currently lack the ability to grasp.
Perhaps this gap in understanding is precisely the charm of this book-- it acts as a key that opens the door to "language as cognition," yet places more codes to decipher behind the door. As the book says, metaphor is "the way of thinking we rely on to live". Maybe only when we truly use this way of thinking to observe language, culture, and even the world will the confusion of "understanding but not comprehending" gradually reveal the underlying connections.