Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1998. Vol. 2. Eger Journal of English Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 26)

Studies - Ágnes Deli: Cognition and politeness

Reddy (1979), Sweetser (1987), Lakoff (1985), Langacker (1986), Dirven (1985), Radden (1985), Johnson (1987), inter alia). Lakoff (1985) assumes that besides these the human mind also contains metaphorical concepts. He defines them as follows: "Metaphorical concepts are those which are understood and structured not merely on their own terms, but rather in terms of other concepts. This involves conceptualizing one kind of object or experience in terms of a different kind of object or experience" (ibid.:58). Lakoff and Johnson (1980) classify metaphors into three types (see also Lakoff, 1985): orientational metaphors: More Is Up, Control Is Up, Good Is Up, Rational Is Up, ontological metaphors: Ideas Are Entities and Words Are Containers, The Mind Is a Container, The Mind Is a Machine, The Mind Is a Brittle Object, Vitality Is a Substance, and structural metaphors such as Understanding Is Seeing, Life Is a Gambling Game. Whether or not it is admitted many scientific communication theories account for conceptual metaphors and folk theories such as 'Communication Is Sending', 'The Mind Is a Container', 'Ideas Are Objects'

, 'Linguistic Expressions Are Containers'

. These are parts of the pervasive folk theory which Reddy (1979) calls the CONDUIT metaphor. Theories that are based on the view that language is a code and communication is sending messages in that code from a speaker to a hearer make use of the CONDUIT metaphor. Reddy (ibid.) provides more than a hundred types of linguistic expressions in English that are systematically organized by the conduit metaphor. The following are but a few of his examples: it's hard to put my ideas into words, his words don't carry much conviction, your words seem hollow, let me try to get across what I have in mind, who gave you that idea? Lakoff (1985) notes that although the CONDUIT metaphor seems natural, because it fits very well certain types of situations which are taken by many communication theorists as being prototypical - e.g. at the checkout counter at the local supermarket - in most significant cases the CONDUIT metaphor is inadequate to a greater or lesser extent. He proposes that "In fact, what makes such cases of communication important is the very failure of the CONDUIT metaphor. Communication matters 86