Root Metaphors and Complementary Pairs

Metaphors which are centrally significant in a culture or community – they appear frequently and represent socially important, contentious and/or otherwise emotionally ‘loaded’ concepts – are called root metaphors (for a more in-depth treatment, see i.e. Lakoff * 1980 or 1987). According to Barbara Allen*, European-based root metaphors originate in Christian religious mythology, while those of China are often derived from the natural world.

Root metaphors can occur in complementary pairs. The relationship between the two entities which make up the pair is, again, specific to the world-views and ideas of a cultural group -  without knowledge of their historical, mythological or religious backgrounds they can be cross-culturally incomprehensible.

In Chinese philosophy and folklore, water as a natural phenomenon has been a centrally significant root metaphor at least since the time of the Daodejing道德经 (ca. 4^th to 6^th century BCE*), and continues to be used as such until today. It also forms complimentary pairs with a number of concepts, for example,

 

 

山水 can be found in a vast array of meanings which mirror a relationship between two  opposing entities: high and low, hard and soft, static and flexible are some of them. Also, 山水 has become a style of landscape painting which tries to achieve a natural balance between the two elemental forces of hard, immutable stone and soft, yielding water. -- Fire and water 水火 also stand in opposition to each other, based on the ancient theory of the Five Elements 五行, which postulates that these two elements may under certain circumstances oppose each other in a dramatic and destructive conflict (hopefully, I will get around to explain this in more detail later on). Consequently, 水火 together means ‘conflict’ or ‘extreme suffering’ in Chinese culture.

In the following post I will outline the relationships between the complementary pair of fish and water.

* References:

Lakoff, G. and M. Johnson. 1980. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: Uni of Chicago Press.

Lakoff, G. 1987. Women, Fire and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About The Mind. Chicago: Uni of Chicago Press.

Allan, S. 1997. The Way of Water and Sprouts of Virtue. Albany: State University of New York Press.