We understand how to use language by relating it to how we navigate the world.
Patterns of thought (or topics), are platforms for people to share common ground in the same way public places can be venues to share ideas. I categorize this under the broad cognitive metaphor "IDEAS ARE PLACES" (the construction of the metaphor is my own; words that demonstrate it are in green).* This concept was cemented in Western thought by Ancient Greeks calling a topic in rhetoric the same thing as a physical place, topos (plural, topoi).** The rhetorical term topos has been translated into English as commonplace.
Even the word metaphor belongs to this cognitive metaphor. In Greek, transportation (or conveyance of any kind) is called μεταφορά (metaphora) because it brings you from one place to another in space or ideas.***
That we understand the transfer of ideas in relation to places betrays our general value that public places should facilitate the exchange of information, an idea inherited from the Ancient Greeks as well.
In this picture Pike Place Market operates as an agora for political expression. It is also an example of how a particular place can be entirely defined by an idea, or in this case a political position. Ideas are places and places are ideas.
*Cognitive metaphors are largely the work of Prof. George Lakoff.
**William M. Keith and Christian O. Lundberg in The Essential Guide to Rhetoric p.40
***Prof. Nicolas deMonchaux mentioned this idea in a lecture at UC Berkeley.
Patterns of thought (or topics), are platforms for people to share common ground in the same way public places can be venues to share ideas. I categorize this under the broad cognitive metaphor "IDEAS ARE PLACES" (the construction of the metaphor is my own; words that demonstrate it are in green).* This concept was cemented in Western thought by Ancient Greeks calling a topic in rhetoric the same thing as a physical place, topos (plural, topoi).** The rhetorical term topos has been translated into English as commonplace.
Even the word metaphor belongs to this cognitive metaphor. In Greek, transportation (or conveyance of any kind) is called μεταφορά (metaphora) because it brings you from one place to another in space or ideas.***
That we understand the transfer of ideas in relation to places betrays our general value that public places should facilitate the exchange of information, an idea inherited from the Ancient Greeks as well.
In this picture Pike Place Market operates as an agora for political expression. It is also an example of how a particular place can be entirely defined by an idea, or in this case a political position. Ideas are places and places are ideas.
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| Me on someone's election day vehicle at Pike Place Market, Nov 6th, 2012 |
**William M. Keith and Christian O. Lundberg in The Essential Guide to Rhetoric p.40
***Prof. Nicolas deMonchaux mentioned this idea in a lecture at UC Berkeley.
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