What is an object-as-coming-out-of-substance metaphor?

What is an object-as-coming-out-of-substance metaphor?

Definition
	A conventional metaphor in which a physical or metaphorical object that is made is represented as coming out of the substance of which it is composed.

Examples
	Here are some examples in English:
	You can make ice out of water by freezing it. I made a paper airplane from a sheet of newspaper. I made a statue out of clay. Our present legal system evolved out of English common law.

Generic
	An object-as-coming-out-of-substance metaphor is a kind of
	What is a metaphor for causation?

Source
	Lakoff, G. and Johnson 1980

Context for this page:

Concept module: object-as-coming-out-of-substance metaphor
In modular book: Metaphors in English, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H. Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Lexicon

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 18 September 1998