What is an unconscious-as-down metaphor?

What is an unconscious-as-down metaphor?

Definition
	A conventional metaphor in which an unconscious state is represented as low in relation to a conscious state, based perhaps on the standing posture of wakefulness and the prone posture of sleep.

Examples
	Here are some examples in English:
	He fell asleep. He dropped off to sleep. He's under hypnosis. He sank into a coma.

Generic
	An unconscious-as-down metaphor is a kind of
	What is a metaphor for mind?

Source
	Lakoff, G. and Johnson 1980

Context for this page:

Concept module: unconscious-as-down 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