What is an argument-as-container metaphor?

What is an argument-as-container metaphor?

Definition
	A conventional metaphor in which rational argument is represented as a container with features such as an amount of content.

Examples
	Here are some examples in English:
	Your argument doesn't have much content. That argument has holes in it. Your argument is vacuous. I'm tired of your empty arguments. You won't find that idea in his argument. That conclusion falls out of my argument. Your argument won't hold water.

Generic
	An argument-as-container is a kind of
	What is a metaphor for argument?

Source
	Lakoff, G. and Johnson 1980

Context for this page:

Concept module: argument-as-container
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