The study of language reveals an aspect of culture that is systematically organized. The relationship between categories, cognition, language, culture and truth can be examined analytically in Metaphors We Live By. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson argue that dictionary definitions do not adequately describe concepts, especially ambiguous concepts. Rather, we use concepts from a source domain (which are more basic and empirically real) to make sense of concepts from the target domain (which are less tangible and clearly defined, e.g.: emotions, time, and morality). An experiential foundation for both domains connects the two. Experiential bases include our bodies, our interaction with the physical environment, and our interactions with other people and institutions. Using this method requires the use of metaphors. Lakoff and Johnson forcefully assert that “our ordinary conceptual system, according to which we think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature…the essence of metaphor is to understand and experience one thing in the terms of another” ( p.3). -5). Language gives us evidence of the conceptual system within a culture. Our language limits our understanding of everyday experiences because we rely on metaphors to create an understanding of our messages; there are very few things we are able to explain in everyday life without talking about one thing in terms of another. Lakoff and Johnson classify metaphors into three groups: structural, orientational, and ontological. When one concept is structured metaphorically based on another, it is classified as a structural metaphor. Structural metaphors require certain aspects of a concept to be emphasized and others to be shaded. Orientational metaphors organize everything......the middle of an article......the category is understood for our purposes in a given context” (p. 163-63). Again, for Lakoff and Johnson, there is no truth independent of human understanding. This being considered, the metaphors discussed so far are “true” to the extent that language allows us to give meaning and significance to different concepts through coherence. For a conceptual metaphor to be true, it must be shared beyond the individual level, but it is rarely, if ever, shared on a universal level. There is no truth that always exists for everyone. Truth is culturally constructed and is always relative to the conceptual system within the culture. Works Cited Davis, Watson. “Fighting a plague.” The Science News-Letter 32 (1937): 234-237. Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson. Metaphors we live by. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1980.