T HE CONDUIT METAPHOR M. Reddy. "The Conduit metaphor" in A.Ortony (ed.) Metaphor and Thought (Cambridge Univ. Press: 1993 (1979)) G.Lakoff and M. Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (Chicago Univ. Press: 2003 (1980). C. M. de León,"Metonymic Motivation of the CONDUIT metaphor", Metaphorik, June, 2004.

A COMPLEX METAPHOR IDEAS (or MEANINGS) ARE OBJECTS LINGUISTIC EXPRESSIONS ARE CONTAINERS COMMUNICATION IS SENDING

A FEW EXAMPLES It's hard to get that idea across to him. I gave you that idea. Your reasons came through to us. It's difficult to put my ideas into words. When you have a good idea, try to capture it immediately in words. Try to pack more thought into fewer words. You can't simply stuff ideas into a sentence any old way.

E XAMPLES CONTINUED The meaning is right there in the words. Don't force your meaning into the wrong words. His words carry little meaning. His introduction has a great deal of thought content. Your words seem hollow. The sentence is without meaning. The idea is buried in terribly dense paragraphs.

E NTAILMENTS OF C ONDUIT METAPHOR LINGUISTIC EXPRESSIONS ARE CONTAINERS FOR MEANINGS entails that words and sentences have meanings in themselves, independent of any context or speaker MEANINGS ARE OBJECTS entails that meanings have an existence apart from people and contexts

F URTHER ENTAILMENTS An idea or message conceived as object shares some, but not all, properties with true (source domain) objects: e.g. size, shape, weight, color. An object can be given, taken, exchanged, possessed, destroyed, stolen. And an idea? Plagiarism (Latin plaga = net) suggests that ideas are caught in nets and stolen. And if ideas/messages were not (like) objects?  An alternative perspective: Copyleft, Open source