What is a labor-as-resource metaphor?

A conventional metaphor in which labor is represented as a resource, based on

• the activity-as-substance metaphor, and

• the similarity of labor to a material resource

  • in being quantifiable and capable of having a value assigned to it
  • in serving a useful purpose, and
  • in being used up as it is employed to serve that purpose.

Here are some examples in English:

• The three factors of production are land, labor, and capital.
• The person being given the house is expected to invest his own “sweat equity” by helping build it.
• To be competitive, we must develop our human resources.

• Conventional metaphors in English

Lakoff, G. and Johnson 1980

• Concept module: labor-as-resource 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

© 1999 SIL International