ISSN 1712-8358[Print]

Cross-Cultural Communication ISSN 1923-6700[Online]

Vol. 16, No. 4, 2020, pp. 69-74 www.cscanada.net
DOI:10.3968/11967 www.cscanada.org

A Cognitive Analysis of Conceptual Metaphor in the Lyrics of Taylor Swift

LIAO Chuyi[a],*

[a]
School of English for International Business, Guangdong University of is the necessary cognitive tool in the composition of the
Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China.
* system of human thought, which is conceptual. Metaphor
Corresponding author.
is ubiquitous, and that is the prominent characteristic of
Received 5 August 2020; accepted 24 November 2020 lyrics as well. Hence, this paper set to explore the general
Published online 26 December 2020
distribution and practical meaning of conceptual metaphor
theory in the identified conceptual metaphors in the lyrics
Abstract written by Taylor Swift, one of the most successful singer-
Where there is a language, there is a metaphor. Metaphor songwriters in United States. On the basis of a self-built
is a kind of cognition phenomenon that can reflect and corpus contained all the lyrics from the selected twenty
influence human beings’ mindset, so does lyrics. The most popular songs written by Taylor Swift, the present
present study aims to explore the general distribution and study identifies and categorizes conceptual metaphors in
practical meaning of conceptual metaphor theory in the the data with the application of AntConc in accordance
identified conceptual metaphors in the lyrics written by to Lakoff and Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory,
Taylor Swift. Based on a corpus of all the lyrics from the mainly presented in discourse analysis in detail. The
selected twenty Taylor Swift’s most popular songs, the result reveals that the general distribution of conceptual
identified and categorized conceptual metaphors in the metaphors in the selected lyrics written by Taylor Swift is
data are analyzed by discourse analysis in accordance mainly divided into two categories, structural metaphor
to Lakoff and Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory. and ontological metaphor. To be more specific, three
Upon investigation, the general distribution of conceptual sub-metaphors that describe the existence and status of
metaphors in the selected lyrics written by Taylor Swift is a love relationship, LOVE IS A JOURNEY, LOVE IS A
mainly divided into two categories, structural metaphor GAME and LOVE IS HEART metaphors are identified
and ontological metaphor. The result of the discourse and analyzed in detail. In terms of practical meaning,
analysis implies that conceptual metaphor plays a key role conceptual metaphor is such an important tool for Swift to
in the lyrics written by Taylor Swift. express her feelings in the love relationship in the lyrics.
Key words: Conceptual metaphor theory; Taylor Being a role model for the teenagers and an indispensable
swift; Lyrics; Structural metaphor; Ontological metaphor power of feminism in this era, Swift goes to great
lengths to write songs that do make teenagers think about
L i a o , C . Y. ( 2 0 2 0 ) . A C o g n i t i v e A n a l y s i s o f C o n c e p t u a l themselves, analyze how the young feels about something
M e t a p h o r i n t h e Ly r i c s o f Ta y l o r S w i f t . C ro s s - C u l t u r a l and then simplify how they feel by the adoption of all
C o m m u n i c a t i o n , 1 6 ( 4 ) , 6 9 - 7 4 . Av a i l a b l e f r o m : h t t p / / kinds of conceptual metaphors in her lyrics, which is
w w w. c s c a n a d a . n e t / i n d e x . p h p / c c c / a r t i c l e / v i e w / 11 9 6 7
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/11967
exceedingly meaningful and worthy of appreciation.
Hopefully this study may attract more attention of
researchers on the application of conceptual metaphor.

1. Introduction 2. Literature Review

As a universal phenomenon in language, metaphor has The earliest study of metaphor can be traced back to
always been the research focus of linguists. Metaphor Aristotle (1952), who defined it as a kind of rhetorical.

69 Copyright © Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture

A Cognitive Analysis of Conceptual Metaphor in the Lyrics of Taylor Swift

In the work of Aristotle, Rhetoric and Poetics, metaphor and categorization of conceptual metaphors in the data,
is analyzed from many aspects in details including the author searches a great many key words with the
definition, working system and main functions of application of AntConc and found that Swift uses LOVE
metaphor. In 1980s, Lakoff and Johnson published IS A JOURNEY metaphor for at least eleven times, LOVE
Metaphors We Live By, which is the representative of the IS A GAME and LOVE IS HEART metaphors each for
cognitive study of metaphor. They systematically discuss at least seven times to describe the existence and status
the cognitive view of metaphor in the book, and argue that of love. These three sub-metaphors and their concrete
metaphor is not only the problem of language or words, examples in the data will be analyzed in the next part
on the contrary, people’s thinking process is metaphorical. accordingly, by presenting the mappings between three
They put forward the conceptual metaphor theory, which different source domains in the lyrics, which are journey,
aims to explain the metaphorical mapping between the game and heart, and one shared target ___domain, which is
cognitive ___domain and how the metaphor restricts human love.
thinking and behavior.
In the meanwhile, the pervasiveness of conceptual
metaphor used in lyrics context has called for much more 4. Analysis and Discussion
enthusiastic academic endeavor in recent years. Quite
4.1 Analysis
a few scholars studied conceptual metaphor identified
in lyrics from the perspective of Conceptual Metaphor Lakoff and Johnson stated that “because the metaphorical
Theory within the field of cognitive linguistics. Wu concept is systematic, the language we use to talk about
(2019) analyzed the lyrics of Chinese band, Mayday, that aspect of the concept is systematic (1980)”. In
and American band, Maroon 5, to determine the Metaphors We Live By, they divided conceptual metaphor
characteristics and style of lyrics of the two bands, into three categories, namely structural metaphor,
and thus found the similarities and differences of the orientational metaphor and ontological metaphor. Since
distribution of conceptual metaphors between Mayday’ their classification of conceptual metaphor is accepted
and Maroon 5’s lyrics. Similarly, based on the theory of by the majority of the metaphor researchers, this paper
cognitive poetics and conceptual metaphor, Li (2018) follows their classification of conceptual metaphor.
analyzed the metaphorical languages in Bob Dylan’s Due to the restrict of the content, the following analysis
lyrics and their functions. Alternatively, other scholars focuses on investigating two categories of conceptual
had explored metaphorical phenomenon in lyrics written metaphor identified in the lyrics of Taylor Swift’s songs,
by Fang Wenshan (Zhang 2019) and Cui Jian (Xin 2015). which are structural metaphor and ontological metaphor.
What’s more, one used the mixed method of combining Having analyzed the data from the self-built corpus of
the quantitative with qualitative analysis to investigate the lyrics of twenty Taylor Swift’s most popular songs
the conceptual metaphors applied in Faye Wong’s lyrics with the assistant of AntConc, it is found that Swift uses
(Liu 2015). However, neither foreign female singer nor LOVE IS A JOURNEY, LOVE IS A GAME and LOVE
foreign female songwriter is noticed in this field of study IS HEART metaphors to describe the existence of love.
yet. Therefore, if take one of the most successful singer- Love is the most frequently adopted word in Swift’s
songwriters in United States, Taylor Swift, as an example, songs. Furthermore, love is the permanent topic that can
what is the general distribution of conceptual metaphors be identified in lyrics of all kinds of singers. Therefore,
in the selected lyrics written by Taylor Swift? What is all the sub-metaphors analyzed bellow are related to love
the practical meaning of the application of conceptual which will be elaborated in this part.
metaphors in a large proportion of Taylor Swift’s lyrics? 4.1.1 Structural Metaphor
Structural metaphors are, defined by Lakoff and Johnson,
cases where one concept is metaphorically structured
3. Methods in terms of another (2003). Source domains provide
This study focuses on investigating two categories of frameworks for target domains and that determines the
conceptual metaphor identified in the lyrics of Taylor ways in which people think and talk about the entities and
Swift’s songs, which are structural metaphor and activities to which the target domains refer, and even the
ontological metaphor. The data of this research are ways in which people behave or carry out activities.
adopted from the lyrics written by a renowned singer- 4.1.1.1 Journey Metaphor
songwriter, Taylor Swift. The author selects twenty Taylor
a. The Journey Denoting The Relationship of Love
Swift’s most popular songs and collects the lyrics from
The JOURNEY metaphor is a famous example of
the Taylor Swift’s official website. The selected songs
metaphor in English. In the well-known book Metaphors
share the same topic, love, which makes the research more
We Live By, Lakoff and Johnson (1980) analyzes this
targeted. Then a small corpus of all the lyrics, 7449 words
metaphor and provides several metaphorical expressions
in total, is built up. In accordance to Lakoff and Johnson’s
in plain English. What’s more, Kövecses (1986, 1988,
Conceptual Metaphor Theory during the identification

Copyright © Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture 70

 LIAO Chuyi (2020).
Cross-cultural Communication, 16 (4), 69-74

2000) furthers the discussion about this metaphor in detail. adopts very unique pattern which eventually fails. While
Being in a love relationship is like starting a new journey. Example (5) describes a bad lover who could not satisfy
There will be different stages and, sometimes, intervals as with one exclusive lover but continuously searches for
a love relationship develops. So do a journey. After lovers another.
start a journey of their own, they would keep moving from b. Travelers travel by vehicles denoting lovers
one stage to another and during the process problems or experience events together
difficulties may occur. Love shares the similar features So baby drive slow
with those of a journey, this metaphor therefore constructs ‘Til we run out of road in this one horse town
the mapping between journey and love. —Fearless
Small talk, he drives
Coffee at midnight, polite reflects
—You Are In Love
Example (6) and (7) both illustrate a classic scene that
two lovers stay in a car and have a good time. People in
love do not care about the speed of the drive or the time of
the date, as long as they can stay together.
So I drive home alone, as I turn out the light
I’ll put his picture down and maybe get some sleep
tonight
He’s the reason for the teardrops on my guitar
Figure 1 —Teardrops on my Guitar
Journey metaphor Midnight, you come and pick me up
No head lights
Were driving down the road
Long drive, could end in burning flames or paradise
I wonder if you know
—Style
There’s a glow off the pavement
The drive was the fairy worst
—Fearless
When the flowers that we’d grown together died of
Don’t know what’s down this road
thirst
I’m just walking trying to see through the rain coming
—Clean
down
Nonetheless, lovers will eventually experience
—A Place in This World
some relatively disappointing issues during the process.
Now I’m pacing down the hall chasing down the
Example (8) (9) (10) imply that situation by evaluating
street
“the drive” as lonely, long and worst.
—If This Was A Movie
In Example (1), Swift draws a picture that a boy c. Travelers reach the destination of the journey
and a girl are in love and going out for a date. The boy denoting the love relationship comes to the end
drives along the road and the girl feels so relax and His love was like driving a new Maserati down a dead
happy that she notices and appreciates the beautiful glow end street
of the sunshine on the pavement. Actually “the road” Faster than the wind, passionate as sin, ending so
indicates that their love relationship is established. They suddenly
just start a journey and hit the road together. The girl in —Red
Example (2) also falls in love, however, she does not fully As is mentioned above, journey is not always smooth,
understand the situation nor have a confident foresight so probably some of the couple could not resolve their
of this relationship, because she is not sure whether they problems and finally reach the destination of their journey,
will get along well with each other and how will this which is the end of their relationship as well.
love influence her. For Example (3), the girl is quite d. PLAY metaphor
courageous and decides to face up with her feelings and This structural metaphor constructs a metaphorical
chase after love. mapping which is presented by the form here: source
I tried to take the road less traveled by ___domain is play, and the target ___domain is love. In addition
But nothing seems to work the first few times to music, plays, an innovative way to express emotions,
—The Outside are playing an important role in our daily life. Generally
He can’t keep his wild eyes on the road speaking, a play is comprised of four sections: beginning,
—Style development, climax and ending. The process of a love
Here, road is mapped onto the love relationship relationship between lovers tend to have the same stages,
between two lovers. In Example (4), “the road less too. Hence, the features of a play can be mapped onto
traveled by” stands for a kind of love relationship that those of love.

71 Copyright © Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture

A Cognitive Analysis of Conceptual Metaphor in the Lyrics of Taylor Swift

4.1.2 Ontological Metaphor

Ontological metaphor, entity metaphor or substance
metaphor, is based on the experience of physical objects
and substances. The experiences of objects provide the
material foundation to understand abstract conceptual
expression as entity. Understanding the experiences in
terms of objects and substances allows people to pick
out parts of their experience and treat them as discrete
entities or substances of a uniform kind. Once we can
Figure 2
PLAY metaphor identify our experiences as entities or substances, we can
refer to them, categorize them, group them, and quantify
a. A play denoting a love story them—and, by this means, reason about them (Lakoff
If you and I are a story and Johnson 2003). People understand unfamiliar,
That never gets told intangible and abstract concept through familiar, tangible
—Stay Beautiful and concrete concept.
And you come away with a great little story of a mess 4.1.2.1 PERSON metaphor
of a dreamer with the nerve to adore you. Entity and substance metaphor means regarding
—Cold as you experience as entity or substance, and understanding the
I used to think one day we’d tell the story of us former through the latter, therefore, experience can be
How we met and the sparks flew instantly described materially, such as reference, quantification
When it all broke down and classification. In other words, entity and substance
The story of us looks a lot like a tragedy now metaphor treats abstract concept as visible concrete
—The Story Of Us objects. Love is again the target ___domain, and heart is
Different plays represent different kinds of love. mapped onto love.
Almost everyone in the beginning stage of love is so
enthusiastic that he or she want to tell every detail of their
love story to people around. It is hard to admit, however,
some love stories are merely tragedies in the end.
b. The beginning of a play denoting lovers begin to fall
in love
I can see the end as it begins
—Wildest Dreams
But on a Wednesday in a cafe Figure 3
Person metaphor
I watched it begin again.
—Begin Again a. Heart denoting the relationship of love
The beginning of a love story is always beautiful and Last night I heard my own heart beating
innocent, just like those of many famous plays. But love Sounded like footsteps on my stairs
is complicated and hard to guess sometimes. Perhaps —If This Was A Movie
some stories have already set some clues of bad ending as That July 9th
is described in Example (15) or some will have surprising The beat of your heart
turning points in the later stage as Example (16). It jumps through your shirt
4.1.1.2.3 The ending of a play denoting the love —Last Kiss
relationship comes to the end My heart been borrowed and yours has been blue
Oh, we’re scared to see the ending —lover
But the story of us might be ending soon They say home is where the heart is
—The Story Of Us —London Boy
All well that ends well to end up with you Example (19) highlights heart beating to express the
—Lover girl’s complex mental state of falling in love, suggesting
The cruel fact that not every love relationship works out that she is excited, curious and confused at the same time;
and has happy ending is also reflected in plays. However Example (20) uses the beat of one’s heart to indicate
disappointing, we all have to accept that there is an ending the existence of that person and the love relationship;
of a play, no matter how wonderful it was. An ending is Example (21) means that one is engaged in a relationship
another beginning, as is discussed in the above. Carry on, while the other one is hurt by someone else before they
go ahead to admire another play or engage in another love finally meet with each other.
relationship are not necessarily bad things.

Copyright © Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture 72

 LIAO Chuyi (2020).
Cross-cultural Communication, 16 (4), 69-74

b. Heart break denoting the love relationship comes to music inward and turning it from the diary perspective
the end to send a broader message to girls who would be really
Heart break is the national anthem receptive to hearing about positive ideas and the colorful
—New Romantics world outside. Swift writes about sweet love story when
He’s the reason for the teardrops on my guitar she is in a happy love relationship and sad story when she
The only one who’s got enough for me to break my is treated in the rude way by male. There are all kinds of
heart emotions involved in a love relationship, and Swift set
—Teardrops on my Guitar them down in plain words but also combined with accurate
Why would you wanna break a perfectly good heart? metaphors. The significant message delivered by Swift’s
—A Perfectly Good Heart lyrics is that a female is able to talk about her intimate
feelings towards love relationship, which contributes to
This is one of the most pervasive metaphors used the thrive of girl power. It is such important that a 12-year-
in lyrics, poetry or plays whose theme is love. By heart old girl understands what that means and thereafter
break, it means that one party is deeply hurt by the other knows what it is to be a woman in today’s society, in the
party when the two establish a love relationship. Example workplace or in the media or perception. Moreover, at
(23) builds the image of an independent and powerful any age, but mostly the age of one’s adolescence, what
woman who is not afraid of failing in love and keep can be so overwhelming is that one is experiencing so
trying, while Example (24) and (25) are the reflection of many things at the same time that it is difficult to actually
teenage love in which the girl is the one who tend to be understand what those emotions are, which is likely to turn
degraded by the boy she loved to anxiety very quickly. Therefore, the best thing Swift
can do for the teenagers is continue to write songs that do
make them think about themselves and analyze how they
Discussion feel about something and then simplify how they feel by
Taylor Swift, born on December 13, 1989 in Pennsylvania, the adoption of all kinds of metaphors in her lyrics.
USA, winner of the highest achievement AMA award,
ARTIST OF THE DECADE, ten Grammy Awards and
millions sold copies of her albums in solely U.S. market, is Conclusion
one of the most successful singer-songwriters in America. On the basis of Conceptual Metaphor Theory, the
More than a half of the songs in all her albums are main body of this paper deals with the interpretation
composed by herself. All the trophies received recognize of conceptual metaphors in the selected lyrics written
Swift’s hard work in music who elaborates the topic “love” by Taylor Swift. To answer the first research question,
in an overwhelming proportion of her songs, using LOVE the general distribution of conceptual metaphors in the
IS A JOURNEY, LOVE IS A GAME, LOVE IS HEART selected lyrics written by Taylor Swift is mainly divided
and many other metaphors. There are critics and media, into two categories, structural metaphor and ontological
however, criticize Swift of the fact that she wrote many metaphor. To be more specific, three sub-metaphors that
love songs to express her feelings in the love relationship describe the existence and status of a love relationship,
with male. They put a very irritating, negative, spin on LOVE IS A JOURNEY, LOVE IS A GAME and LOVE IS
her lyrics, even her style of making music, as if is is over- HEART metaphors are identified and analyzed in detail.
sharing or too much information, which has merely been For the second research question, it has been answered in
the way she lived her life and run her career. Furthermore, the discussion part in Chapter 4. Furthermore, conclusions
the truth is that there are also a large number of male can be drawn as follow. First, conceptual metaphor is
musicians and songwriters who write songs about their such an important tool for Swift to express her feelings
girlfriends and ex-girlfriends, but no criticism, even no in the love relationship in the lyrics. Second, having
joke, is never made about them. The great achievements analyzed the data from the self-built corpus of the lyrics
and the determined continuous hard work made by Swift of twenty Taylor Swift’s most popular songs with the
are, therefore, the demonstration of the power of feminism application of AntConc, it is found that top three source
in this era. Especially, Swift has built a huge platform domains in the lyrics are journey, game and heart, and
among a very vulnerable but impressionable set of the they all project to the same target ___domain, which is love.
population, among which are mostly the teenagers. So Last but not least, Taylor Swift is a role model for the
Swift, in terms of not only lyrics of her songs but personal teenagers and an indispensable power of feminism in this
image, is bearing huge responsibility of guiding those era. Her unwavering efforts to write songs that do make
teenagers to correctly build up their self-esteem and self- teenagers think about themselves and analyze how they
image in their formative years. feel about something and then simplify how they feel by
By putting such emphasis on expressing and reflecting the adoption of all kinds of conceptual metaphors in her
on the topic of love, Swift is actually turning her lens of lyrics is meaningful and worthy of appreciation.

73 Copyright © Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture

A Cognitive Analysis of Conceptual Metaphor in the Lyrics of Taylor Swift

The present study provides reference for future Jiang, J. C. (2017). Modern female image in the album 1989 by
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Copyright © Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture 74