Cognitive Approaches to Specialist Languages

Keep Your Head in the Clouds and Your Feet on the Ground

135

and Johnson (1980). Grady (1997) found that the same source domains are
mapped onto a number of different target domains which allows
conceptual domains to be applied to a wider range of contexts. For
instance, building-related metaphors are used to talk about a number of
target domains such as marriage, political and economic systems.
Consequently, Grady (1997) argued that the conceptual metaphor
THEORIES ARE BUILDINGS is not in fact a basic level metaphor, as it
seems to be motivated by the interaction of two more basic mappings:
ORGANIZATION IS PHYSICAL STRUCTURE and PERSISTING IS
REMAINING ERECT. Because theories are prototypical of abstract
structures and buildings are prototypical of vertical structures, there is a
large number of metaphors that apparently realize THEORIES ARE
BUILDINGS.
Following Grady’s (1997) line of thinking, we may argue that the
conceptual metaphor FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT IS BUILDING A
CONSTRUCTION also has a complex structure. Due to the fact that
‘building’ presupposes: ‘growth’, ‘extension’, ‘making something bigger’,
the proposed conceptual metaphor is clearly linked to business metaphors
with the above mentioned source domains. For example, according to
Boers (2000) typical metaphorical themes in economics are:
MECHANISMS and MACHINES, ANIMALS, PLANTS and
GARDENING, HEALTH and FITNESS, FIGHTING and WARFARE,
SHIPS and SAILING, and SPORTS. All of them seem to be conceptually
related to the idea of ‘growing’ and ‘building’. Notice that parents want
their children to grow healthily, very much like managers who are
interested in the healthy growth of their organizations. Moreover, growth
can also be perceived as expansion and competition. This association leads
to perceiving business activities as fighting and warfare (Grygiel 2015).
These conceptualizations can be illustrated with the following examples
from the realm of financial management:

Financial managers are responsible for the financial health of an

organization (www.sokanu.com/careers/financial-manager).

Financial management is a body of business concerned with the efficient

and effective use of either equity capital, borrowed cash or any other

business funds as well as taking the right decision for profit maximization

and value addition of an entity

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_management).

Market share is calculated by taking a company’s sales over a given period

and dividing it by the total sales of its industry over the same period. This

metric provides a general idea of a company’s size relative to its market