What Do Metaphors of Moving Help Us Do?
By using so many metaphors of movement, what are the conflict resolution experts telling us in addition to their more literal statements? The Event Structure metaphor shows how movement of any kind may be understood to involve force. Force and movement are central to our conventional understanding of causation (Lakoff and Johnson, 1999). But how do mediation or mediators cause conflict to be resolved? Mediators are instructed in literal terms by this literature not to direct or compel the terms by which settlement of disputes might be achieved. Literal statements to the effect that settlement terms are to be voluntarily determined by the disputants themselves are reinforced by the use of metaphors such as Needs are Forces Moving Objects in A Deep Container and Disputants are Forces that Move Things. Experienced mediators, nonetheless, know they can influence whether settlement is achieved, how, and on what terms, and this is evident in the broad use of metaphors such as Mediators Are F
