Our life is a constant communication. We communicate every day and use language in each communicative situation.

Language is present in every detail of our life, and whatever we express, it makes through language. But what is language?

Language is a cognitive activity that is done with symbols (symbols means a format of knowledge) that characterizes to human-beings which means a process through which the subject captures the aspects of reality through sensory organs in order to understand reality in other words the world where he/she lives. On the other hand, why is it important to take into account this concept about the language? It shows and explains that our daily communication is based on how we have captured the aspects of reality in order to understand it. In fact , language cant be reduced to a tool for communicating or express ideas, neither as a system of signs , but as a way for understanding the world , and it does through linguistic codes that translate reality make it real in speech.

Having a clearer definition about what language is , and not what its function is or how it is represented(as a system of signs ) it is concluded that the language is the abstraction of our reality that is express in words and these words take part in a real communicative act that shows our communicative competence.(Eugenio coseriu)

This is important for defining what the process of communication is, because it is not only a transmission of information or a sequence of words without

sense as it is thought, but messages structured according to grammatical rules. This depends on that language spoken or used in a communication process. The message also shows the intention of the speaker in order to explain that the language is embedded in the social cognition of people. This means that most of the time people use the language in a social context that causes that language be a way for expressing how we experience the world and not only words individually.

If the language is inserted in a the social cognition of people this means that people use the language as a tool for communicating their ideas according how they have captured reality (this includes cultural aspects )and process is shown through the use of metaphors in our daily communication.

Metaphors have been defined as a the use of a word in order to designate another reality that doesnt represent its conventional meaning (what a word means )in other words is the use of a sign instead of another. Other authors say that metaphors are rhetoric resources used in poetry as simple comparisons. For example the expression Rose is like a rose or Juan is like lion in part these examples show that there is a connection with the conventional meaning (semantics) however this doesnt happen in all cases, for example expressions as: esta chica tiene un gran potencial the word potential doesnt means the power or strength that a person has or that exist in an area or sector , neither means a quantity (vector or scalar), but in this case this expression refers to that girl has a big ass. As it can notice most of time metaphors arent rhetoric resources in poetry or have to have

connection with its conventional meaning, but a way how people have captured reality and how they experience and do things. In fact, Metaphors cant be reduced to a simple comparison or rhetoric resource, but as discursive resource in the conversational acts which goal is to improve the communicative interchanges. Moreover, metaphors structure our conceptual system which is fundamentally metaphorical and nature and also define our reality. The reason for which people use a metaphor in their quotidian communication is because of metaphors are innate, they reflect how we experience and define our reality. Other examples such as esa chica est en algodon! esto es una bomba!, Show people use metaphors as a tool or medium for bettering the communicative competence (how we use the language in a real communicative act) and is in this way that 8-metaphors work or act as a strategy pragmatic (pragmatics studies the language in use in this case the figurative meaning, taking into account the cultural context and its effects) in the conversational acts.

Notes: Eugenio Coseriu (1991:72) El lenguaje es una modalidad especifica del hombre de tomar contacto con el mundo , o , sea , de conocer la realidad , su realidad , a la que el ser humano traduce , esto es , clasifica y aclara , designa y expresa ,mediante smbolos ; los smbolos son por lo tanto , formas cuyo contenido es un conocimiento . Vale decir que el adjetivo simblico cae bajo un concepto ms amplio que es el de cognoscitivo, o sea que el lenguaje es esencialmente

actividad cognoscitiva que se realiza mediante smbolos (o signos simblicos). Es forma de conocimiento Luis Miranda (1990, curso de lingstica general universidad Mayor de San Marcos) Las varias frases definiciones que se dan acerca del lenguaje (el lenguaje es un instrumento que sirve para la intercomunicacin, el lenguaje es un sistema de signos, el lenguaje es una funcin social , ,el lenguaje es una institucin social , el lenguaje es facultad simblica , el lenguaje es una actividad del espritu , , el lenguaje es perpetua creacin , y que ms definirlo en su integridad , se limitan a describirlo bajo este o aquel aspecto , a destacar uno u otro de sus atributos , no son en realidad antitticas , o irreconocibles , como muchas veces se considera , sino complementarias e interdependientes.

George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (1980, Metaphors We live by)

Metaphor is for most people a device of the poetic imagination and the rhetorical flourisha matter of extraordinary rather than ordinary language. Moreover, metaphor is typieully viewed as characteristic of language alone, a matter of words rather than thought or action. ()We have found, on the contrary, that metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action. Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature. () The concepts that govern our thought are not just matters of the intellect. They also govern our everyday functioning, down to the most mundane

details. Our concepts structure what we perceive, how we get around in the world, and how we relate to other people. Our conceptual system thus plays a central role in defining our everyday realities. What we do every day is very much a matter of metaphor. () Since communication is based on the same conceptual system that we use in thinking and acting, language is an important source of evidence for what that system is like.

M.Victoria Escandell Vidal (1996, introduccin a la pragmtica)

Desde Aristteles la metfora suele definirse como la utilizacin de una palabra para designar una realidad distinta a la que convencionalmente representa; es decir se trata del uso de un signo por otro.

I will inlclude more bibliography, I am working on that.