Necessary Prerequisite for Change Is Source of Moving Entity
metaphor
Source: Journeys → Event Structure
Categories: cognitive-sciencelinguistics
From: Master Metaphor List
Transfers
Every journey starts somewhere. Before you can move, you must be at a starting point. NECESSARY PREREQUISITE FOR CHANGE IS SOURCE OF MOVING ENTITY is a sub-mapping within Lakoff’s Event Structure metaphor system: if change is motion and states are locations, then the precondition for change maps onto the place from which a moving entity departs. The metaphor gives abstract causal prerequisites a spatial logic — you cannot get there unless you start from here.
Key structural parallels:
- Prerequisites are starting points — “You can’t get there from here” expresses the idea that some changes are impossible without first being in the right initial state. A student cannot take advanced calculus without first completing algebra. A country cannot democratize without certain institutional prerequisites. The metaphor maps these logical dependencies onto spatial ones: you must be at the source location before you can travel to the destination.
- Initial conditions constrain possible changes — just as not every destination is reachable from every starting point, not every change is possible from every initial state. “Where you end up depends on where you start.” The metaphor structures reasoning about path dependence: the source location determines which paths are available, which destinations are reachable, and how long the journey will take.
- The source is left behind — when an entity moves, it departs from its source. Mapped onto change, this means that undergoing change requires leaving the prerequisite conditions behind. “She came from poverty” implies poverty is a location that was departed. “He rose from humble origins” makes the initial condition a low place that was left. The metaphor makes transformation feel like spatial departure.
- Return to the source is regression — if change is forward motion away from a source, then returning to the starting conditions is going backward. “Going back to square one.” “Back to basics.” The metaphor makes the loss of progress feel like spatial regression, a return to the place you struggled to leave.
- Multiple paths from one source — a single starting point may have multiple routes leading away from it. Mapped onto change, this means that the same prerequisite conditions can lead to different outcomes depending on which path is taken. “From those humble beginnings, she could have gone anywhere.”
Limits
- Prerequisites are not always left behind — the metaphor implies that the source is abandoned once motion begins. But many prerequisites for change persist throughout the process and after it. You do not stop needing oxygen when you start running. The foundational knowledge needed to begin a discipline remains necessary at every stage. The metaphor’s departure logic misrepresents ongoing dependencies as one-time starting conditions.
- Not all prerequisites are singular locations — the metaphor suggests one starting point, but real changes often require multiple simultaneous prerequisites. A chemical reaction may need the right temperature, the right pressure, and the right catalysts — none of which maps neatly onto a single spatial source. The metaphor linearizes what may be a complex set of enabling conditions.
- The metaphor obscures sufficiency — a starting point is necessary for a journey but not sufficient. You must also have a vehicle, fuel, a route, and the ability to travel. The metaphor highlights prerequisite conditions but hides the difference between necessary and sufficient conditions. Being at the right starting point does not guarantee arrival.
- Path dependence is overemphasized — the metaphor suggests that where you start determines where you can go. This is sometimes true (you cannot reach some destinations from some locations) but often exaggerated. The metaphor can be used to argue that people from disadvantaged starting points cannot achieve certain changes, when in reality the constraints are social, not spatial.
- The source/destination framework imposes linearity — real change is often cyclical, recursive, or multi-directional. The metaphor’s spatial logic (from here to there) forces change into a linear narrative that may not match the phenomenon. Organizational change, personal growth, and cultural evolution rarely proceed in straight lines from source to destination.
Expressions
- “You can’t get there from here” — impossibility of change without the right prerequisites (common idiom, originally a navigation joke)
- “Where you end up depends on where you start” — initial conditions constrain outcomes (common wisdom; path dependence reasoning)
- “She came from humble origins” — prerequisite social conditions as a spatial source (biographical and journalistic usage)
- “Starting from scratch” — beginning with no prerequisites in place, as if from a blank location (common idiom; originally from the scratch line in racing)
- “Back to square one” — loss of progress as return to the starting point (common idiom; origin debated — board games or BBC football commentary)
- “That’s where it all began” — the initial condition as a place of origin (narrative usage)
- “He rose from nothing” — upward change from a low starting point (common usage; combines with MORE IS UP)
- “From rags to riches” — transformation as journey from one location to another (proverbial; Horatio Alger narratives)
Origin Story
This mapping is documented in the Master Metaphor List (Lakoff, Espenson, and Schwartz 1991) as part of the Event Structure metaphor system, specifically the location case. The Event Structure system is one of the most extensive metaphor systems in cognitive linguistics, comprising a set of interrelated mappings: STATES ARE LOCATIONS, CHANGE IS MOTION, CAUSES ARE FORCES, PURPOSES ARE DESTINATIONS, MEANS ARE PATHS, and DIFFICULTIES ARE IMPEDIMENTS TO MOTION. Within this system, NECESSARY PREREQUISITE FOR CHANGE IS SOURCE OF MOVING ENTITY occupies a specific niche: it maps the starting point of a spatial journey onto the enabling conditions that must hold before change can occur.
Lakoff develops the Event Structure system most fully in “The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor” (1993) and in Philosophy in the Flesh (1999, with Johnson), where the location case and object case of event structure are distinguished. This mapping belongs to the location case, where changes are movements between locations and the source location is the prerequisite state.
References
- Lakoff, G., Espenson, J. & Schwartz, A. Master Metaphor List (1991), Event Structure section
- Lakoff, G. “The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor” in Metaphor and Thought, 2nd ed. (Ortony, ed., 1993) — the Event Structure metaphor system
- Lakoff, G. & Johnson, M. Philosophy in the Flesh (1999), Chapter 11 — Event Structure, location case
- Lakoff, G. & Johnson, M. Metaphors We Live By (1980) — foundational spatial metaphors
Related Entries
Structural Neighbors
Entries from different domains that share structural shape. Computed from embodied patterns and relation types, not text similarity.
- Opportunities Are Objects (physical-objects/metaphor)
- Causal Precedence Is Temporal Precedence (time-and-temporality/metaphor)
- Purposes Are Desired Objects (embodied-experience/metaphor)
- Causation Is Control Over An Object Relative To A Possessor (economics/metaphor)
- The Event Structure Metaphorical System (embodied-experience/metaphor)
- Causation Is Control Over An Entity Relative To A Location (governance/metaphor)
- Action Is Motion (embodied-experience/metaphor)
- Actions Are Self-Propelled Motions (embodied-experience/metaphor)
Structural Tags
Patterns: pathforcecontainer
Relations: enablecause
Structure: pipeline Level: primitive
Contributors: agent:metaphorex-miner