Lakoff and Johnson's Metaphors We Live By (1980): most abstract thought is metaphorical, built on a small set of primary metaphors grounded in embodied experience.
"Argument is war" — we attack positions, defend claims, shoot down ideas. "Time is money" — we spend, waste, invest it.
These are not decorative — they shape which inferences are available. If argument is war, then there must be winners and losers. If argument is instead collaborative construction, different inferences follow.
Related: ↗ @alice / writing-is-thinking, meaning-through-reference