An incorrect metaphor people use for communication.
Introduced as “The conduit metaphor: A case of frame conflict in our language about language,” Michael J. Reddy, in Ortony 1993. [Scanned PDF 
)
Here are some Statements About Communication.
The metaphorical system underlying these examples goes like this: * Someone – a speaker or writer – has an idea in her head. * She encodes it into a message, conceived of as a container for ideas. * That message is then either sent to a specific person – like shooting it down a conduit – or it’s broadcast for any number of people to receive. * The message is then decoded so that the idea is now in the receiver’s head. This decoding is the inverse of the encoding.
Reddy, interestingly, supports the idea that this is an underlying metaphor by noting it makes people err.
* It assumes that Personal Context barely affects understanding. That limits our ability to address misunderstandings: if the problem is a mismatch of two people's experience, but we don't believe experience is relevant, we fix the problem by TALKING LOUDER (for example). The message is *right there*, in the words – how can they miss it?