There are many metaphors for Argument, not just Argument is War. What makes such a set coherent?
Other metaphors for Argument: * An Argument Is a Journey * An Argument Is a Container * An Argument Is a Building
> No one of them is sufficient to give us a complete, consistent, and comprehensive understanding of all [the properties of an argument], but together they do the job of giving us a coherent understanding of what a rational argument is. – Lakoff and Johnson, p. 89
If An Argument Is a Journey, and a Journey Takes a Path, then An Argument Takes a Path:
* Are we going to *cover the same ground* over and over? * You're *getting off* the subject. * We're *well on our way* to consensus.
But if an Argument Is *also* a Container, we get different usages:
* That argument has *holes in it*. * Your argument is *vacuous*. * Your claim *doesn't hold water*. * This point is *central* to my argument.
The two can even be used in the same sentence:
* At *this point*, I've provided *the core* of my argument.
(See also Coherent Metaphors for another example.)
Lakoff and Johnson say:
> The reason we need two metaphors is because there is no one metaphor that will do the job. [...] the Journey metaphor highlights both direction and progress toward a goal. The Container metaphor highlights the content [...] The *progress aspect of the Journey metaphor and the *amount* aspect of the Container metaphor can be highlighted simultaneously because the amount increases as the argument progresses. [...] this results in permissible mixed metaphors. (p. 95)
In the following chapter, they discuss the addition of the An Argument Is a Building metaphor. What the Building adds to the shared understanding of Argument is the idea of structure:
* In chapter 1, I'll set out the foundation of my argument.
* It's a well-constructed argument.
* It's a tightly-constructed argument. (The finish work 
was done well.)
(See also Two Notions of Depth, Joint Incoherence.)
I confess this makes me worry about Just-So Stories and Coherence. I wonder if Lakoff and Johnson aren't overthinking it, not appreciating that the brain doesn't need consistent rules. Kludge Theory of Metaphor