This article analyses the use of metaphors of possession in the conceptualisation of language. The article takes as an example for analysis the theoretical terminology used to describe linguistic borrowing within the context of language contact. It focuses in particular on Einar Haugen’s [Haugen, E., 1950. The analysis of linguistic borrowing. Language 26 (2), 210–231] seminal essay on this topic in which much of the terminology used in the analysis of borrowing is first systematically propounded. Drawing upon this example, the article explores the structure of the conceptual metaphor 'Language Is A Possession', and examines its theoretical implications and its consequences for social practice. (Philip Seargeant)