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Metaphor
(from the Greek language: μεταφορά - metaphora, meaning
"transfer") is language that directly compares seemingly
unrelated subjects. It is a figure of speech that compares
two or more things not using like or as. In the simplest
case, this takes the form: "The [first subject] is a [second
subject]." More generally, a metaphor is a rhetorical trope
that describes a first subject as being or equal to a second
object in some way. Thus, the first subject can be
economically described because implicit and explicit
attributes from the second subject are used to enhance the
description of the first. This device is known for usage in
literature, especially in poetry, where with few words,
emotions and associations from one context are associated
with objects and entities in a different context. In a simpler
definition, it is comparing two things without using the
words "like" or "as."
Structure
The metaphor, according to I. A. Richards in The
Philosophy of Rhetoric (1936), consists of two parts: the
tenor and vehicle. The tenor is the subject to which
attributes are ascribed. The vehicle is the subject from
which the attributes are borrowed. Other writers employ the
general terms ground and figure to denote what Richards
identifies as the tenor and vehicle. Consider the All the
world's a stage monologue from As You Like It:
All the world's a stage,
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And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances; — (William
Shakespeare, As You Like It, 2/7)
This well-known quotation is a good example of a
metaphor. In this example, "the world" is compared to a
stage, the aim being to describe the world by taking wellknown attributes from the stage. In this case, the world is
the tenor and the stage is the vehicle. "Men and women"
are a secondary tenor and "players" is the vehicle for this
secondary tenor.
The corresponding terms to 'tenor' and 'vehicle' in alternate
viewpoint terminology are target and source. In this
nomenclature, metaphors are named using the
typographical convention "TARGET IS SOURCE", with
the domains and the word "is" in small capitals (or
capitalized when small-caps are not available); in this
notation, the metaphor discussed above would state that
"LIFE IS THEATRE". In a conceptual metaphor the
elements of an extended metaphor constitute the metaphor's
mapping--in the Shakespeare passage above, for example,
exits would map to death and entrances to birth.
Metaphors are defined as comparisons without the use of
the words "like" or "as", in the average classroom; these
comparisons would be called similes.
[edit] Terms and categorization
A metaphor is generally considered to be more forceful and
active than an analogy (metaphor asserts two topics are the
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same whereas analogy may acknowledge differences).
Other rhetorical devices involving comparison, such as
metonymy, synecdoche, simile, allegory and parable, share
much in common with metaphor but are usually
distinguished by the manner in which the comparison
between subjects is delivered.
The category of metaphor can be further considered to
contain the following specialized subsets:
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allegory: An extended metaphor in which a story is
told to illustrate an important attribute of the subject
catachresis: A mixed metaphor (sometimes used by
design and sometimes a rhetorical fault)
parable: An extended metaphor told as an anecdote to
illustrate or teach a moral lesson
[edit] Common types of metaphor
The following are the more commonly identified types of
Metaphor:
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A dead metaphor is one in which the sense of a
transferred image is not present. Example: "to grasp a
concept" or "to gather what you've understood" Both
of these phrases use a physical action as a metaphor
for understanding (itself a metaphor), but in none of
these cases do most speakers of English actually
visualize the physical action. Dead metaphors, by
definition, normally go unnoticed. Some people make
a distinction between a "dead metaphor" whose origin
most speakers are entirely unaware of (such as "to
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understand" meaning to get underneath a concept),
and a dormant metaphor, whose metaphorical
character people are aware of but rarely think about
(such as "to break the ice"). Others, however, use dead
metaphor for both of these concepts, and use it more
generally as a way of describing metaphorical cliché.
An extended metaphor, or conceit, sets up a
principal subject with several subsidiary subjects or
comparisons. The above quote from As You Like It is a
very good example. The world is described as a stage
and then men and women are subsidiary subjects that
are further described in the same context.
A mixed metaphor is one that leaps from one
identification to a second identification that is
inconsistent with the first one. Example: "He stepped
up to the plate and grabbed the bull by the horns,"
where two commonly used metaphoric grounds for
highlighting the concept of "taking action" are
confused to create a nonsensical image.
[edit] Less common classifications
Other types of metaphor have been identified as well,
though the nomenclatures are not as universally accepted:
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An absolute or paralogical metaphor (sometimes
called an anti-metaphor) is one in which there is no
discernible point of resemblance between the idea and
the image. Example: "The couch is the autobahn of the
living room."
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An active metaphor is one which by contrast to a
dead metaphor, is not part of daily language and is
noticeable as a metaphor.
A complex metaphor is one which mounts one
identification on another. Example: "That throws some
light on the question." Throwing light is a metaphor
and there is no actual light.
A compound or loose metaphor is one that catches
the mind with several points of similarity. Examples:
"He has the wild stag's foot." This phrase suggests
grace and speed as well as daring.
A dying metaphor is a derogatory term coined by
George Orwell in his essay Politics and the English
Language. Orwell defines a dying metaphor as a
metaphor that isn't dead (dead metaphors are different,
as they are treated like ordinary words), but has been
worn out and is used because it saves people the
trouble of inventing an original phrase for themselves.
In short, a cliché. Example: Achilles' heel. Orwell
suggests that writers scan their work for such dying
forms that they have 'seen regularly before in print'
and replace them with alternative language patterns.
An epic metaphor or Homeric simile is an extended
metaphor containing details about the vehicle that are
not, in fact, necessary for the metaphoric purpose.
This can be extended to humorous lengths, for
instance: "This is a crisis. A large crisis. In fact, if
you've got a moment, it's a twelve-story crisis with a
magnificent entrance hall, carpeting throughout, 24hour porterage and an enormous sign on the roof
saying 'This Is a Large Crisis.'" (Blackadder)
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An implicit metaphor is one in which the tenor is not
specified but implied. Example: "Shut your trap!"
Here, the mouth of the listener is the unspecified
tenor.
An implied or unstated metaphor is a metaphor not
explicitly stated or obvious that compares two things
by using adjectives that commonly describe one thing,
but are used to describe another comparing the two.
An example: "Golden baked skin", comparing bakery
goods to skin or "green blades of nausea", comparing
green grass to the pallor of a nausea-stic person or
"leafy golden sunset" comparing the sunset to a tree in
the fall.
A simple or tight metaphor is one in which there is
but one point of resemblance between the tenor and
the vehicle. Example: "Cool it". In this example, the
vehicle, "Cool", is a temperature and nothing else, so
the tenor, "it", can only be grounded to the vehicle by
one attribute.
A submerged metaphor is one in which the vehicle is
implied, or indicated by one aspect. Example: "my
winged thought". Here, the audience must supply the
image of the bird.
A synecdochic metaphor is a trope that is both a
metaphor and a synecdoche in which a small part of
something is chosen to represent the whole so as to
highlight certain elements of the whole. For example
"a pair of ragged claws" represents a crab in T. S.
Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.
Describing the crab in this way gives it the attributes
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of sharpness and savagery normally associated with
claws.
[edit] Metaphors outside of rhetoric
The term metaphor is also used for the following terms that
are not a part of rhetoric:
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A cognitive metaphor is the association of an object
to an experience outside the object's environment.
A conceptual metaphor is an underlying association
that is systematic in both language and thought.
A root metaphor is the underlying worldview that
shapes an individual's understanding of a situation.
A therapeutic metaphor is an experience that allows
one to learn about more than just that experience.
[edit] Metaphors in literature and
language
Metaphor is present in written language back to the earliest
surviving writings. From the Epic of Gilgamesh (one of the
oldest Sumerian texts):
My friend, the swift mule, fleet wild ass of the
mountain, panther of the wilderness, after we joined
together and went up into the mountain, fought the
Bull of Heaven and killed it, and overwhelmed
Humbaba, who lived in the Cedar Forest, now what is
this sleep that has seized you? - (Trans. Kovacs, 1989)
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In this example, the friend is compared to a mule, a wild
donkey, and a panther to indicate that the speaker sees traits
from these animals in his friend.
The Greek plays of Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Euripides,
among others, were almost invariably allegorical, showing
the tragedy of the protagonists, either to caution the
audience metaphorically about temptation, or to lambast
famous individuals of the day by inferring similarities with
the caricatures in the play.
Novelist and essayist Giannina Braschi states, "Metaphors
and Similes are the beginning of the democratic system of
envy."
Even when they are not intentional, can be drawn between
most writing or language and other topics. In this way it
can be seen that any theme in literature is a metaphor, using
the story to convey information about human perception of
the theme in question.
[edit] Metaphors in historical linguistics
In historical onomasiology or, more generally, in historical
linguistics, metaphor is defined as semantic change based
on similarity, i.e. a similarity in form or function between
the original concept named by a word and the target
concept named by this word[5]. Example: mouse 'small,
gray rodent' > 'small, gray, mouse-shaped computer device'.
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Some more recent linguistic theories view language as by
its nature all metaphorical; or that language in essence is
metaphorical.
[edit] References
1. ^ Metaphora, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A
Greek-English Lexicon, at Perseus
2. ^ Metaphero, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A
Greek-English Lexicon, at Perseus
3. ^ Meta, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A GreekEnglish Lexicon, at Perseus
4. ^ Phero, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A
Greek-English Lexicon, at Perseus
5. ^ Cf. Joachim Grzega (2004), Bezeichnungswandel:
Wie, Warum, Wozu? Ein Beitrag zur englischen und
allgemeinen Onomasiologie, Heidelberg: Winter, and
Blank, Andreas (1998), Prinzipien des lexikalischen
Bedeutungswandels am Beispiel derfgjghfjg
romanischen Sprachen, Tübingen: Niemeyer.
[edit] Other References
This article includes a list of references or external links,
but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline
citations. Please improve this article by introducing more
precise citations where appropriate. (November 2008)
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Stefano Arduini (2007). (ed.) Metaphors, Roma,
Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura.
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Aristotle. Poetics. Trans. I. Bywater. In The Complete
Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation.
(1984). 2 Vols. Ed. Jonathan Barnes. Princeton,
Princeton University Press.
I. A. Richards. (1936). The Philosophy of Rhetoric.
Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Max Black (1954). Metaphor, Proceedings of the
Aristotelian Society, 55, pp. 273-294.
Max Black (1962). Models and Metaphor, Ithaca,
Cornell University Press.
Max Black (1979). More about Metaphor, in A.
Ortony (ed) Metaphor & Thought.
Clive Cazeaux (2007). Metaphor and Continental
Philosophy: From Kant to Derrida. New York:
Routledge.
L. J. Cohen (1979). The Semantics of Metaphor, in A.
Ortony (ed) Metaphor & Thought
Donald Davidson. (1978). "What Metaphors Mean."
Reprinted in Inquiries Into Truth and Interpretation.
(1984), Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Jacques Derrida (1982). "White Mythology: Metaphor
in the Text of Philosophy." In Margins of Philosophy.
Trans. Alan Bass. Chicago, University of Chicago
Press.
Paul Ricoeur (1975). The Rule of Metaphor: MultiDisciplinary Studies in the Creation of Meaning in
Language, trans. Robert Czerny with Kathleen
McLaughlin and John Costello, S. J., London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul 1978. (Toronto: University
of Toronto Press 1977)
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John Searle (1979). “Metaphor,” in A. Ortony (ed)
Metaphor & Thought
Name: Seham Al-ateeq
ID Number: 425205388
Group: C
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