Metaphor Metaphor Mazar-e Sharif Category="Figures of speech"Category="Metaphors"Category="Rhetoric"In language, a metaphor is a rhetorical Trope defined as a direct Comparison between two seemingly unrelated subjects. In a metaphor, a first object is described as being a second object. Through this description it is inferred that the first object has some of the qualities of the second. In this way, the first object can be economically described because implicit and explicit attributes from the second object can be used to fill in the description of the first. This is exploited in Literature and especially in Poetry, where with few words, emotions and associations from one context can powerfully be associated with another, different subject.

Metaphor is a subset of Analogy and is closely related to other similar concepts such as Comparison, Simile, Allegory and Parable. The exact classification of the type of analogy can be unclear when the subjects, the points of comparison or the manner of comparison are omitted.

In Cognitive linguistics, metaphor is often seen as a basic cognitive function; that humans cannot help but see common traits in subjects which are factually distinct and indeed such behavior may be required for learning and comprehension. This is normally termed a Conceptual metaphor. This trait is exploited in psychotherapy through a technique commonly termed Therapeutic metaphor where a story unrelated to the patient is used to teach lessons about the patient's situation. The use of the word metaphor in these areas falls outside the typical literary definition of metaphor, as given above, athough these types of comparison definitely fall within the greater scope of analogy.

Aspects of metaphor

Scope and definition

A metaphor is, commonly, a Figure of speech used to paint one concept with the attributes normally associated with another. Literal and figurative language contains several broad categories of figurative speech which are classified as metaphorical.

In his book, "Guru: Metaphors from a psychotherapist", Sheldon Kopp states:

: Generally, a metaphor is defined as a way of speaking in which one thing is expressed in terms of another, whereby this bringing together throws new light on the character of what is being described. (p.17)

Parts of a metaphor

A 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.

: All the world's a stage,
: 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 quote 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 well-known 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 metaphor is sometimes further analysed in terms of the ground and the tension. The ground consists of the similarities between the tenor and the vehicle. The tension of the metaphor consists of the dissimilarities between the tenor and the vehicle. In the above example, the ground begins to be elucidated from the third line: "They all have their exits and entrances". In the play, Shakespeare continues this metaphor for another twenty lines beyond what is shown here - making it a good example of an extended metaphor.

The corresponding terms to 'tenor' and 'vehicle' in George Lakoff's terminology are target and source. In this nomenclature, metaphors are named using the convention "target IS source", with the word "is" always capitalized; in this notation, the metaphor discussed above would be called "life IS theater".

Types of metaphor

An extended metaphor is one that sets up a principal subject with several subsidiary subjects or comparisons. The above quote from As you like it is a 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, in the course of a figure, to a second identification inconsistent with the first one. Example: "Clinton stepped up to the plate and grabbed the bull by the horn". Here, the baseball and the activities of a cowboy are implied. Other examples include: "That wet blanket is a loose cannon"; "Strike while the iron is in the fire"; or (said by an administrator whose government-department's budget was slashed) "Now we can just kiss that program right down the drain".

A dead metaphor is one in which the sense of a transferred image is not present. Example: "to grasp a concept" or "to gather 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 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.

Other types of metaphor have been identified as well, though the nomenclatures are not as universally accepted:

An active metaphor is one which by contrast to a dead metaphor, is not part of daily language and is noticeable as a metaphor. Example: "You are my sun."

An absolute or paralogical metaphor (sometimes called an antimetaphor) 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."

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. Example: "He has the wild stag's foot." This phrase suggests grace and speed as well as daring.

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.

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 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 tenor by one attribute.

A root metaphor is the underlying personal attachments that shape an individual's understanding of a situation. It is different to the previous types of metaphor in that it is not an explicit device in language but merely a part of comprehension. Religion is considered the most common root metaphor since birth, marriage, death and other life experiences can convey a very different meaning to different people based on their level or type of religious adherence. An individual's political affiliations are another root metaphor that may affect the message conveyed by such terms as Conservatism and Liberal. In the example: "He is a very conservative politician", "conservatism" is the vehicle, "he" is the tenor and the attributes conveyed are dependent on the root metaphor: is it a good or a bad thing to be considered conservative?

The category of metaphor can be further considered to contain the following specialized subsets:

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

Etymology

Originally, metaphor was a Greek word meaning "transfer". The Greek Etymology is from meta, implying "a change" and pherein meaning "to bear, or carry".

In modern Greek the word metaphor also means transport or transfer.

Metaphor and Simile

Metaphor and Simile are two of the best known tropes and are often mentioned together as examples of rhetorical figures. Metaphor and simile are both terms that describe a comparison: the only difference between a metaphor and a simile is that a simile makes the comparison explicit by using "like" or "as." Despite the similarity of the two figures, and the fact that they have historically been used as synonyms, it is the distinction between them which is normally focused upon in teaching. Ironically, "not knowing the difference between a simile and a metaphor" is sometimes used as a euphemism for knowing little about rhetoric or literature. Of course, someone truly versed in rhetoric understands that there is very little difference between metaphor and simile, and that the distinction is trivial compared to, for example, the difference between metonymy and metaphor.

The Colombia Encyclopedia, 6th edition, explains the difference as:

: a simile states that A is like B, a metaphor states that A is B or substitutes B for A.

Thus, "You are my sunshine" is a metaphor, whereas "Your eyes are like the sun" is a simile. However, some describe similes as simply a specific type of metaphor (see Joseph Kelly's The Seagull Reader (2005), pages 377-379). Most dictionary definitions of both metaphor and simile support Kelly's assertion, and historically it appears the terms were used essentially as synonyms. Nonetheless, many lists of literary terms define metaphor as "a comparison not using like or as", showing the emphasis often put on teaching this distinction.

Usually, similes and metaphors could easily be interchanged. For example remove the word 'like' from William Shakespeare's simile, "Death lies on her, like an untimely frost," and it becomes "Death lies on her, an untimely frost," which retains almost exactly the same meaning. However, at other times using a simile as opposed to a metaphor clarifies the analogy by calling out exactly what is being compared. "He had a posture like a question mark" (Corbett, Classical rhetoric for the modern student (1971), page 479) has one possible interpretation, that the shape of the posture is that of a question mark, whereas "His posture was a question mark" has a second interpretation, that the reason for the posture is in question. At other times use of a simile rather than a metaphor adds meaning by calling to attention the process of comparison, as in "A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle" (Irina Dunn). The point is not to compare a woman to a fish, but to ask the reader to consider how the woman is like the fish. Finally, similes are often more convenient than metaphors when analogizing actions as opposed to things: "Wide sleeves fluttering like wings" (Marcel Proust) does not translate easily from simile to metaphor.

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)

In this example, the friend is compared to a Mule, a wild ass, 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 characatures in the play.

Even when they are not intentional, parallels 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.

Metaphors in cognitive linguistics

Conceptual metaphor

: Main article: Conceptual metaphor

Conceptual metaphors are a subject within Cognitive linguistics. In cognitive linguistics, a metaphor is defined as understanding one conceptual domain in terms of another conceptual domain, e.g. one person's life experience versus another's.

Two influential figures in modern use of metaphor are: George Lakoff, one of America's foremost linguists, and Milton Erickson, the so-called "father of modern hypnotherapy". Both have emphasized strongly the crucial place that metaphor holds in human communication and experience.

Therapeutic metaphor

: Main article: Therapeutic metaphor

A therapeutic metaphor is an extended metaphor, used in psychotherapy. It involves a story or other parallel to an entire aspect of a situation. An example would be if a therapist were told about the untimely death of a loved one and they responded by describing two roses in a garden, one of which is dug up. The purpose of this is to highlight to a person, in an effective way, some aspects and lessons that otherwise they might not be able to perceive as clearly in their current situation, or to suggest new outlooks on it.

Therapeutic metaphors aim to exploit the links between a personal and an impersonal conceptual domain to teach lessons relevent to the first domain, while avoiding the issues associated with personal perspective.

External links

Metaphor Examples
Introduction to Metaphor
Metaphor Examples

References

A. Ortony, Ed. (1993). Metaphor and Thought. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. (1980). Metaphors We Live By. Chicago, Chicago University Press.
George Lakoff. (1990). Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind. Chicago, Chicago University Press.
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.
Max Black. (1962). Models and Metaphor. Ithaca, Cornell University Press.
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.
I. A. Richards. (1936). The Philosophy of Rhetoric. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Paul Ricoeur. (1977). The Rule of Metaphor. Trans. Robert Czerny. Toronto, University of Toronto Press.
A short history of metaphor
David Gordon, Therapeutic Metaphors (1978)
Any of the many books by, or about, Milton Erickson, who was a dedicated user and creator of therapeutic metaphor. (See that article for bibliography)