Metaphor (from the Greek: μεταφορά - metaphora, "a transfer", in rhetoric "transference of a word to a new sense", from μεταφέρω - metaphero, "to carry over, to transfer") is language that directly compares seemingly unrelated subjects. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly 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 subject in some way. Rhetoric has had many definitions no simple definition can do it justice See also Figure of speech In linguistics trope is a rhetorical Figure of speech that consists of a play on words i 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. Literature is the Art of written works Literally translated the word means "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter

Within the non-rhetorical theory a metaphor is generally considered to be a concluded equation of terms that is more forceful and active than an analogy, although the two types of tropes are highly similar and often confused. Analogy is both the cognitive process of transferring Information from a particular subject (the analogue or source to another particular subject (the target and One distinguishing characteristic is that the assertiveness of a metaphor calls into question the underlying category structure, whereas in a rhetorical analogy the comparative differences between the categories remain salient and acknowledged. Categorization is the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated and understood. Similarly, metaphors can be distinguished from other closely related rhetorical concepts such as metonym, synecdoche, simile, allegory and parable. In Rhetoric, metonymy (mɨˈtɒnɨmi is the use of a word for a concept or object associated with the concept/object originally denoted by the word Synecdoche is taken from Greek sinekdohi (συνεκδοχή meaning "simultaneous understanding" (si-nek-duh-kee (pronounced /sɪˈnɛkdoˌki/ SIMILE is a research project focused on developing tools to increase the interoperability of disparate digital collections An allegory (from αλλος allos "other" and el αγορευειν agoreuein "to speak in public" is a figurative mode of representation A parable is a brief succinct story in Prose or verse, that illustrates a Moral or Religious lesson

Structure

The metaphor, according to I. A. Richards in The Philosophy of Rhetoric (1936), consists of two parts: the tenor and vehicle. Ivor Armstrong Richards ( 26 February, 1893 in Sandbach, Cheshire &ndash 7 September, 1979 in Cambridge) was 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: All the world's a stage:-

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 quotation is a good example of a metaphor. All the world's a stage is the phrase that begins a famous Monologue from William Shakespeare 's As You Like It, spoken by the melancholy William Shakespeare ( baptised As You Like It is a Pastoral Comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published 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' & 'vehicle' in George Lakoff's terminology are target and source. "Lakoff" and "Professor Lakoff" redirect here 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. In Cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor refers to the understanding of one idea or Conceptual domain in terms of another for example understanding Quantity

Metaphors are defined as comparisons without the use of the words "like" or "as", in the average classroom. (These comparisons would be called similes. )

Terms and categorization

The following are the more commonly identified types of Metaphor:

• 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.

• An epic or Homeric simile is an extended metaphor containing details about the vehicle that are not, in fact, necessary for the metaphoric purpose. Homeric simile, also called epic simile, is a detailed comparison in the form of a simile that is many lines in length 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, 24-hour porterage and an enormous sign on the roof saying 'This Is a Large Crisis. '" (Blackadder)

• A mixed metaphor is one that leaps from one identification to a second identification that is inconsistent with the first one. Blackadder is the generic name that encompasses four series of an acclaimed BBC One historical sitcom, along with several one-off instalments 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.

• 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. A cliché (from French, klɪ'ʃe or cliche is a phrase expression or idea that has been overused to the point of losing its intended force

• A synecdochic metaphor is one in which a small part of something is chosen to represent the whole so as to highlight certain elements of the whole. Synecdoche is taken from Greek sinekdohi (συνεκδοχή meaning "simultaneous understanding" (si-nek-duh-kee (pronounced /sɪˈnɛkdoˌki/ For example "a pair of ragged claws" represents a crab in T. S. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Thomas Stearns Eliot, OM (September 26 1888 – January 4 1965 was a poet Dramatist, and Literary critic. The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock is the 1915 poem that marked the start of T Describing the crab in this way gives it the attributes of sharpness and savagery normally associated with claws.

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. Examples "You are my sun. "

• 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. "

• An experiential or learning metaphor is an experience that allows one to learn about more than just that experience. Examples: Board-breaking is used in seminars as a metaphor for breaking through emotional boundaries and climbing Kilimanjaro is used as a metaphor for life in Eric Edmeades Adventure Seminars.

• 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. "The bloodhounds of the Wiki's Ban Patrol can sniff this out. A bloodhound (also known as the St Hubert hound) is a large breed of Dog bred for the specific purpose of tracking human beings " This suggests tenacity and determination as well as something doglike.

• 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 two in which there is but one point of resemblance between the tenor and the vehicle. Example: "Cool it". In this example, the vehicle, "I'm ", is a temperature and nothing else, so the tenor, "HOT!!!!!!!", can only be grounded to the vehicle by one attribute.

• A root metaphor is the underlying worldview that shapes an individual's understanding of a situation. Examples would be understanding health as a mechanical process, or seeing life as the natural expression of an "ideal" form (e. g. , the acorn that should grow into an oak tree. ). A root metaphor is different from the previous types of metaphor in that it is not necessarily an explicit device in language, but a fundamental, often unconscious, assumption. Andrew Goatly has done extensive research on root metaphors in his book The Language of Metaphors, in which he describes the different levels of root metaphors and gives examples. Andrew Goatly is an English language Professor at Lingnan University in Hong Kong.

Religion provides one common source of root metaphors, since birth, marriage, death and other universal life experiences can convey a very different meaning to different people, based on their level or type of religious conditioning or otherwise. A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos For example, some religions see life as a single arrow pointing toward a future endpoint. Others see it as part of an endlessly repeating cycle. In his book World Hypotheses, the philosopher Stephen Pepper coined the term and proposed a theory of four ultimate root metaphors — formism, mechanism, organicism, contextualism. toe

• A conceptual metaphor is an underlying association that is systematic in both language and thought. In Cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor refers to the understanding of one idea or Conceptual domain in terms of another for example understanding Quantity For example in the Dylan Thomas poem "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night," the conceptual metaphor of "A LIFETIME IS A DAY" is repeatedly expressed and extended throughout the entire poem. Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953 was a Welsh poet who wrote exclusively in English The same conceptual metaphor is the key to solving the Riddle of the Sphinx: "What goes on four legs in the morning, two legs at midday, and three in evening? — A man. A Sphinx is a Zoomorphic mythological figure which is depicted as a recumbent lion with a human head " Similar to root metaphors, conceptual metaphors are not only expressed in words, but are also habitual modes of thinking underlying many related metaphoric expressions.

Because they both underlie more than just the surface metaphoric expression, root metaphors and conceptual metaphors are easily confused. For example: In the United States, both conservatives and liberals use 'family' metaphors for the national politics, though in different ways. Both types of usage would ultimately resolve to "organic" root metaphors in Pepper's nomenclature, while Lakoff would distinguish between several different varieties of the "A NATION IS A FAMILY" metaphor. "Lakoff" and "Professor Lakoff" redirect here

• A dying metaphor is a derogatory term coined by George Orwell in his essay Politics and the English Language. Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950 who used the Pseudonym George Orwell, was an English writer Politics and the English Language (1946 by George Orwell, is an essay criticizing "ugly and inaccurate" contemporary Written English. 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. A cliché (from French, klɪ'ʃe or cliche is a phrase expression or idea that has been overused to the point of losing its intended force Example: Achilles' heel. This article deals with the phrase For other uses see 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 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.

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

Metaphor and Simile

Metaphor and simile are two of the best known tropes and are often mentioned together as examples of rhetorical figures. An allegory (from αλλος allos "other" and el αγορευειν agoreuein "to speak in public" is a figurative mode of representation Catachresis (from Greek) which literally means the incorrect or improper use of a word is a term used to denote the (usually intentional use of any Figure A parable is a brief succinct story in Prose or verse, that illustrates a Moral or Religious lesson SIMILE is a research project focused on developing tools to increase the interoperability of disparate digital collections See also Figure of speech In linguistics trope is a rhetorical Figure of speech that consists of a play on words i 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", "as", or "than. " 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.

According to this definition, then, "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 the classification of similes as a type of metaphor, and historically it appears the two terms were used essentially as synonyms.

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 when the terms are introduced to students. 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. In Rhetoric, metonymy (mɨˈtɒnɨmi is the use of a word for a concept or object associated with the concept/object originally denoted by the word 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. William Shakespeare ( baptised 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). Patricia Irene (Irina Dunn is an Australian writer and served in the Australian Senate between 1988 and 1990 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. Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (maʁsɛl pʁust (10 July 1871 &ndash 18 November 1922 was a French Novelist Essayist and Critic

Metaphors in literature and language

• Metaphor is present in written language back to the earliest surviving writings. A language is a dynamic set of visual auditory or tactile Symbols of Communication and the elements used to manipulate them 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. The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from Ancient Mesopotamia and is among the earliest known works of literary fiction. Sumerian ( " native tongue " was the language of ancient Sumer, spoken in Southern Mesopotamia since at least the 4th millennium BC Kovacs, 1989)

• 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. In its common modern meaning a mule is the offspring of a male Donkey and a female Horse, which is classified as a kind of F1 hybrid. A black panther is a black ( melanistic) color variant of one of several Species of larger cat which are often known by the term panther.

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. Sophocles (ˈsɒfəkliːz Ancient Greek, sopʰoklɛ̂ːs circa Aeschylus (ˈɛskɨləs or /ˈiːskɨləs/ Greek: Ασχύλος, Aischylos, 525 BC/524 BC 456 BC/455 BC was an ancient Greek Playwright Euripides ( Ancient Greek:) (ca 480 BC–406 BC was the last of the three great tragedians of classical Athens (the other two being Aeschylus

Novelist and essayist Giannina Braschi states, "Metaphors and Similes are the beginning of the democratic system of envy. Poet and novelist Giannina Braschi (b San Juan Puerto Rico, February 5 1953 is credited with writing the first Spanglish novel YO-YO BOING! (1998 and "

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. A theme, from Old French tesme, is a broad idea in a story or literary work or a message or lesson conveyed by a written text

Metaphors in historical linguistics

In historical onomasiology or, more generally, in historical linguistics, metaphor is defined as semantic change based on similarity, i. Onomasiology (from ὀνομαζω (onomazō — to name which in turn is from ὀνομα — name is a branch of Linguistics concerned with the question "how do you Historical linguistics (also called diachronic linguistics) is the study of language change e. a similarity in form or function between the original concept named by a word and the target concept named by this word^[1]. Example: mouse 'small, gray rodent' > 'small, gray, mouse-shaped computer device'.

Some more recent linguistic theories view language as by its nature all metaphorical; or that language in essence is metaphorical.

See also

• Simile
• Pataphor
• Tertium comparationis
• Conceptual metaphor
• Conceptual blending
• Therapeutic metaphor
• List of political metaphors
• Nautical metaphors in English
• Reification (fallacy)
• Metaphor in philosophy

Literature

• Aristotle. SIMILE is a research project focused on developing tools to increase the interoperability of disparate digital collections 'Pataphysics ( French: 'Pataphysique) a term coined by French writer Alfred Jarry (1873 – 1907 is a Tertium comparationis ( Latin = the third of the Comparison) is the quality that two things which are being compared have in common In Cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor refers to the understanding of one idea or Conceptual domain in terms of another for example understanding Quantity Conceptual Blending (aka Conceptual Integration) is a general theory of Cognition. Therapeutic metaphor is a type of Conceptual metaphor presented as a story or other parallel to an entire aspect of a situation related by a psychotherapist to a This is a list of common political Metaphors Relating to the executive Eminence grise: literally "grey man" from French Thanks to the historical importance of seafaring in British culture the English language is rich in related Metaphors from the age of sail Reification (also known as hypostatisation or concretism) is a Fallacy of Ambiguity, when an Abstraction (abstract Belief Metaphor, the description of one thing as something else has become of interest in recent decades to both Analytic philosophy and Continental philosophy Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. Poetics. Trans. I. Bywater. In The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation. (1984). 2 Vols. Ed. Jonathan Barnes. Jonathan Barnes (born 1942 is a British Philosopher, Translator and Historian of Ancient philosophy. Princeton, Princeton University Press.
• I. A. Richards. Ivor Armstrong Richards ( 26 February, 1893 in Sandbach, Cheshire &ndash 7 September, 1979 in Cambridge) was (1936). The Philosophy of Rhetoric. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
• Max Black (1954). Max Black ( 24 February 1909, Baku, Russian Empire [[Azerbaijan]] – 27 August 1988, “Metaphor,” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 55, pp. 273-294.
• Max Black. Max Black ( 24 February 1909, Baku, Russian Empire [[Azerbaijan]] – 27 August 1988, (1962). Models and Metaphor. Ithaca, Cornell University Press.
• Paul Ricoeur. Paul Ricœur (born February 27, 1913 in Valence France; died May 20, 2005 in Chatenay Malabry, France was a (1975). The Rule of Metaphor: Multi-Disciplinary 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)
• Donald Davidson. Donald Herbert Davidson ( March 6, 1917  &ndash August 30, 2003) was an American Philosopher, who served as Slusser (1978). "What Metaphors Mean. " Reprinted in Inquiries Into Truth and Interpretation. (1984). Oxford, Oxford University Press.
• Max Black (1979). Max Black ( 24 February 1909, Baku, Russian Empire [[Azerbaijan]] – 27 August 1988, “More about Metaphor,” in A. Ortony (ed) Metaphor & Thought
• L. J. Cohen (1979). “The Semantics of Metaphor,” in A. Ortony (ed) Metaphor & Thought
• John Searle (1979). John Rogers Searle (born July 31 1932 in Denver Colorado) is an American Philosopher and the Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University “Metaphor,” in A. Ortony (ed) Metaphor & Thought
• George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. "Lakoff" and "Professor Lakoff" redirect here Mark L Johnson (born 24 May 1949 in Kansas City Missouri) is Knight Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences in the Department of Philosophy at the (1980). Metaphors We Live By. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
• Jacques Derrida. (1982). "White Mythology: Metaphor in the Text of Philosophy. " In Margins of Philosophy. Trans. Alan Bass. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
• George Lakoff (1987). "Lakoff" and "Professor Lakoff" redirect here Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
• George Lakoff and Mark Turner (1989). "Lakoff" and "Professor Lakoff" redirect here Mark Turner is a cognitive scientist, linguist, and Author. He is Institute Professor and Professor and Chair of Cognitive Science at Case Western More than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
• Clive Cazeaux (2007). Metaphor and Continental Philosophy: From Kant to Derrida. New York: Routledge.

References

1. ^ Cf. Grzega, Joachim (2004), Bezeichnungswandel: Wie, Warum, Wozu? Ein Beitrag zur englischen und allgemeinen Onomasiologie, Heidelberg: Winter, and Blank, Andreas (1998), Prinzipien des lexikalischen Bedeutungswandels am Beispiel der romanischen Sprachen, Tübingen: Niemeyer.

External links

• Center for the Cognitive Science of Metaphor Online
• Metaphor Examples
• A short history of metaphor
• Audio illustrations of metaphor as figure of speech
• Introduction to Metaphor
• Top Ten Metaphors of 2007
• Critical Inquiry (Autumn 1978) Special Issue: On Metaphors
• "Aristotle"—a web-resource designed by Tony Veale and Yanfen Hao that uses a large database of similes harvested from the web to generate metaphors on demand for a given topic.
• "Sardonicus"—a web-resource that provides access to the similes, ironic and otherwise, that are harvested from the web for the Aristotle resource above.

Applications and examples

• jMapper - Java Library for Analogy/Metaphor Generation

Example : The strings of a gutair drive me into the pool of music