Metaphor

A Metaphor is a Figure of Speech that refers to a concept by mentioned another concept.

• AKA: Metaphor Relation.
• Context:
  • It can be categorized into the following types:
    • an Allegory,
    • an Antithesis,
    • a Catachresis,
    • a Hyperbole,
    • a Metonymy,
    • a Parable,
    • a Pun,
    • and a Simile.
  • It can range from a being:
    • a Cognitive Metaphor,
    • a Conceptual Metaphor,
    • an Extended Metaphor,
    • a Mixed Metaphor,
    • a Nonlinguistic Metaphor,
    • a Root metaphor,
    • to being a Visual metaphor.
• Example(s):
  • "I had butterflies in my stomach", it refers to a nervous feeling as if there were flying insects in one's stomach;
  • "The mind is an ocean";
  • "The city is a jungle" ;
  • "You're a peach!";
  • "The silk of the singer's voice".
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • an Analogy,
  • a Computer Metaphor,
  • a Litotes,
  • an Metalepsis,
• See: Semantics, Cognitive Linguistics, Alliteration, Pataphor, Tautology, Homology.

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References

2018a

• (Wikipedia, 2018) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor Retrieved:2018-12-28.
  • A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide clarity or identify hidden similarities between two ideas. Antithesis, hyperbole, metonymy and simile are all types of metaphor. One of the most commonly cited examples of a metaphor in English literature is the “All the world's a stage” monologue from As You Like It:

    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 quotation expresses a metaphor because the world is not literally a stage. By asserting that the world is a stage, Shakespeare uses points of comparison between the world and a stage to convey an understanding about the mechanics of the world and the behavior of the people within it.

    The Philosophy of Rhetoric (1937) by rhetorician I. A. Richards describes a metaphor as having two parts: the tenor and the vehicle. The tenor is the subject to which attributes are ascribed. The vehicle is the object whose attributes are borrowed. In the previous example, "the world" is compared to a stage, describing it with the attributes of "the stage"; "the world" is the tenor, and "a stage" is the vehicle; "men and women" is the secondary tenor, and "players" is the secondary vehicle.

    Other writers employ the general terms ground and figure to denote the tenor and the vehicle. Cognitive linguistics uses the terms target and source, respectively. Psychologist Julian Jaynes contributed the terms metaphrand, metaphier, paraphrand, and paraphier to the understanding of how metaphors evoke meaning thereby adding two additional terms to the common set of two basic terms. Metaphrand is equivalent to metaphor theory terms tenor, target, and ground. Metaphier is equivalent to metaphor theory terms vehicle, figure, and source. Paraphier is any attribute, characteristics, or aspect of a metaphier, whereas any paraphrand is a selected paraphier which has conceptually become attached to a metaphrand through understanding or comprehending of a metaphor. For example, if a reader encounters this metaphor: "Pat is a tornado," the metaphrand is "Pat," the metaphier is "tornado." The paraphiers, or characteristics, of the metaphier "tornado" would include: storm, power, wind, counterclockwise, danger, threat, destruction, etc. However, the metaphoric use of those attributes or characteristics of a tornado is not typically one-for-one; if Pat is said to be a "tornado" the metaphoric meaning is likely to focus on the paraphrands of power or destruction rather than on, say, the paraphier of counterclockwise movement of wind.

2018b

• (Wiktionary, 2018) ⇒ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/metaphor Retrieved:2018-12-28.
  • QUOTE: metaphor (countable and uncountable, plural: metaphors):

1. (uncountable and countable, rhetoric) The use of a word or phrase to refer to something that it is not, invoking a direct similarity between the word or phrase used and the thing described (but in the case of English without the words like or as, which would imply a simile); the word or phrase used in this way; an implied comparison.

2. (countable, graphical user interface) The use of an everyday object or concept to represent an underlying facet of the computer and thus aid users in performing tasks. desktop metaphor; wastebasket metaphor.

2018c

• (Merriam-Webster, 2018) ⇒ https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/metaphor Retrieved:2018-12-28.
  • QUOTE: "You're a peach!" We've all heard the expression, and it's a good example of what we call metaphor. A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase denoting one kind of object or action is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them: the person being addressed in "you're a peach" is being equated with a peach, with the suggestion being that the person is pleasing or delightful in the way that a peach is pleasing and delightful. A metaphor is an implied comparison, as in "the silk of the singer's voice," in contrast to the explicit comparison of the simile, which uses like or as, as in "a voice smooth like silk."

    When we use metaphor, we make a leap beyond rational, ho-hum comparison to an identification or fusion of two objects, resulting in a new entity that has characteristics of both: the voice isn't like silk; it is silk. Many critics regard the making of metaphors as a system of thought antedating or bypassing logic. Metaphor is the fundamental language of poetry, although it is common on all levels and in all kinds of language (...).

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2023

• (Wikipedia, 2023) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor Retrieved:2023-4-9.
  • A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared with other types of figurative language, such as antithesis, hyperbole, metonymy, and simile. One of the most commonly cited examples of a metaphor in English literature comes from the “All the world's a stage” monologue from As You Like It:

    <poem>All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances And one man in his time plays many parts,

    His Acts being seven ages. At first, the infant...

     :—William Shakespeare, As You Like It, 2/7 </poem>

    This quotation expresses a metaphor because the world is not literally a stage, and most humans are not literally actors and actresses playing roles. By asserting that the world is a stage, Shakespeare uses points of comparison between the world and a stage to convey an understanding about the mechanics of the world and the behavior of the people within it.

    In the ancient Hebrew psalms (around 1000 B.C.), one finds already vivid and poetic examples of metaphor such as, "The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold” and “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”. Some recent linguistic theories view all language in essence as metaphorical.

    The word metaphor itself is a metaphor, coming from a Greek term meaning "transference (of ownership)". The user of a metaphor alters the reference of the word, "carrying" it from one semantic "realm" to another. The new meaning of the word might be derived from an analogy between the two semantic realms, but also from other reasons such as the distortion of the semantic realm - for example in sarcasm.