metaphor
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====== Metaphor ====== | ====== Metaphor ====== | ||
- | A metaphor is a term for a figure of speech or expression in which one thing stands for or substitutes for another thing. In a metaphor, a concrete idea provides a model of another idea. Most people encounter metaphors in literature, usually in school, where they are presented as a form of poetic or rhetorical language, and thus 'not literally true' and as something that requires deeper thought to decipher its meaning. This is not the only way to define metaphor. We can also think about metaphor as a kind of general relationship between words. All languages have words which can be used in more than one sense. What's really hard about learning a foreign language is not learning the words, but learning the ways you can use words metaphorically. Even statments that may seem very literal in one language make no sense in other languages. For instance, in English //see// can also mean //visit// (e.g. //I came to see you.//). In Finnish, the verb for vision, //katsoa//, is not used idiomatically for //visit//. So in this sense, metaphor is not exceptional or special; all language and communication involves some degree of metaphor. | + | A metaphor is a term for a figure of speech or expression in which one thing stands for or substitutes for another thing. In a metaphor, a concrete idea provides a model of another idea. Most people encounter metaphors in literature, usually in school, where they are presented as a form of poetic or rhetorical language, and thus 'not literally true' and as something that requires deeper thought to decipher its meaning. This is not the only way to define metaphor. We can also think about metaphor as a kind of general relationship between words. All languages have words which can be used in more than one sense. What's really hard about learning a foreign language is not learning the words, but learning the ways you can use words metaphorically. Even statments that may seem very literal in one language make no sense in other languages. For instance, in English //see// can also mean //visit// (e.g. //I came to see you.//). In Finnish, the verb for vision, //katsoa//, is not used idiomatically for //visit//. So in this sense, metaphor is not exceptional or special; all language and communication involves some degree of metaphor |
- | In their book, //Metaphors We Live By//, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson | + | In their book, //Metaphors We Live By// (1980), George Lakoff and Mark Johnson |
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+ | * We have been through a lot together. | ||
+ | * Our marriage is on the rocks. | ||
+ | * I'm not ready to get married. | ||
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+ | This metaphorical relationship is connected to other, similar structures of thought in Western cultures. School and career are also expressed in metaphors of journey and travel. | ||
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+ | Many of the authors we have read in Forms of Families make use of a concept of metaphor. Why is this relevant to their analysis of other cultures? | ||
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+ | ## References ## | ||
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+ | Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. 1980. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. |
metaphor.txt · Last modified: 2021/07/08 23:24 by Ryan Schram (admin)