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metaphor [2014/09/15 18:27] Ryan Schram (admin)metaphor [2014/09/15 18:27] Ryan Schram (admin)
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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 and every language creates its own metaphors to express ideas
  
 In their book, //Metaphors We Live By// (1980), George Lakoff and Mark Johnson define a metaphor as a structure of thinking in which a concrete idea is mapped onto a more abstract idea. The concrete idea is called a source domain. Attributes of the source domain are selected and projected onto attributes of a target domain, an abstract idea. This gives the abstract idea a form which the mind can grasp, and which also makes it possible to express something intangible in language. While these structures are often never verbalized, they can be inferred from the words and grammatical structures people use to express abstract ideas. One example they give is "LOVE IS A JOURNEY" (Lakoff and Johnson 1980, 45). For example:  In their book, //Metaphors We Live By// (1980), George Lakoff and Mark Johnson define a metaphor as a structure of thinking in which a concrete idea is mapped onto a more abstract idea. The concrete idea is called a source domain. Attributes of the source domain are selected and projected onto attributes of a target domain, an abstract idea. This gives the abstract idea a form which the mind can grasp, and which also makes it possible to express something intangible in language. While these structures are often never verbalized, they can be inferred from the words and grammatical structures people use to express abstract ideas. One example they give is "LOVE IS A JOURNEY" (Lakoff and Johnson 1980, 45). For example: 
metaphor.txt · Last modified: 2021/07/08 23:24 by Ryan Schram (admin)