![]() ![]() ![]() It is said, for instance, that a metaphor is 'a condensed analogy' or 'analogical fusion' or that they 'operate in a similar fashion' or are 'based on the same mental process' or yet that 'the basic processes of analogy are at work in metaphor'. Metaphors are most frequently compared with similes. In the latter case, the paraphier of 'spinning motion' has become the paraphrand 'psychological spin', suggesting an entirely new metaphor for emotional unpredictability, a possibly apt description for a human being hardly applicable to a tornado.īased on his analysis, Jaynes claims that metaphors not only enhance description, but "increase enormously our powers of perception.and our understanding of, and literally create new objects". The metaphoric meaning of "tornado" is inexact: one might understand that 'Pat is powerfully destructive' through the paraphrand of physical and emotional destruction another person might understand the metaphor as 'Pat can spin out of control'. ![]() As metaphier, "tornado" carries paraphiers such as power, storm and wind, counterclockwise motion, and danger, threat, destruction, etc. For example, in the metaphor "Pat is a tornado", the metaphrand is "Pat", the metaphier is "tornado". With an inexact metaphor, however, a metaphier might have associated attributes or nuances – its paraphiers – that enrich the metaphor because they "project back" to the metaphrand, potentially creating new ideas – the paraphrands – associated thereafter with the metaphrand or even leading to a new metaphor. In a simple metaphor, an obvious attribute of the metaphier exactly characterizes the metaphrand (e.g. 'Metaphier' is equivalent to the metaphor-theory terms 'vehicle', 'figure', and 'source'. 'Metaphrand' is equivalent to the metaphor-theory terms 'tenor', 'target', and 'ground'. Psychologist Julian Jaynes coined the terms 'metaphrand' and 'metaphier', plus two new concepts, 'paraphrand' and 'paraphier'. Cognitive linguistics uses the terms 'target' and 'source', respectively. Other writers employ the general terms 'ground' and 'figure' to denote the tenor and the vehicle. 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. The vehicle is the object whose attributes are borrowed. The tenor is the subject to which attributes are ascribed. Richards describes a metaphor as having two parts: the tenor and the vehicle. The Philosophy of Rhetoric (1937) by rhetorician I. The English word metaphor derives from the 16th-century Old French word métaphore, which comes from the Latin metaphora, "carrying over", and in turn from the Greek μεταφορά ( metaphorá), "transference (of ownership)", from μεταφέρω ( metapherō), "to carry over", "to transfer" and that from μετά ( meta), "behind", "along with", "across" + φέρω ( pherō), "to bear", "to carry". 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. The user of a metaphor alters the reference of the word, "carrying" it from one semantic "realm" to another. The word metaphor itself is a metaphor, coming from a Greek term meaning "transference (of ownership)". Some recent linguistic theories view all language in essence as metaphorical. 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". 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. This quotation expresses a metaphor because the world is not literally a stage, and most humans are not literally actors and actresses playing roles. William Shakespeare, As You Like It, 2/7 They have their exits and their entrancesĪnd one man in his time plays many parts, And all the men and women merely players ![]()
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