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METAPHOR
by Don L. F. Nilsen
and Alleen Pace Nilsen
Some Horse Metaphors
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ANALOGY OF METAPHORS
Metaphor is principally a way of
conceiving of one thing in terms of
another, and its primary function is
understanding. Metonymy, on the
other hand, has primarily a referential
function; that is, it allows us to use one
entity to stand for another.
(Lakoff 36)
An Example of Analogy:
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TYPICAL METAPHOR
SOURCES
They are common, old, prototypical,
simple, and concrete.

BODY PARTS, ANIMALS, PLANTS,
WEATHER, CONTAINERS, UP/DOWN,
JOURNEY, HOT/COLD, BUILDINGS,
NUTRIENTS, WAR
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TYPICAL METAPHOR TARGETS
They are abstract, complex, and new.

TECHNOLOGY (COMPUTERS), SOCIAL
CHANGE, RELIGIOUS CHANGE,
EXPLORATION, INVENTION,
DISCOVERY, MACROCOSM,
MICROCOSM, LIFE, WAR, LOVE,
HAPPINESS, TIME, IDEAS, THEORIES,
MORALITY, MIND, ANGER, FEAR,
POLITICS, SOCIETY,
COMMUNICATION, RELIGION
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THE NATURE OF GROUND
KIDNEY BEANS: Same color and
shape; different size, texture and taste
A HEAD OF LETTUCE:
Same size and shape;
different color and
Intelligence

ELBOW MACARONI: Same
shape and color; different size
and taste
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CATCHING ONTO A METAPHOR
Catching onto a metaphor is like catching
onto a joke. For both, people must see the
item being referred to (the goal) in relation to
the basis of the comparison (the source) and
then they must figure out the nature of the
grounding, which is what the source and the
goal have in common.

Powerful metaphors result in a sudden
insight that resembles catching onto a
joke. In writing about this thrill, Ralph
Waldo Emerson said the following:
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When some familiar truth or fact
appears in a new dress, mounted as on
a fine horse, equipped with a grand pair
of ballooning wings, we cannot enough
testify our surprise and pleasure.

It is like a new virtue in some unprized
old property, as when a boy finds that
his pocketknife will attract steel filings
and take up a needle.
(Nilsen & Nilsen 199)

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CLOSURE
Youre the cream in my coffee.

My love is a rose.
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COMIC METAPHORS
With metaphors created for comic effect,
listeners have to engage in an extra level of
mental gymnastics or they will miss the
point.

On Welcome Back Kotter, Gabriel Kaplan
said, When you walk through the cow
pasture of facts, you are bound to step in
some truth.

(Nilsen & Nilsen 199)
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The following newly coined metaphors from
the field of business provide vivid mental
images:

Jell-O Principle: The ability of an organization
to survive meddling and intervention. (When
an object is placed into and removed from
moderately set Jell-O, the Jell-O will flow back
to its original shape.)

Kangaroo Strategy: A company trying to
increase its inadequate holdings. (Sometimes
the companies with the emptiest pockets are
the ones that take the greatest leaps.)
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CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS
Metaphors give people a way to talk about
the unknown through references to the
known.
Many of the cute things that children say
are original metaphors created because the
speakers do not know the standard way of
expressing an idea.
Adults create metaphors for the same
reason, but they are more aware of what they
are doing.

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Mouse-milking: A venture that has
reached the point of diminishing
returns. (Because of a mouses size,
milking it would be an intricately
challenging operation producing very
little milk.)

Queen Bee Syndrome: When a powerful
woman strictly limits the development of
her female subordinates. (In a swarm of
bees, only one superior bee is allowed to
lay the eggs.)
(Nilsen & Nilsen 199-200)
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CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS
LIFE IS A JOURNEY (TIME, PLACE,
PROGRESS)

ISRAEL/AMERICA/SALT LAKE CITY IS
THE PROMISED LAND

LOVE IS A CAR TRIP

ANGER IS HEAT
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MORE IS UP (CT. CAPITALISM WITH
RELIGIOUS DEPRIVATION)

ARGUMENT IS WAR

LIFE IS A GAMBLE

ANGER IS HOT

FEAR IS COLD

HAPPINESS IS UP

SADNESS IS DOWN

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DEAD METAPHORS
Dead metaphors are ones that have
been in the language so long that
speakers take them for granted.

BODY METAPHORS: head of cabbage,
shoulder of a road, arm of the
government, foothills, mouth of a river

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However, body metaphors can be
funny if there is something to attract
readers or listeners attention to
contradictory images in a
metaphors source and goal.

A virgin forest is defined as one
in which the hand of man has never
set foot.

Virgin territory is described as
being pregnant with possibilities.
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S.J. Perelman startled his readers
with this mixed metaphor:

The color drained slowly from
my face, entered the auricle, shot
up the escalator, and issued from
the ladies and misses section
into the housewares department.
(Nilsen & Nilsen 200)

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MAPPING
The source and the target of a
metaphor have something in common,
the ground.

Usually the source and the goal have
many things in common. In the life is
a journey metaphor both life and a
journey have a beginning, an end, a
path, a bunch of episodes, etc.
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METAPHORS AND LIFE EXPERIENCES
Ones whole life experience goes into
creating and understanding metaphors.

Cynthia Ozick wrote in a May 1986 Harpers
article, Metaphor is what inspiration is not.
Inspiration is ad hoc and has no history.
Metaphor relies on what has been
experienced before; it transforms the strange
into the familiar.
(Nilsen & Nilsen 200)
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METAPHORS IN THE DICTIONARY
Editors of Websters Unabridged
Dictionary said that of the 100,000 new
words added to their 1961 edition,
nearly half came into the language
through metaphorical processes (most
of the others were the result of
blending).

(Nilsen & Nilsen 199)

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SIMILES VS. METAPHORS
Whenever a metaphor uses like or as it is
sometimes called a simile. Unlike
metaphors, similes are always literally true.

The pure or true metaphors, as when
Emerson wrote that a fact appears in a new
dress, and that a fine horse is equipped
with a grand pair of ballooning wings.
(Nilsen & Nilsen 199)
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SIMPLIFICATION OF METAPHORS
Anthony Judge said, simplifying reality to
simplify the decision process is a
dangerously unsustainable way forward.
(Judge 7)

Jacob Mey said, The inherent danger of
metaphor is in the uncritical acceptance of a
single-minded model of thinking and its
continued, thoughtless recycling, leading to
the adoption of one solution as the remedy
to all evils. (Mey 305)
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SYMBOLS VS. METAPHORS
Symbols are trite

Dead metaphors are trite; theyre used
for reference and could be called
linguistic metaphors.

Literary metaphors are fresh; but they
can become trite, as in Somethings
rotten in Denmark.
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UTILIZATION, HIGHLIGHTING,
AND HIDING
CONTRAST HALF-BAKED IDEAS;
*STEWED IDEAS

NIXON ADMINISTRATION:
IN FAVOR: Be a team player.
AGAINST: Theres a cancer in the White
House.
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WAR METAPHORS
Metaphors are very important in times of war.
Discussing the US military action against
Iraq in January of 1993, the U.S. press used
the following punishment metaphors:

U.S. warplanes punish Iraq.

A slap on the wrist for Saddam Hussein.

Saddam receives spanking. (Mey 321)
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SKELETON METAPHORS
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METAPHOR & METONYMY WEB SITE:
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF METAPHOR AND METONYMY (JOHN BENJAMINS):
http://www.benjamins.com/online/met/topbar.html