Metaphor in its Broad Perspective - Реферат

But the metaphoric description enriches the experience. It is supposed that one can visualize the pitch as author has described it, and it is presumed that you have never thought of it as a butterfly before. A metaphor, according to I. A. Richards, consists of two parts: the tenor and vehicle. The tenor is the subject to which attributes are ascribed. If I say you are a dog, then you are the tenor. If I say Its a dog day, then the tenor is the day. The vehicle is the subject from which the attributes are borrowed, is both the words and concepts that are invoked by the words. Connecting verb.The tenor and the vehicle are generally connected by a verb that somehow equates them. The verb to be is by far the most common verb used, as it effectively says “the tenor is the vehicle”. Dimension.The vehicle has a number of dimensions, attributes or variables which may be mapped or transferred back onto the tenor and hence create new meaning. Tenor Vehicle Dimension Love Island Separated, idyllic Time Money Trade, interchange House Home Safety, familiarity To persuade To plant to put in, to nuture Opportunity A thing Can be examined, grasped Anger Storm Energy, danger New Raw Unchanged, original Superiority Above Position of power [26;99] The efficient usage of metaphor not only enriches the piece of writing, but if author makes the best use of his metaphor it can easily become a quotation. Instance of this phenomenon can be found in one of Shakespeare’s sonnets: All the worlds a stage, And all the men and women merely players They have their exits and their entrances…[27;17] This well known quote serves as a good example of metaphor. In this example, the world is compared to a stage, the aim is to describe the world by taking well known attributes from the stage. Generally the world is not compared with a stage, one can imagine it as the earth, the mother; but not a stage. That is why it is nothing but metaphor. Because it has brought together two entirely unrelated things and made sense with it. In this case, the world is the tenor and the stage is the vehicle. Men and women are a secondary tenor and players is the vehicle for this secondary tenor. The metaphor is sometimes further analysed in terms of the ground and the tension. The ground consists of the similarities between the tenor and the vehicle. The tension of the metaphor consists of the dissimilarities between the tenor and the vehicle. In the above example, the ground begins to be elucidated from the third line: They have their exits and entrances. In the play, Shakespeare continues this metaphor for another twenty lines beyond what is shown here - making it a good example of an extended metaphor [25;106]. The corresponding terms to tenor and vehicle in George Lakoffs terminology are target and source. In this nomenclature, metaphors are named using the convention target IS source, with the word is always capitalized; in this notation, the metaphor discussed above would state that humankind IS theater [24;45]. 2. Types of Metaphor This paragraph deals with the types of metaphor and the full and complete information on this matter is provided. Metaphor can be classified in a range of different ways, based on various criteria. As for the types of metaphor scientist came to agreement to divide it into two groups: common and uncommon. Each group consists of subtypes. Common Metaphors: An extended metaphor is one that sets up a principal subject with several subsidiary subjects or comparisons. All the world’s a stage… [27;17] The above quote by no means is a good example of this type of metaphor. The world is described as a stage and then men and women are subsidiary subjects that are further described in the same context. A mixed metaphor is one that leaps, in the course of a figure, to a second identification inconsistent with the first one. Example: Clinton stepped up to the plate and grabbed the bull by the horn. Here, baseball and the activities of a cowboy are implied. Other examples include: That wet blanket is a loose cannon; Strike while the iron is in the fire; or (said by an administrator whose government-departments budget was slashed) Now we can just kiss that program right down the drain. A dead metaphor is one in which the sense of a transferred image is not present. Example: to grasp a concept or to gather youve understood. Both of these phrases use a physical action as a metaphor for understanding (itself a metaphor), but in none of these cases do most speakers of English actually visualize the physical action.