Welcome, avid learner of linguistics! In this video you're going to learn about the
conceptual metaphor
and what it can do for you
So let's get cracking!
First of all we should ask ourselves where we can find a metaphor,
just to have something nice at hand.
And the key answer
that is and always will be correct is:
in poetry!
So:
Why not take a glimpse at this bloke's Sonnet 18!
Let's start reading...
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day...
Hold it! There we have it already
a metaphor!
Why should we compare someone to a summer's day?
Simply because we have no idea what said person looks like.
The idea of the summer's day, however,
gives us a clue off what the person is not:
a freezing-cold blizzard beast with icicles for boobies...
We think of this summer's day
that it's warm and nice;
everyone likes it and it's pretty...
So this is what this person is like.
Now, let's come to the grey-matter part.
The word "metaphor" comes from Greek "metaphero"
which means "to carry over" or "transfer".
The idea is actually pretty simple:
In a metaphor we have two domains that we employ in the transfer of meaning.
The source domain
from which we draw a concept
and the target domaine of which we have no clue what it actually is
and into which the concept from the source domain is being transferred.
Let me give you an example:
Time. What is time?
You see,
we don't really know what time is
but somehow we want to talk about it.
As you see here on the target domain there isn't a picture of time because you
simply can't find one.
But what if i present to you our source domain "money"?
We all have a pretty clear idea of how money works:
you can spend it
you can win it steal it, earn it, save it lose it and so on...
And this is where metaphor kicks in:
We can get a nice picture of time
by resorting to the concept of money.
When thinking
that time is money, we can say
we can spend time steel time save time waste time and so on.
Do you see it?
This is our metaphor!
"Time is Money" !
And it works so well because time and money are analogous systems.
That means they both react in similar ways.
This is a feature metaphor called systematicity.
Another feature of metaphor is abstraction
which means that the two concepts employed in a metaphor behave similarly,
but have no real connection.
Their connection is an abstract one.
The third feature is asymmetry, which means that the transfer works only from the
concrete concept
to the abstract concept and not the other way round.
The process of metaphor is always directed from the source to the target domain.
Now you know how metaphors work.
So why don't you have a look at this?
The famous metaphor
from the film "Forrest Gump":
Life is like a box of chocolates.
And if you have some spare time left, you can think about the philosophical
question
of how metaphor actually shapes and buy some degree
restricts our perception and our way of thinking.
Now that we had done with metaphor
why don't we talk about metaphor's best friend metonomy?
If you want to know what metonymy is, click the "what the heck is
metonymy?" button!
See you!