Metaphor: Making Language Lively

• Shall I compare you to a summer's day?You are more lovely and more constant:Rough winds shake the beloved buds of MayAnd summer is far too short:At times the sun is too hot,Or often goes behind the clouds;And everything beautiful sometime will lose its beauty,By misfortune or by nature's planned out course.But your youth shall not fade,Nor will you lose the beauty that you possess;Nor will death claim you for his own,Because in my eternal verse you will live forever.So long as there are people on this earth,So long will this poem live on, making you immortal.

• William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18

What is Metaphor?

• Old-day definition: A novel or poetic linguistic expression where one or more words for a concept are used outside of their normal conventional meaning to express a similar concept.

• Contemporary definition: A conceptual mechanism by which we understand and structure one domain of experience in terms of another domain of a different kind.

• Explanation:– Conceptual: A language of thought. – It is the way we conceptualize one mental domain

in terms of another.– Cross-domain mapping in the conceptual system.• Links between difference domains are constructed

based on people’s conceptions of daily life experiences, so our everyday behavior reflects our metaphorical understanding of experience.

What Types of Metaphor can be Used?

• Metonymy 轉喻用法A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated.

• She is just a pretty face.• The pen is mightier than the sword.• Her voice is full of money.

• Simile 直喻用法 ( 明喻 )A figure of speech in which two fundamentally unlike things are explicitly compared, usually in a phrase introduced by like or as.

• The sun was like a glowing ball of fire.• My love is like a red, red rose.

• (p.40)

Exercise

• Metaphorical expression 隱喻用法It also offer figurative comparisons, but these are implied rather than introduced by like or as.

• Time rushes toward us with its hospital tray of infinitely varied narcotics, even while it is preparing us for its inevitably fatal operation.

By Tennessee Williams

How to Think of a Metaphor?

• Metaphorical mapping • Example: Love is a journey.

Look how far we’ve come. We are at the crossroad. We can’t turn back now. We may have to go our separate ways. This relationship isn’t go anywhere.

We may have to bail out of the relationship.

• Source : JourneyJourney

Two travelers are in a vehicle, traveling with common destinations. The vehicle encounters some impediment and get stuck. If the travelers do nothing, they will not reach their destinations. There are a limited alternatives for actions:1.They can try to get the vehicle moving again either by fixing it or getting it past the impediment.2.They can remain in the nonfunctional vehicle and give up reaching their destinations.3.The can abandon the vehicle.

• Target : Love

Love

Two lovers are in a love relationship, pursuing common life goals. The relationship encounters some difficulty, which makes it nonfunctional. If they do nothing, they will not be able to achieve their life goals. There are limited alternatives for action:1.They can try to get it moving either by fixing it or getting it past the difficulty.2.They can remain in the nonfunctional relationship and give up on achieving their life goals.3.They can abandon the relationship.

Journey

Two travelers are in a vehicle, traveling with common destinations. The vehicle encounters some impediment and get stuck. If the travelers do nothing, they will not reach their destinations. There are a limited alternatives for actions:1.They can try to get the vehicle moving again either by fixing it or getting it past the impediment.2.They can remain in the nonfunctional vehicle and give up reaching their destinations.3.The can abandon the vehicle.

Love

Two lovers are in a love relationship, pursuing common life goals. The relationship encounters some difficulty, which makes it nonfunctional. If they do nothing, they will not be able to achieve their life goals. There are limited alternatives for action:1.They can try to get it moving either by fixing it or getting it past the difficulty.2.They can remain in the nonfunctional relationship and give up on achieving their life goals.3.They can abandon the relationship.

• Can you understand the following sentences now? • Example: Love is a journey. – Look how far we’ve come.– It’s been a long, bumpy road.– We can’t turn back now.– This relationship is a dead-end street.– We need to spin our wheels to overcome this.– We’ve gotten off the track.– Our marriage is on the rock.– We may have to bail out of the relationship. – This relationship doesn’t go anywhere.

Exercise

• Draw a metaphorical map for the sentence “Her voice is full of money. ”

• Her voice Her as a person• Money Characteristics of money • What’s the relationship btw MONEY and a

PERSON? Target domain

Source domain

Use Metaphor to Show Emotions

• Read the article now.• Find metaphorical expressions used in this

article. Circle those expressions.

• Can you categorize source domains used to describe the concept anger?

Exercise

What is Anger?

English• You make my blood boil.• Simmer down.• Let me stew.• She got all steamed up.• I had reached the boiling

point.

Chinese• 他氣得火冒三丈 .• 他憋了一肚子氣 .• 心中的怒氣終於爆發 .• 他脾氣很大 .• 他怒氣沖沖 .

ANGER IS THE HEAT OF A FLUID IN A CONTAINER

ANGER IS THE HOT GAS IN A CONTAINER

• Source domain: HEATED FLUID / HOT GASTarget domain: ANGER

• The container is the body• The heat of fluid/gas is the anger• Pressure in container is internal pressure in

the body.• ……

ANGER IS HEAT

• Draw a metaphorical mapping for ANGER IS HEATED FLUID IN THE CONTAINER.

Exercise

What is Anger?

English• Those are inflammatory

remarks.• He was breathing fire.• Your insincere apology just

added fuel to the fire.• That kindled my ire. • Boy, am I burned up! • Smoke was pouring out of

his ears.

Chinese• 別惹我發火 . • 這麼做是在火上加油 . • 他大動肝火 . • 他壓不住心頭怒火 .• 他氣得火冒三丈 .• 他氣得七竅生煙 .

• Source domain: FIRETarget domain: ANGER

• The fire is anger.• The cause of the fire is the cause of the anger.• The consumed object is the angry person.• ……

ANGER IS FIRE

• Draw a metaphorical mapping for ANGER IS FIRE.

Exercise

FIRE ANGER

Writing Task

• Do you have an experience of being very angry? Please describe the experience. Show your anger as much and vivid as possible.