The use of metaphor separates homo sapiens from the rest of species that wander our planet. We use metaphor in all parts of our existence, signs, icons, brand names, nicknames, and countless conversational expressions that are so completely integrated into the way we use language that we long ago stopped viewing them as metaphor..
And many go through school life with English teachers (Bless) telling you what a Metaphor is. Ss for the rest of their days, it is more than likely that they will view metaphor as one, or all of the following:
a) Metaphor expresses similarities, used mainly in poetic flourish or by politicians in rhetorical persuasion.
b) Metaphors occur when a word is allotted to not what it normally designates but to something else.
c) You are given to understand by the teachers that there are pre-existing similarities between what words normally designate. So you leave school with a sense that metaphors are, well, kind of linguistically deviant - should have an ASBO wrapped round them for they are saying one thing while meaning another.
Yesterday I was told to bite the bullet and infomred that he is at the top of the ladder because he has worked so hard. I was also told I could be squeezed in for an appointment with the dentist and reminded by a friend in America that it was time to step up to the plate if I wanted to make progresss...and many, many more metaphors which for the moment have ...just slipped my mind.
So what is the problem with this everday use of metaphorical language?
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