1. Metaphor

1.1 Introduction to metaphors

Life is a beach

Love is a battlefield

Laughter is the best medicine

The literal meaning of ‘life is a beach’ is that a life actually is a beach, which is a physical impossibility, so if someone uses the metaphor they intend to compare ‘life’ with the associations and connotations of the word beach, for example, that it is relaxing and enjoyable. A literal interpretation of language means that only the denotation of the word – its exact definition – are understood. Literal uses are normally contrasted with figurative uses, which tend towards connotations, associations, and metaphors. Fictional characters like Drax the Destroyer from Guardians of the Galaxy, or Data from Star Trek are portrayed as having difficulty understanding figurative uses and take everything literally, presumably because they are not human. Using and understanding metaphors, figurative uses, and connotative meanings is deeply human, which means that we wouldn’t expect aliens or animals to do it.

 

One of the most famous metaphors in the world that you might have heard is “All the world’s a stage” which was created by Shakespeare in his famous comedy “As You Like It” (1998). In this metaphor, Shakespeare connects two different things together: ‘the world’ and ‘a stage’. He does not imply that the world is literally a stage where actual theatrical performances take place. Rather he implies that some qualities of the stage, like people acting or performing for an audience, can be transferred as a frame or a lens to help us better understand the world. Going through life and all its motions – birth, marriage, parenthood, heartbreak and death etc. are akin to different performances that we give for other humans, our audiences. Thus they have an unreal, or transitory quality to them and shouldn’t, perhaps, be taken too seriously. Through this transference of “stage” onto the “world”, Shakespeare enables us to see the world and our place in it in a new light.

 

Another common example equates humans with animals, for example “he is a pig” and “she is a fox”; in both examples, the common meaning of the terms pig and fox are modified in the act of predication (the act of linking the terms to the subjects he and she). When the metaphor “he is a pig” is used to describe one’s roommate, this does not imply that the roommate has four legs, a curly tail, and a snout nose; instead, it means that the roommate exhibits certain behaviors that can be associated with the animal labeled with the term pig. (Jasinski 2001, p.257).

1.4: Types of metaphors and their origins

As must be clear to you by now, metaphors are created by joining two words that don’t really go along with each other in conventional language. Think of “rose” and “love”. There is no natural, intuitive connection between a botanical entity – a flower called Rose or Rosa Polyantha and a human emotion and social phenomenon – love. However, through repeated use of the metaphor ROSES ARE LOVE in literature, art, and language use we have come to consider them as deeply connected. We can classify such connections based on different parameters – size, depth, and originality.

A metaphor can be used at a very small scale, where it is applied only in the immediate context of use. Think of a sentence like “The protagonist felt blue”, reflecting the metaphor SADNESS IS BLUE. The impact of this metaphor would be restricted just to a fleeting event in a larger narrative, and metaphorical meaning is encapsulated in just the word ‘blue’ (although it may reflect a deeper metaphor that EMOTIONS ARE COLORS, which the 2015 film ‘Inside Out’ played on). However, metaphors can also be used at a very large scale and impact a whole culture’s understanding of a phenomenon. Think of the phrase ‘holy war’, which has been used by various religious warmongers across the world (Christian crusades, Islamic jihad etc.) to justify their violent acts as acceptable. This may originate in logical entailments of metaphors like GOD IS ONE and GOD IS HOLY, that other gods must therefore be profane and their worshippers should be destroyed.  Some large scale, deep metaphors have become so ingrained into our cultures that we can barely perceive them as metaphors at all. For example, “This is a hard concept to grasp” reflects the metaphor that IDEAS ARE SUBSTANCES; we often compare intellectual concepts to physical texture and think of them as “hard” or “soft”. This has been used so extensively over the ages that it becomes difficult for us to realize that it is in fact a metaphor and that at some point long ago it may not have been seen as ‘natural’ at all.

Some metaphors are very explicit about the two words or things they connect and can be spotted on the surface of a sentence, for example, in “America won the space race with the Soviet Union”. Here it is clear that the word ‘space’ is being metaphorically connected to the word ‘race’ and both are present in the sentence itself. However, in some cases the metaphors are deep, hidden under the surface of a sentence and not obvious. Often this happens subconsciously. In the famous Biblical phrase: “The Lord is my shepherd”, it seems that “Lord” is being metaphorically connected to the word “shepherd”, but there is also a more hidden or implied metaphor that the person represented by the word “my”, which is a stand-in for all humans, is a sheep. Thus, more explicitly the metaphor is HUMANS ARE SHEEP, and so they are innocent, vulnerable, and child-like, and thus need protection.

As another example, the metaphor hidden under “my partner and I decided to go our separate ways” is difficult to tease out. If we consider the figurative meaning we recognize that what is being spoken about is a breakup, and that a breakup is like going two separate ways. This surface metaphor is enabled by two deeper metaphors that LIFE IS A JOURNEY and LOVE IS A JOURNEY. Another surface form reflecting these same underlying metaphors might be “I can’t wait to go down this path with you”; however, we’d have to be careful to whom and how we say it, since it can be interpreted as reflecting either or both metaphors at the same time. When using a metaphor to tell a story or make an argument, mixing them can be confusing because of conflicting associations. The metaphor love is a journey implies that it has an ending, which conflicts with the metaphor LOVE IS ENDLESS.

Metaphors originate from people trying to explain new things and experiences that their audiences may not understand if they were explained in literal terms; some metaphors are very original while others are conventional. Much of the language we use–some linguists say all—has metaphorical origins. The computer mouse, for example, was named a ‘mouse’ because it looked like one, but now many have evolved to look nothing like mice, and a ‘mousepad’ or ‘to mouse over’ would be difficult to comprehend for someone who knew what mice were but not computers. Artists, writers, and thinkers continually generate new metaphors, drawing two or more seemingly unrelated ideas together and challenging us to imagine new ways of seeing and being in the world by connecting them. Perhaps this is why British poet P.B. Shelley said that “poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world,” because they continuously replenish language with new metaphors, and metaphorically speaking, maybe METAPHORS ARE LAWS that guide our thoughts.

1.5: Metaphors in advertising and politics

Many metaphors are so deeply ingrained in our cultures and ways of thinking that it is difficult to know when one is simply being used because it is widely understood, or if it is being used for propaganda purposes, that is, with the ulterior motive of influencing opinions, behaviors, or worldviews. The fields of advertising and marketing are well-known for their use of certain ‘subliminal’ or ‘subconscious’ techniques to influence consumers’ buying habits; since the end of the 19th century, their basic modus operandi has been to create and reinforce metaphors associating their product with basic desires and insecurities towards beauty, cleanliness, safety, health, and success. Watch Edward Bernays’ Torches of Freedom to learn how cigarettes were marketed successfully to women in the early 20th century by associating them with power:

1.5A: How cigarettes became a symbol of power in films, a video essay by Sana Saeed for her series Pop Americana pubslihed in AJ+ on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDS11IZP4PE

Jasinski (2001) gives a really hard-hitting (notice how this is a metaphor too!) example of how metaphors have been used to create propaganda in the real world, propaganda being understood as biased information that promotes a particular perspective. In 1999, Ron Hampton, the executive director of the National Black Police Association asked the US American public to reflect on how certain political sloganeering may be impacting the high rate of police brutality in the US:

“This militarization of police work started a long time ago. It began with the use of terms like “war on crime” and “war on drugs.” … When police officers are inundated with this kind of military training and language, they go out thinking they’re soldiers, that they are the Iine between civilization and anarchy. Pretty soon, you’re bringing your war to traffic stops and minor arrests” (qtd. In Jasinski 2001, p. 259).

While police brutality is of course a complicated issue with many reasons, could the language use that surrounds police culture be contributing to it? What would happen if fighting crime, illegal drug trade, and drug use were conceptualized using other metaphors than ‘war’?

In a study by Stanford psychologists Lera Boroditsky and Paul Thibodeau, several participants were given paragraphs describing the rising crime rates in a fictional city. While some of the participants were given paragraphs that used the metaphor of CRIME IS A BEAST that preys on the community, others were given paragraphs that described CRIME IS A VIRUS that plagues the community. Then participants were asked which of two ways of dealing with crime they would support for this city: greater policing and cracking down on criminals, or greater social reform. How do you think the choice of metaphors might have impacted the participants’ decisions? (Boroditsky & Thibodeau qtd. in Gorlick, 2011)

Metaphors are especially powerful when they generate implications that are coherent with a particular ideology, that is, a system of ideas and ideals about the world. When taken together, these systems of metaphors can be triggered by cognitive framing, the use of a familiar perspective or narrative to make sense of and evaluate new information. Politicians and their media arms are often very good at ‘spinning’ their words and actions into messaging coherent with their ideology through the use of cognitive framing that evoke metaphors. For example, in September 2022 in the US, conservative Florida Governor Ron Desantis had Venezuelan refugees flown to a New England island known for its vacation homes of his liberal political opponents. His actions are coherent with the metaphor IMMIGRATION IS A FLOOD, where immigrants and refugees are unwanted, threatening, and overwhelming. However, liberals in cities like Boston and New York historically populated by immigrants may understand that IMMIGRANTS ARE ORPHANED CHILDREN, reflected in Emma Lazarus’ famous poem about the Statue of Liberty, and they responded by helping the refugees. These sorts of actions (or ‘political stunts’ some might say) evoke competing metaphors and confirm the beliefs and biases of those who share the same ideologies and cognitive frames. Interestingly, the metaphors evoked by Desantis and the New Englanders fit very well with linguist George Lakoff’s cognitive framing theory about US politics, which he sums in his book ‘Don’t Think of an Elephant’. He argues that if a deep metaphor for the USA is THE NATION IS A FAMILY, then Republicans tend to see GOVERNMENT IS A STRICT FATHER, while Democrats see GOVERNMENT IS A NURTURING CARETAKER. Note that this means the Republican frame portrays Democrats as permissive mothers, while the Democrat frame presents Republicans as uncaring, negligent, and absent. Do these frames resonate with your understanding of how the two US political parties portray one another?

⇒ bibliography for 1. Metaphor

Module authors: Anuj Gupta & Jonathon Reinhardt

Last updated: 5 November 2022

This module is part of Critical Language Awareness: Language Power Techniques and English Grammar, an open educational resource offered by the Clarify Initiative, a privately funded project with the goal of raising critical language awareness and media literacy among students of language and throughout society.