6 Metaphor
This week we will have a brief look at metaphor. When we think of metaphor, we usually have literary metaphor in mind. However, as soon as you try to give a systematic definition of metaphor, you will notice how pervasive the concept is. As a matter of fact, many lexemes have common metaphorical uses and it becomes very difficult to draw the line. One major way that our lexicon is enriched with new meanings and uses of existing lexemes is by metaphorical extension.
Examples:
- to light up
- Why should he light up his front lamp to time? (BNC)
- My eyes light up at the sight of her. (BNC)
- ocean
- Only a little earthy bank separates me from the edge of the ocean. (BNC)
- The smaller yurt was an ocean of coolness and quiet. (BNC)
Sometimes metaphorical uses are correlate with certain lexical and grammatical contexts. light up for example is used metaphorically whenever in the context of face or eyes. The construction [an ocean of x] is almost always used metaphorically to express an extremely large quantity of x. x in this case is itself something resembling a liquid substance only via metaphor. Emotions are often understood as liquids. Today’s reading assignment Deignan (2006) explored some metaphorical patterns relating to singular and plural nouns.
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