>From: Noel Burton-Roberts <n.burton-roberts@ncl.ac.uk>
>To: relevance <relevance@linguistics.ucl.ac.uk>
>Subject: metaphor and simile
>Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 09:29:37 +010
>
>A small note on this issue. =20
>
>The temptation to say that metaphor is just an inexplicit simile (and =
>the temptation even to compare metaphor and simile) comes from =
>considering only a very limited set of cases of metaphoricity, namely =
>those that might be described as "assertive" metaphors. =20
>By this I mean metaphors that take the form "A is b" (where b cannot be =
>understood as literally being true of A). This might (but only might) =
>make metaphor seem comparable to simile because simile are also =
>"assertive" is this sense: "A is like B".
>But very little of what we would want to say is metaphorical actually =
>takes this assertive form. Some random examples of metaphor which are =
>not "assertive" in that sense.
>"Awake, for morning in the bowl of night has flung the stone the puts =
>the stars to flight and Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught the =
>Sultan's turret in a noose of light" (Fitzgerald -Khayam)
>"the sky rejoices in the morning's birth" (Milton).
>"the sea that bares its bosom to the moon" (Wordsworth)
>
>N.Burton-Roberts@ncl.ac.uk
>
>
--------------------------------------------
Robyn Carston
Department of Phonetics & Linguistics, UCL
Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
Tel: + 44 (0)20 7679 3174
Fax: + 44 (0)20 7383 4108
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/robyn/home.htm
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