DEFINITION.TODAY - Metaphor Definition According to Experts - The meaning of the word metaphor can be traced back to the ancient Greek word composed by the prefix "meta," implying a change, and "pherein" meaning "to carry, to bear."
In the modern Greek the word "metaphor" also exists and can be translated with "transport" or "transfer". In general, it can be said that metaphor makes qualitative leap from a comparison to an identification or fusion of 2 objects. Thus one thing is one like or as something else, but one thing is something else.
In the modern Greek the word "metaphor" also exists and can be translated with "transport" or "transfer". In general, it can be said that metaphor makes qualitative leap from a comparison to an identification or fusion of 2 objects. Thus one thing is one like or as something else, but one thing is something else.
1. Metaphor Definition according Aristotle
More precisely, Aristotle defines a metaphor as follows:
"The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor. It is the one thing that cannot be learnt from others; and it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in the dissimilar." (Poetics 1459a 3-8)
"Metaphor consists in giving the thing a name that belongs to something else; the transference being either from genus to species, or from species to genus, or from species to species, or gon the ground of analogy (Poetics, 1457b)"
For example, a transfer from species to genus is "Indeed ten thousand noble things Odysseus did", in which the phrase ten thousand, a spesies of meaning, is being used instead of the word "many". Metaphor by analogy is "Old age is to life as evening is to day", where one calls the evening day's "old age" and old age "the evening of life". This classification served as the basis for later distinctions among figures of speech, such as synecdoche and metonymy, as well as analogy.
2 important ideas come from Aristotle's definition of metaphor. First, metaphor is a matter of words, because metaphoric transfer takes place at the level of words, not sentences. Second, metaphor is viewed as deviant from literal usage because it involves the transfer of a name to some object to which that name does not properly belong.
Aristotle said Diction becomes distinguished and non-prosaic by the use of unfamiliar terms, i.e.,strange words, metaphors, lengthened forms, and everything that deviates from ordinary models of speech (Poetics, 148a)
A third characteristic of metaphor for Aristotle is that metaphor is based on similarities between two things. Each metaphoric transfer from genus to species, species to genus, species to species, or by analogy requires that some underlying resemblance or similarity be noted that permits the transfer to be made.
Thus, according to him, a metaphor is the recognition of that which 2 things might have in common.
Aristotle said Diction becomes distinguished and non-prosaic by the use of unfamiliar terms, i.e.,strange words, metaphors, lengthened forms, and everything that deviates from ordinary models of speech (Poetics, 148a)
A third characteristic of metaphor for Aristotle is that metaphor is based on similarities between two things. Each metaphoric transfer from genus to species, species to genus, species to species, or by analogy requires that some underlying resemblance or similarity be noted that permits the transfer to be made.
Thus, according to him, a metaphor is the recognition of that which 2 things might have in common.
2. Metaphor Definition according to Nietzsche
Metaphor is to treat a thing as another that is recognized as similar in some respect (1869,74). Hence, similarity is the basis of the metaphorical transposition.
3. Metaphor Definition according to Ricocur
He defined metaphor as the trope of similarity (Ricoeur, 1975)
4. Metaphor Definition according to Hegel
He defined metaphor as an image that brings together the clarity of allegory with the pleasure of an enigma. According to him, metaphor is a shortened comparison whose meaning reveals itself only thanks to that connection. Metaphor has a purely ornamental meaning for him, since it is the result of a progressive loss of sensuous meaning.
5. Metaphor Definition according to Donald Davidson
Metaphor was defined as the dreamwork of language and, like all dreamwork, its interpretation of dreams requires collaboration between a dreamer and a waker, even if they be the same person; and the act of interpretation is itself a work of the imagination. So too understanding a metaphor is as much a creative endeavor as making a metaphor, and as little guided by rules.
6. Metaphor Definition according to Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary
Metaphor is defined as an expression that describes a person or object in a literary way by referring to something that is considered to have similar characteristics to the person or object you are trying to describe.
For example: the mind is an ocean, and the city is a jungle, you are the angel of my life, etc
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