The relation between dictionary and contextual meanings may be maintained along different lines: on the principle of affinity, on that of proximity, or symbol - referent relations, or on opposition.

Metaphor

The relation between dictionary and contextual meanings may be maintained along different lines: on the principle of affinity, on that of proximity, or symbol - referent relations, or on opposition. Thus the stylistic device based on the first principle is metaphor, on the second, metonymy and on the third, irony.The term metaphor derives from Greek (metaphora), or "transference", from (metaphero) "to carry over, to transfer" and that from (meta), "between" + (phero), "to bear, to carry".The term 'metaphor', as the etymology of the word reveals, means transference of some quality from one object to another. A metaphor becomes a stylistic device when two different phenomena (things, events, ideas, actions) are simultaneously brought to mind by the imposition of some or all of the inherent properties of one object on the other which by nature is deprived of these properties. Such an imposition generally results when the creator of the metaphor finds in the two corresponding objects certain features which to his eye have something in common. "Dear Nature is the kindest Mother still" (Byron) the notion Mother arouses in the mind the actions of nursing, weaning, caring for, etc., whereas the notion Nature does not. There is no true similarity, but there is a kind of identification. But acc. to Prof. Galperin I.R., it is better to define metaphor as the power of realizing two lexical meanings simultaneously.The metaphor, according to I. A. Richards in The Philosophy of Rhetoric (1936), consists of two parts: the tenor and vehicle. The tenor is the subject to which attributes are ascribed. The vehicle is the subject from which the attributes are borrowed. Other writers employ the general terms ground and figure to denote what Richards identifies as the tenor and vehicle. Consider the All the world's a stage monologue from As You Like It:All the world's a stage,And all the men and women merely players;They have their exits and their entrances; — (William Shakespeare, As You Like It,).This well-known quotation is a good example of a metaphor. In this example, "the world" is compared to a stage, the aim being to describe the world by taking well-known attributes from the stage. In this case, "the world" is the tenor and "a stage" is the vehicle. "Men and women" are a secondary tenor and "players" is the vehicle for this secondary tenor.It is a common misconception that a simile is a type of metaphor that uses “like” or “as” in order to make a comparison: you look like a cat who stole a fish from the table; however, metaphors draw direct comparisons without the use of “like” or “as,” making similes distinct from metaphors.Classification.The nature of metaphor is versatile, and metaphors may be classified according to a number of principles. 1. Metaphor as any stylistic devices can be classified according to their degree of unexpectedness. Thus metaphors which are absolutely unexpected, are quite unpredictable, are called genuine metaphors. They are created in speech by speakers' imagination. e. g. Through the open window the dust danced and was golden. Some books are to be tasted, others swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. Those which are commonly used in speech and are sometimes fixed in the dictionaries as expressive means of language are trite metaphors or dead metaphors e. g. to prick up one's ears; the apple of one's eye; to burn with desire. 2. According to the degree of their stylistic potential metaphors are clas­sified into nominational, cognitive and imaginative (or figurative). Nominational metaphors do not render any stylistic information. They are in­tended to name new objects or phenomena of the objective world. A nomina­tional metaphor is a purely technical device of nomination, when a new notion is formed by means of the old vocabulary: the arm of the chair, the foot of the hill. Nominational metaphor is a source of lexical homonymy. When an object obtains a quality which is typical of another object, cognitive metaphor is formed: One more day has died. A witty idea has come to me. Being a source of lexical polysemy, cognitive metaphors do not possess at stylistic value. The most expressive kind of metaphor is imaginative metaphor. Imag­inative metaphors are occasional and individual. They are bright, picturesque and poetic: Time was bleeding away. If there is enough rain, the land will shout with grass. 3. Metaphors may be also classified according to their structure (or ac­cording to complexity of image created). There are such metaphors as sim­ple (or elementary) and prolonged (or sustained). A simple metaphor con­sists of a single word or word-combination expressing indiscrete notion: The leaves were falling sorrowfully. A good book is the best of friends. Trite metaphors are sometimes injected with new vigour, their primary meaning is re- established alongside the new derivative meaning. This is done by supplying the central image created by the metaphor with additional words bearing some reference to the main word. e. g. Mr. Pickwick bottled up his vengeance and corked it down.The verb " to bottle up " is explained as " to keep in check", to conceal, to restrain, repress. So the metaphor can be hardly felt. But it is revived by the direct meaning of the verb "to cork down". Such metaphors, when the writer finds it necessary to prolong the image by adding a number of other images, but all these additional images are linked with the main, central image, are called sustained or prolonged.Metaphor can be embodied in all the meaningful parts of speech, in nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs and sometimes even in the auxiliary parts of speech, as in prepositions. The noun metaphor may consist of one word or may have an attribute in the form of an “of-phrase”. His voice was a dagger of corroded brass.The verb-metaphor is very emphatic as it throws the metaphorical light on the subject of the sentence too. The problem has been dogging us all week. Metaphors expressed by adjectives and adverbs are called metaphorical epithets: I'm dog-tired.Animals are very frequently present in metaphors to describe people's characteristics as well as actions. Such metaphors, that contain the name of an animal are called zoonymic metaphors (or faunal) In some cases, animal names can be used as verbs to describe actions, making the language much more vivid. The animal names you can use for this exercise include cow, wolf, chicken, fish, dog, bull, horse, beaver and monkey. Example.He was so hungry that as soon as the food was put on the dinner table, he wolfed everything down. That was kind of 'catty' of you. She's so mousy, I hardly realized she was in the room.Communicative functions. Metaphor is one of the most powerful means of creating images. Its main function is aesthetic. Its natural sphere of usage is poetry and elevated prose. Additional features. Canonized metaphors tend to become symbols. A symbol is an object which stands for something else. It is a reference in speech or in writing which is made to stand for ideas, feelings, events, or conditions. A symbol is usually something tangible or concrete which evokes something abstract. Personification is a stylistic device closely related to metaphor.Personification is the presentation of a phenomenon or an idea as a human being. This device is usually achieved by ascribing actions and qualities characteristic of people to the idea or the thing described: And the rays of sun embraced her.The weak form of personification is the so-called apostrophe. It usually has the form of an address.The poetical tradition of writing nouns denoting feelings or abstract phenomena with the capital letter may also be regarded as a form of personification.e.g. Oh Rome! My country! City of the soul. Allegory is a form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative, are equated with the meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. The underlying meaning has moral, social, religious, or political significance, and characters are often personifications of abstract ideas as charity, greed, or envy.Thus an allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning. The rabbit is an allegory of cowardice.One more variant of metaphor is antonomasia - a trope which consists in the use of a proper name to denote a different person who possesses some qualities of the primary owner of the name: Every Caesar has his Brutus (O'Henry).

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