Editing Metaphor (section)

== As a type of comparison ==
[[File:Ivory plaque-AO 11461-IMG 0704-black.jpg|thumb|"The [[Asherah]] is part of a jigsaw in weaving together the feminine threads of a religious history that could be an important new breakthrough for women, she says."<ref name="www.newspapers.com p831">{{cite web | title=The Wikipedia Library | website=newspapers.com | url=https://wikipedialibrary.wmflabs.org/?next_url=/ezproxy/r/ezp.2aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubmV3c3BhcGVycy5jb20vYXJ0aWNsZS90aGUtc3lkbmV5LW1vcm5pbmctaGVyYWxkLWFzaGVyYWgvMTI0NTgwNjYwLw-- | access-date=2024-01-11}}</ref> An example of mixed metaphor in print.]]

Metaphors are most frequently compared with [[simile]]s. A metaphor asserts the objects in the comparison are identical on the point of comparison, while a simile merely asserts a similarity through use of words such as ''like'' or ''as''. For this reason a common-type metaphor is generally considered more forceful than a [[simile]].<ref name="English Language 1992 pp.653">The Oxford Companion to the English Language (1992) pp.653</ref><ref>The Columbia Encyclopedia (6th edition)</ref>

The metaphor category contains these specialized types:
* [[Allegory]]: An extended metaphor wherein a story illustrates an important attribute of the subject.
* [[Antithesis]]: A rhetorical contrast of ideas by means of parallel arrangements of words, clauses, or sentences.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/antithesis|title=Definition of ANTITHESIS|date=15 September 2023 }}</ref>
* [[Catachresis]]: A mixed metaphor, sometimes used by design and sometimes by accident (a rhetorical fault).
* [[Hyperbole]]: Excessive exaggeration to illustrate a point.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hyperbole|title=Definition of HYPERBOLE|date=5 September 2023 }}</ref>
* [[Parable]]: An extended metaphor told as an anecdote to illustrate or teach a moral or spiritual lesson, such as in [[Aesop's fables]] or [[parables of Jesus|Jesus' teaching method]] as told in the [[New Testament|Bible]].
* [[Pun]]: A verbal device by which multiple definitions of a word or its homophones are used to give a sentence multiple valid readings, typically to humorous effect.
* Similitude: An extended simile or metaphor that has a picture part ({{Lang|de|Bildhälfte}}), a reality part ({{Lang|de|Sachhälfte}}), and a point of comparison (''[[tertium comparationis]]'').<ref>[[Adolf Jülicher]], ''Die Gleichnisreden Jesu'', 2nd ed (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1910).</ref> Similitudes are found in the [[parables of Jesus]].

It is said that a metaphor is "a condensed analogy" or "analogical fusion" or that they "operate in a similar fashion" or are "based on the same mental process" or yet that "the basic processes of analogy are at work in metaphor." It is also pointed out that "a border between metaphor and analogy is fuzzy" and "the difference between them might be described (metaphorically) as the distance between things being compared."{{Quote without source|date=March 2024}}

===Metaphor vs metonymy===
{{main|Metaphor and metonymy}}
Metaphor is distinct from [[metonymy]], as the two concepts embody different fundamental modes of [[thought]]. Metaphor works by bringing together concepts from different conceptual domains, whereas metonymy uses one element from a given domain to refer to another closely related element. A metaphor creates new links between otherwise distinct conceptual domains, whereas a metonymy relies on pre-existent links within such domains.

For example, in the phrase "lands belonging to the crown", the word ''crown'' is a '''metonymy''' because some monarchs do indeed wear a crown, physically. In other words, there is a pre-existent link between ''crown'' and ''monarchy''.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/metonymy|title= Definition of METONYMY}}</ref> On the other hand, when [[Ghil'ad Zuckermann]] argues that the [[Modern Hebrew|Israeli language]] is a "phoenicuckoo cross with some magpie characteristics", he is using '''metaphor'''.<ref name=Revivalistics>{{cite book|author= Zuckermann, Ghil'ad|author-link= Ghil'ad Zuckermann|title=Revivalistics: From the Genesis of Israeli to Language Reclamation in Australia and Beyond |publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|year= 2020|isbn= 9780199812790|url= https://global.oup.com/academic/product/revivalistics-9780199812790?lang=en&cc=us}}</ref>{{rp|4}}
There is no physical link between a language and a bird. The reason the metaphors ''phoenix'' and ''cuckoo'' are used is that on the one hand hybridic ''Israeli'' is based on [[Hebrew language |Hebrew]], which, like a phoenix, rises from the ashes; and on the other hand, hybridic ''Israeli'' is based on [[Yiddish]], which like a cuckoo, lays its egg in the nest of another bird, tricking it to believe that it is its own egg. Furthermore, the metaphor ''magpie'' is employed because, according to Zuckermann, hybridic ''Israeli'' displays the characteristics of a magpie, "stealing" from languages such as [[Arabic language |Arabic]] and [[English language |English]].<ref name=Revivalistics/>{{rp|4–6}}

===Subtypes===

A [[dead metaphor]] is a metaphor in which the sense of a transferred image has become absent. The phrases "to grasp a concept" and "to gather what you've understood" use physical action as a metaphor for understanding. The audience does not need to visualize the action; dead metaphors normally go unnoticed. Some distinguish between a dead metaphor and a [[cliché]]. Others use "dead metaphor" to denote both.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://mh.bmj.com/content/26/2/97 |title=Working with the metaphor of life and death |year=2000 |doi=10.1136/mh.26.2.97 |pmid=23670145 |access-date=1 February 2019 |archive-date=2 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190202095633/https://mh.bmj.com/content/26/2/97 |url-status=live |last1=Barker |first1=P. |journal=Medical Humanities |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=97–102 |s2cid=25309973 |doi-access=free |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

A mixed metaphor is a metaphor that leaps from one identification to a second inconsistent with the first, e.g.:
{{blockquote|I smell a rat [...] but I'll nip him in the bud"|source=Irish politician [[Boyle Roche]]}}
This form is often used as a parody of metaphor itself:
{{blockquote|If we can hit that bull's-eye then the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards... [[Checkmate]].|''[[Futurama]]'' character [[Zapp Brannigan]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/character/ch0013045/quotes|title=Zapp Brannigan (Character)|work=IMDb|access-date=21 September 2014}}</ref>}}

An extended metaphor, or conceit, sets up a principal subject with several subsidiary subjects or comparisons. In the above quote from ''As You Like It'', the world is first described as a stage and then the subsidiary subjects men and women are further described in the same context.

An implicit metaphor has no specified tenor, although the vehicle is present. [[M. H. Abrams]] offers the following as an example of an implicit metaphor: "That reed was too frail to survive the storm of its sorrows". The reed is the vehicle for the implicit tenor, someone's death, and the storm is the vehicle for the person's sorrows.<ref>M. H. Abrams and Geoffrey Galt Harpham, A Glossary of Literary Terms, 11th ed. (Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning, 2015), 134.</ref>

Metaphor can serve as a device for persuading an audience of the user's argument or thesis, the so-called rhetorical metaphor.