Metaphor

As an expression in speech and writing, a metaphor prompts the listener or reader to think not particularly of what the metaphorical expression refers to literally, rather to think of something different but related, specifically something related by similarity or analogy, the purpose variously to add stylistic flourish, to influence the frame or cast of mind of the listener/reader regarding something, to express a thought in familiar terms that otherwise would require expression by comparison in more elaborate, intricate, convoluted, elusive language, or to enhance the listener/reader's grasp of a concept through analogy with a more familiar concept.   

A mountain of paperwork prompts the listener/reader to think about a large pile of paperwork and the difficult job ahead getting on top of it or whittling it down. In appropriate context, the metaphor, a biological cell is a miniature factory, attempts to enhance the listener/reader´s understanding of the workings of a living cell according to the perspective of the metaphor's author.

Often the literal meaning of the metaphorical expression gives a concrete or familiar or readily visualized image — the 'source' — whereas often the referent of the metaphor — the 'target' — is more abstract.      When Shakespeare´s depressed Macbeth laments, "And all our yesterdays have lighted fools / The way to dusty death", he does not refer literally to a lighted pathway leading to a destination of oblivion, but instead refers to something different, something more abstract, something related to the futility of life and the inevitability of death, more specifically perhaps to our past as a journey that we traveled foolishly, futilely, only to arrive death as our final destination.

Metaphors then require the listener/reader to render an interpretation of the intended comparison of source and target, an interpretation of the mapping of the metaphorical expression to the intended target. In context, Macbeth's "Out, out brief candle" invites the listener/reader to interpret the brief life of a candle's flame as the brief period the flame of life burns in a human being, as mapping a burning candle and a living (combusting) human.

This article discusses, among other things, the reasons we so frequently employ metaphor in speech and writing.

Metaphor as style in speech and writing

Metaphor is for most people a device of the poetic imagination and the rhetorical flourish-a matter of extraordinary rather than ordinary language. Moreover, metaphor is typically viewed as characteristic of language alone, a matter of words rather than thought or action. — George Lakoff and Mark Johnson

Viewed as an aspect of speech and writing, metaphor qualifies as style, in particular, style characterized by a type of analogy. An expression (word, phrase) that by implication suggests the likeness of one entity to another entity gives style to an item of speech or writing, whether the entities consist of objects, events, ideas, activities, attributes, or almost anything expressible in language. For example, in the first sentence of this paragraph, the word ´viewed´ serves as a metaphor for ´thought of´, implying analogy of the process of seeing and the thought process. The phrase, "viewed as an aspect of", projects the properties of seeing (vision) something from a particular perspective onto thinking about something from a particular perspective, that ´something´ in this case referring to ´metaphor´ and that ´perspective´ in this case referring to the characteristics of speech and writing.

As a characteristic of speech and writing, metaphors can serve the poetic imagination, enabling William Shakespeare, in his play "As You Like It", to compare the world to a stage and its human inhabitants players entering and exiting upon that stage; enabling Sylvia Plath, in her poem "Cut", to compare the blood issuing from her cut thumb to the running of a million soldiers, "redcoats, every one"; and, enabling Robert Frost, in "The Road Not Taken", to compare one´s life to a journey.

Viewed also as an aspect of speech and writing, metaphor can serve as a device for persuading the listener or reader of the speaker-writer´s argument or thesis, the so-called rhetorical metaphor....

Metaphor as foundational to our conceptual system

Cognitive linguists emphasize that metaphors serve to facilitate the understanding of one conceptual domain, typically an abstract one like 'life' or 'theories' or 'ideas', through expressions that relate to another, more familiar conceptual domain, typically a more concrete one like 'journey' or 'buildings' or 'food'.   Food for thought: we devour an article of raw facts, try to digest them, stew over them, let them simmer on the back-burner, regurgitate them in discussions, cook up explanations, hoping they do not seem half-baked. Theories as buildings: we establish a foundation for them, a framework, support them with strong arguments, buttressing them with facts, hoping they will stand. Life as journey: some of us travel hopefully, others seem to have no direction, many lose their way.

A convenient short-hand way of capturing this view of metaphor is the following: CONCEPTUAL DOMAIN (A) IS CONCEPTUAL DOMAIN (B), which is what is called a conceptual metaphor. A conceptual metaphor consists of two conceptual domains, in which one domain is understood in terms of another. A conceptual domain is any coherent organization of experience. Thus, for example, we have coherently organized knowledge about journeys that we rely on in understanding life.  

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