[Dr. Jamshid Ibrahim]

As you know metaphor is a very important feature in human language. There is no exaggeration when we say that language itself is a metaphor (compare George Lakoff: the metaphor we live by).

The Macmillan Dictionary has realized this important feature and dedicated two full pages to this important issue by Dr Rosamund Moon: e.g.: He is hurt. He gave me a cold look. Hurt and cold here as you know are metaphors because they are based on comparison or analogy with injury and temperature.

Simile is the same and differs from metaphor only in the use of words: “like, similar, the same as, resemble, look alike and so on”. Since prepositions refer to directions they show metaphor clearly. She has split up with her boyfriend. I wonder why our excellent dictionaries still lag behind on this matter.


Human language is analogous and not digital as we discussed earlier. Analogue means like or the same as. This is part of human perception. We reflect or mirror what we see or perceive. Metaphor, as you know, is a figure of speech in which a name or a descriptive word or phrase is transferred to an object or action different from, but analogous to, its original referent.

Finally, a metaphor is after all a picture. A picture goes deeper into memory and communicates ideas faster and more conveniently.

Unfortunately some people mistakenly believe that the use of metaphor is restricted to special forms of language only, such as idioms, preposition, and verbs of movement. There are different types of metaphor:

- Metaphor is common in ordinary language
- literature is very popular for using metaphor

- Now there is another kind of metaphor that is especially characteristic of written English "grammatical metaphor". Grammatical metaphors are created through the grammatical process of 'derivation or nominalization' by which a verb or an adjective is converted into a noun, often by adding an ending. Thus, Grammatical metaphors are a very prominent feature of written English due to nominalization (on account of information density). More meaning can be packed into nouns than into verbs. This is the reason why the words "verbal" and "verbose" are derived from the word "verb".In addition you can do more operations on nouns than on verbs: i.e. use them in the plural or with an adjective etc....

Even though this usage of "metaphor" is different from the traditional (poetic) metaphor, both have to do with transference/transportation, which is what the word "metaphor" means in the Greek.

Whereas the traditional metaphor transfers a dominant quality/characteristic of one thing to another thing, grammatical metaphor transfers noun-class status to another (non-noun) word.

Complete books have recently been dedicated to grammatical metaphor since information density is becoming an issue and a problem due to the increase in human knowledge.

Now compare:
I conclude (verb: mental process type)
I come to the conclusion (noun: location process type)

A metaphor can only occur in analogue language.
Metaphors on the one hand can be lexical or grammatical.
On the other hand an expression can be metaphorical or congruent: without a metaphorical stratum. When an expression is metaphorical there is stratal tension (the potential for tension/humour or potential for insertion i.e. fuzziness):

Question: Have you got the time, please?
Answer(1): Yes (without telling the time).
Answer (2): yes, it's half past five.

The World of Metaphor
- Metaphor and simile as explained above

- Dead metaphor: Usually in common language and because of their frequent use its metaphorical character became invisible: feelings up and down

- Grammatical metaphor is part of lexical morphology (e.g. nominalzation). there are two types of tendencies in English:
A consistent movement towards metaphorization
A counter-movement against metaphorization.
Jamshid