Alliteration is the repetition of syllable-initial consonant sounds between nearby words, or of syllable-initial vowels, if the syllables in question do not start with a consonant. It is often used as a literary device. An example is the quote "Out of doubt, out of dark to the day's rising" from Lord of the Rings.
The word alliteration comes from the Latin word littera, meaning "letter of the alphabet". It was first coined in a Latin dialogue by the Italian humanist Giovanni Pontano in the 15th century.
Today, alliteration is used poetically in various languages around the world, including Arabic, Irish, German, Mongolian, Hungarian, American Sign Language, Somali, Finnish, and Icelandic. It is also used in music lyrics,
article titles in magazines and newspapers, and in advertisements,
business names, comic strips, television shows, video games and in the
dialogue and naming of cartoon characters.
Types of alliteration
There are several concepts to which the term alliteration is sometimes applied:
Literary or poetic alliteration is often described as the
repetition of identical initial consonant sounds in successive or
closely associated syllables within a group of words.However, this is an oversimplification; there are several special cases that have to be taken into account:
Repetition of unstressed consonants does not count as alliteration. Only stressed syllables can alliterate (though "stressed" includes any syllable that counts as an upbeat in poetic meter, such as the syllable long in James Thomson's verse "Come . . . dragging the lazy languid line along".)
The repetition of syllable-initial vowels functions as alliteration, regardless of which vowels are used. This may be because such syllables start with a glottal stop.
In English (and in other Germanic languages), the consonant clusters sp-, st-, and sk- do not alliterate with one another or with s-. For example, spill alliterates with spit, sting with stick, skin with scandal, and sing with sleep,
but those pairs do not alliterate with one another. In other consonant
clusters the second consonant does not matter; for example, bring alliterates with blast and burn, or rather all three words alliterate with one another.
Alliteration may also refer to the use of different but similar consonants, often because the two sounds were identical in an earlier stage of the language. For example, Middle English poems sometimes alliterate z with s (both originally s), or hard g with soft (fricative) g (the latter represented in some cases by the letter yogh – ȝ – pronounced like the y in yarrow or the j in Jotunheim).
Consonance is a broader literary device involving the repetition of consonant sounds at any point in a word (for example, coming home, hot foot). Alliteration can then be seen as a special case of consonance where the repeated consonant sound opens the stressed syllable.
Head rhyme or initial rhyme involves the creation of alliterative phrases where each word literally starts with the same letter; for example, "humble house", "potential power play", "picture perfect", "money matters", "rocky road", or "quick question".A familiar example is "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers".
Symmetrical alliteration is a specialized form of alliteration which demonstrates parallelism or chiasmus.
In symmetrical alliteration with chiasmus, the phrase must have a pair
of outside end words both starting with the same sound, and pairs of
outside words also starting with matching sounds as one moves
progressively closer to the centre. For example, with chiasmus: "rust brown blazers rule"; with parallelism: "what in earlier days had been drafts of volunteers were now droves of victims". Symmetrical alliteration with chiasmus resembles palindromes in its use of symmetry.
Examples of use
Poetry
Poets
can call attention to certain words in a line of poetry by using
alliteration. They can also use alliteration to create a pleasant,
rhythmic effect. In the following poetic lines, notice how alliteration
is used to emphasize words and to create rhythm:
"Give me the splendid silent sun with all his beams full-dazzling!' (Walt Whitman, "Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun")
"They all gazed and gazed upon this green stranger, / because everyone wondered what it could mean/ that a rider and his horse could be such a 'colour- / green as grass, and greener it seemed/ than green enamel glowing bright against gold". (232-236) (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, translated by Bernard O'Donoghue.)
"Some papers like writers, some like wrappers. Are you a writer or a wrapper?" ("Paper I" by Carl Sandburg)
Alliteration can also add to the mood of a poem. If a poet repeats
soft, melodious sounds, a calm or dignified mood can result. If harsh,
hard sounds are repeated, on the other hand, the mood can become tense
or excited. In this poem, alliteration of the s, l, and f sounds adds to a hushed, peaceful mood:
"In the first age, the frogs dwelt / at peace in their pond: they paddled about ..." (Moralities by W.H. Auden)
"Holocaust, pentecost: what heaped heartbreak: / The tendrils of fire forthrightly tasting foundation to rooftree ..." (My Grandfather's Church Goes Up by Fred Chappell)
"Chestnuts fell in the charred season, / Fell finally, finding room / In air to open their old cases ..." (Another Reluctance by Annie Finch)
"Effortlessly at height hangs his still eye. / His wings hold all creation in a weightless quiet ..." (The Hawk in the Rain by Ted Hughes)
"As one who wanders into old workings, / Dazed by the noonday, desiring coolness, Has found retreat barred by fall of rockface ..." (As One Who Wanders into Old Workings by C. Day Lewis)
"We were talking of dragons, Tolkien and I / In a Berkshire bar. The big workman / Who had sat silent and sucked his pipe / All the evening, from his empty mug ..." (We Were Talking of Dragons by C.S. Lewis)
"We set up mast and sail on that swart ship / Bore sheep aboard her, and our bodies also / Heavy with weeping, so winds from sternward / Bore us out onward with bellying canvas ..." (Canto I by Ezra Pound)
"Out of doubt, out of dark to the day's rising / I came singing in the sun, sword unsheathing ..." (Eomer's Wrath by J.R.R. Tolkien)
"An axe angles from my neighbor's ashcan; / It is hell's handiwork, the wood not hickory, ..." (Junk by Richard Wilbur)
Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Mikado contains a well-known example of alliterative lyrics: "To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, In a pestilential prison, with a lifelong lock, Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock, From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!"
"And churlish chiding of the winter's wind / Which, when it bites and blows upon my body" (from William Shakespeare's play As You Like It)
"A pleasing calm; while broad and brown, below / Extensive harvests hang the heavy head" (Autumn by James Thomson)
Alliteration Combined with Rhyme
"Great Aunt Nellie and Brent Bernard who watch with wild wonder at the wide window as the beautiful birds begin to bite into the bountiful birdseed" ("Thank-You for the Thistle" by Dorie Thurston)
"Three grey geese in a green field grazing. Grey were the geese and green was the grazing." (From the nursery rhyme Three Grey Geese by Mother Goose)
"Betty Botter bought a bit of butter, but she said, this butter's bitter; if I put it in my batter, it will make my batter bitter, but a bit of better butter will make my bitter batter better..." (from the tongue-twister rhyme Betty Botter by Carolyn Wells)
"Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?" (anonymous tongue-twister rhyme)
"Mr. Tambourine Man" by Bob Dylan employs alliteration throughout the song, including the lines: "Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free / Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands."
"Spieluhr" by Rammstein includes a spoken line: "Das kleine Herz stand still für Stunden" (eng. "The little heart stood still for hours).
"Fairyland Fanfare" by Falconer has a part that alliterates the "l" over 30 times: "Live the legend, live life all alone / Longing to linger in lore / Illuminating a lane / That leads you aloft / You're lost to the lunar lure / Leave the languish / Leave lanterns of lorn / Lend lacking lustre to lies / Liberate the laces / Of life for the lone / Lest lament yet alights“
Literary
alliteration has been used in various spheres of public speaking and
rhetoric. It can also be used as an artistic constraint in oratory to
sway the audience to feel some type of urgency, or another emotional effect. For example, S sounds can imply danger or make the audience feel as if they are being deceived. Other sounds can likewise generate positive or negative responses. Alliteration serves to "intensify any attitude being signified".
An example is in John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address, in which he
uses alliteration 21 times. The last paragraph of his speech is given
as an example here.
"Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice
which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with
history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on Earth God's work must truly be our own." — John F. Kennedy
Examples of alliteration from public speeches
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." — Martin Luther King Jr.
"We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths—that all of us are created equal—is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth". — Barack Obama.
"And our nation itself is testimony to the love our veterans have
had for it and for us. All for which America stands is safe today
because brave men and women have been ready to face the fire at freedom's front." — Ronald Reagan, Vietnam Veterans Memorial Address.
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal". — Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address.
"Patent portae; proficiscere!" ("The gates are open; depart!") — Cicero, In Catilinam 1.10.
Translation can lose the emphasis developed by this device. For example, in the accepted Greek text of Luke 10:41 the repetition and extension of initial sound are noted as Jesus doubles Martha's name and adds an alliterative description: Μάρθα Μάρθα μεριμνᾷς (Martha, Martha, merimnas). This is lost in the English NKJ and NRS translations "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things."
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas.
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His Acts being seven ages. At first, the infant... —William Shakespeare, As You Like It, 2/7
This quotation expresses a metaphor because the world is not
literally a stage, and most humans are not literally actors and
actresses playing roles. By asserting that the world is a stage,
Shakespeare uses points of comparison between the world and a stage to
convey an understanding about the mechanics of the world and the
behavior of the people within it.
In the ancient Hebrew psalms
(around 1000 B.C.), one finds already vivid and poetic examples of
metaphor such as, "The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my
God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my
salvation, my stronghold" and "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not
want". Some recent linguistic theories view all language in essence as
metaphorical.
The word metaphor itself is a metaphor, coming from a Greek term
meaning "transference (of ownership)". The user of a metaphor alters the
reference of the word, "carrying" it from one semantic "realm" to
another. The new meaning of the word might be derived from an analogy
between the two semantic realms, but also from other reasons such as the
distortion of the semantic realm - for example in sarcasm.
Etymology
The English word metaphor derives from the 16th-century Old French word métaphore, which comes from the Latinmetaphora, "carrying over", and in turn from the Greek μεταφορά (metaphorá), "transference (of ownership)", from μεταφέρω (metapherō), "to carry over", "to transfer" and that from μετά (meta), "behind", "along with", "across" + φέρω (pherō), "to bear", "to carry".
Parts of a metaphor
The Philosophy of Rhetoric (1936) by rhetoricianI. A. Richards
describes a metaphor as having two parts: the tenor and the vehicle.
The tenor is the subject to which attributes are ascribed. The vehicle
is the object whose attributes are borrowed. In the previous example,
"the world" is compared to a stage, describing it with the attributes of
"the stage"; "the world" is the tenor, and "a stage" is the vehicle;
"men and women" is the secondary tenor, and "players" is the secondary
vehicle.
Other writers employ the general terms 'ground' and 'figure' to denote the tenor and the vehicle. Cognitive linguistics uses the terms 'target' and 'source', respectively.
Psychologist Julian Jaynes coined the terms 'metaphrand' and 'metaphier', plus two new concepts, 'paraphrand' and 'paraphier'.
'Metaphrand' is equivalent to the metaphor-theory terms 'tenor',
'target', and 'ground'. 'Metaphier' is equivalent to the metaphor-theory
terms 'vehicle', 'figure', and 'source'. In a simple metaphor, an
obvious attribute of the metaphier exactly characterizes the metaphrand
(e.g. the ship plowed the seas). With an inexact metaphor, however, a
metaphier might have associated attributes or nuances – its paraphiers –
that enrich the metaphor because they "project back" to the metaphrand,
potentially creating new ideas – the paraphrands – associated
thereafter with the metaphrand or even leading to a new metaphor. For
example, in the metaphor "Pat is a tornado", the metaphrand is "Pat",
the metaphier is "tornado". As metaphier, "tornado" carries paraphiers
such as power, storm and wind, counterclockwise motion, and danger,
threat, destruction, etc. The metaphoric meaning of "tornado" is
inexact: one might understand that 'Pat is powerfully destructive'
through the paraphrand of physical and emotional destruction; another
person might understand the metaphor as 'Pat can spin out of control'.
In the latter case, the paraphier of 'spinning motion' has become the
paraphrand 'psychological spin', suggesting an entirely new metaphor for
emotional unpredictability, a possibly apt description for a human
being hardly applicable to a tornado.
Based on his analysis, Jaynes claims that metaphors not only enhance
description, but "increase enormously our powers of perception...and our
understanding of [the world], and literally create new objects".
As a type of comparison
"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." An example of mixed metaphor in print.
Metaphors are most frequently compared with similes.
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.
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.
Catachresis: A mixed metaphor, sometimes used by design and sometimes by accident (a rhetorical fault).
Hyperbole: Excessive exaggeration to illustrate a point.
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 (Bildhälfte), a reality part (Sachhälfte), and a point of comparison (tertium comparationis). 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'.
Metaphor is distinct from metonymy,
both constituting two 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 them.
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". On the other hand, when Ghil'ad Zuckermann argues that the Israeli language is a "phoenicuckoo cross with some magpie characteristics", he is using a metaphor.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, 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 and English.
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.
A mixed metaphor is a metaphor that leaps from one identification to a second inconsistent with the first, e.g.:
I smell a rat [...] but I'll nip him in the bud" — Irish politician Boyle Roche
This form is often used as a parody of metaphor itself:
If we can hit that bull's-eye then the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards... Checkmate.
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".
Metaphor can serve as a device for persuading an audience of the user's argument or thesis, the so-called rhetorical metaphor.
In rhetoric and literature
Aristotle writes in his work the Rhetoric
that metaphors make learning pleasant: "To learn easily is naturally
pleasant to all people, and words signify something, so whatever words
create knowledge in us are the pleasantest." When discussing Aristotle's Rhetoric,
Jan Garret stated "metaphor most brings about learning; for when
[Homer] calls old age "stubble", he creates understanding and knowledge
through the genus, since both old age and stubble are [species of the
genus of] things that have lost their bloom."
Metaphors, according to Aristotle, have "qualities of the exotic and
the fascinating; but at the same time we recognize that strangers do not
have the same rights as our fellow citizens".
Educational psychologist Andrew Ortony gives more explicit
detail: "Metaphors are necessary as a communicative device because they
allow the transfer of coherent chunks of characteristics -- perceptual,
cognitive, emotional and experiential -- from a vehicle which is known
to a topic which is less so. In so doing they circumvent the problem of
specifying one by one each of the often unnameable and innumerable
characteristics; they avoid discretizing the perceived continuity of
experience and are thus closer to experience and consequently more vivid
and memorable."
As style in speech and writing
As a characteristic of speech and writing, metaphors can serve the poetic imagination. This allows 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 a life to a journey.
Metaphors can be implied and extended throughout pieces of literature.
Larger applications
Sonja K. Foss
characterizes metaphors as "nonliteral comparisons in which a word or
phrase from one domain of experience is applied to another domain".
She argues that since reality is mediated by the language we use to
describe it, the metaphors we use shape the world and our interactions
to it.
Some theorists have suggested that metaphors are not merely stylistic, but that they are cognitively important as well. In Metaphors We Live By, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson
argue that metaphors are pervasive in everyday life, not just in
language, but also in thought and action. A common definition of
metaphor can be described as a comparison that shows how two things that
are not alike in most ways are similar in another important way. They
explain how a metaphor is simply understanding and experiencing one kind
of thing in terms of another, called a "conduit metaphor". A speaker
can put ideas or objects into containers, and then send them along a
conduit to a listener who removes the object from the container to make
meaning of it. Thus, communication is something that ideas go into, and
the container is separate from the ideas themselves. Lakoff and Johnson
give several examples of daily metaphors in use, including "argument is
war" and "time is money". Metaphors are widely used in context to
describe personal meaning. The authors suggest that communication can be
viewed as a machine: "Communication is not what one does with the
machine, but is the machine itself."
Experimental evidence shows that "priming" people with material
from one area will influence how they perform tasks and interpret
language in a metaphorically related area.
As a foundation of our conceptual system
Cognitive linguists
emphasize that metaphors serve to facilitate the understanding of one
conceptual domain—typically an abstraction such as "life", "theories" or
"ideas"—through expressions that relate to another, more familiar
conceptual domain—typically more concrete, such as "journey",
"buildings" or "food". For example: we devour a book of raw facts, try to digest them, stew over them, let them simmer on the back-burner, regurgitate them in discussions, and cook up explanations, hoping they do not seem half-baked.
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. For example, we have coherently
organized knowledge about journeys that we rely on in understanding life.
Lakoff and Johnson greatly contributed to establishing the importance
of conceptual metaphor as a framework for thinking in language, leading
scholars to investigate the original ways in which writers used novel
metaphors and question the fundamental frameworks of thinking in
conceptual metaphors.
From a sociological, cultural, or philosophical perspective, one asks to what extent ideologies
maintain and impose conceptual patterns of thought by introducing,
supporting, and adapting fundamental patterns of thinking
metaphorically.
To what extent does the ideology fashion and refashion the idea of the
nation as a container with borders? How are enemies and outsiders
represented? As diseases? As attackers? How are the metaphoric paths of
fate, destiny, history, and progress represented? As the opening of an
eternal monumental moment (German fascism)? Or as the path to communism (in Russian or Czech for example)?
Some cognitive scholars have attempted to take on board the idea
that different languages have evolved radically different concepts and
conceptual metaphors, while others hold to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. German philologistWilhelm von Humboldt
contributed significantly to this debate on the relationship between
culture, language, and linguistic communities. Humboldt remains,
however, relatively unknown in English-speaking nations. Andrew Goatly,
in "Washing the Brain", takes on board the dual problem of conceptual
metaphor as a framework implicit in the language as a system and the way
individuals and ideologies negotiate conceptual metaphors. Neural
biological research suggests some metaphors are innate, as demonstrated
by reduced metaphorical understanding in psychopathy.
James W. Underhill, in Creating Worldviews: Ideology, Metaphor & Language
(Edinburgh UP), considers the way individual speech adopts and
reinforces certain metaphoric paradigms. This involves a critique of
both communist and fascist discourse. Underhill's studies are situated
in Czech and German, which allows him to demonstrate the ways
individuals are thinking both within and resisting the modes by which
ideologies seek to appropriate key concepts such as "the people", "the
state", "history", and "struggle".
Though metaphors can be considered to be "in" language,
Underhill's chapter on French, English and ethnolinguistics demonstrates
that we cannot conceive of language or languages in anything other than
metaphoric terms.
Several other philosophers have embraced the view that metaphors
may also be described as examples of a linguistic "category mistake"
which have the potential of leading unsuspecting users into considerable
obfuscation of thought within the realm of epistemology. Included among
them is the Australian philosopher Colin Murray Turbayne.
In his book "The Myth of Metaphor", Turbayne argues that the use of
metaphor is an essential component within the context of any language
system which claims to embody richness and depth of understanding.
In addition, he clarifies the limitations associated with a literal
interpretation of the mechanistic Cartesian and Newtonian depictions of
the universe as little more than a "machine" - a concept which continues
to underlie much of the scientific materialism which prevails in the modern Western world.
He argues further that the philosophical concept of "substance" or
"substratum" has limited meaning at best and that physicalist theories
of the universe depend upon mechanistic metaphors which are drawn from
deductive logic in the development of their hypotheses.
By interpreting such metaphors literally, Turbayne argues that modern
man has unknowingly fallen victim to only one of several metaphorical
models of the universe which may be more beneficial in nature.
Nonlinguistic metaphors
Tombstone of a Jewish woman depicting broken candles, a visual metaphor of the end of life
Metaphors can map experience between two nonlinguistic realms. MusicologistLeonard B. Meyer demonstrated how purely rhythmic and harmonic events can express human emotions. It is an open question whether synesthesia
experiences are a sensory version of metaphor, the "source" domain
being the presented stimulus, such as a musical tone, and the target
domain, being the experience in another modality, such as color.
Art theorist Robert Vischer argued that when we look at a
painting, we "feel ourselves into it" by imagining our body in the
posture of a nonhuman or inanimate object in the painting. For example,
the painting The Lonely Tree by Caspar David Friedrich shows a tree with contorted, barren limbs.
Looking at the painting, we imagine our limbs in a similarly contorted
and barren shape, evoking a feeling of strain and distress.
Nonlinguistic metaphors may be the foundation of our experience of
visual and musical art, as well as dance and other art forms.
In historical linguistics
In historical onomasiology or in historical linguistics,
a metaphor is defined as a semantic change based on a similarity in
form or function between the original concept and the target concept
named by a word.
For example, mouse: small, gray rodent with a long tail → small, gray computer device with a long cord.
Some recent linguistic theories hold that language evolved from
the capability of the brain to create metaphors that link actions and
sensations to sounds.
Historical theories
Aristotle discusses the creation of metaphors at the end of his Poetics:
"But 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 dissimilars."
Baroqueliterary theoristEmanuele Tesauro
defines the metaphor "the most witty and acute, the most strange and
marvelous, the most pleasant and useful, the most eloquent and fecund
part of the human intellect". There is, he suggests, something divine in metaphor: the world itself is God's poem
and metaphor is not just a literary or rhetorical figure but an
analytic tool that can penetrate the mysteries of God and His creation.
Friedrich Nietzsche makes metaphor the conceptual center of his early theory of society in On Truth and Lies in the Non-Moral Sense.
Some sociologists have found his essay useful for thinking about
metaphors used in society and for reflecting on their own use of
metaphor. Sociologists of religion note the importance of metaphor in
religious worldviews, and that it is impossible to think sociologically
about religion without metaphor.
Analogy is a comparison or correspondence between two things
(or two groups of things) because of a third element that they are
considered to share.
In logic, it is an inference or an argument from one particular to another particular, as opposed to deduction, induction, and abduction. It is also used of where at least one of the premises, or the conclusion, is general rather than particular in nature. It has the general form A is to B as C is to D.
In a broader sense, analogical reasoning is a cognitive process of transferring some information or meaning of a particular subject (the analog, or source) onto another (the target); and also the linguistic
expression corresponding to such a process. The term analogy can also
refer to the relation between the source and the target themselves,
which is often (though not always) a similarity, as in the biological notion of analogy.
Analogy plays a significant role in human thought processes. It has been argued that analogy lies at "the core of cognition".
Etymology
The English word analogy derives from the Latinanalogia, itself derived from the Greekἀναλογία, "proportion", from ana- "upon, according to" [also "again", "anew"] + logos "ratio" [also "word, speech, reckoning"].
The concepts of association, comparison, correspondence, mathematical and morphological homology, homomorphism, iconicity, isomorphism, metaphor, resemblance, and similarity are closely related to analogy. In cognitive linguistics, the notion of conceptual metaphor
may be equivalent to that of analogy. Analogy is also a basis for any
comparative arguments as well as experiments whose results are
transmitted to objects that have been not under examination (e.g.,
experiments on rats when results are applied to humans).
Analogy has been studied and discussed since classical antiquity by philosophers, scientists, theologists and lawyers. The last few decades have shown a renewed interest in analogy, most notably in cognitive science.
Aquinas made a distinction between equivocal, univocal and analogical terms, the last being those like healthy
that have different but related meanings. Not only a person can be
"healthy", but also the food that is good for health (see the
contemporary distinction between polysemy and homonymy).
Thomas Cajetan
wrote an influential treatise on analogy. In all of these cases, the
wide Platonic and Aristotelian notion of analogy was preserved.
Cajetan named several kinds of analogy that had been used but previously unnamed, particularly:
Analogy of attribution (analogia attributionis) or improper proportionality, e.g., "This food is healthy."
Analogy of proportionality (analogia proportionalitatis) or
proper proportionality, e.g., "2 is to 1 as 4 is to 2", or "the goodness
of humans is relative to their essence as the goodness of God is
relative to God's essence."
In ancient Greek the word αναλογια (analogia) originally meant proportionality, in the mathematical sense, and it was indeed sometimes translated to Latin as proportio. Analogy was understood as identity of relation between any two ordered pairs, whether of mathematical nature or not.
Analogy and abstraction are different cognitive processes, and analogy is often an easier one. This analogy is not comparing all the properties between a hand and a foot, but rather comparing the relationship between a hand and its palm to a foot and its sole. While a hand and a foot have many dissimilarities, the analogy focuses on their similarity in having an inner surface.
The same notion of analogy was used in the US-based SAT college admission tests, that included "analogy questions" in the form "A is to B as C is to what?" For example, "Hand is to palm as foot is to ____?" These questions were usually given in the Aristotelian format: HAND : PALM : : FOOT : ____ While most competent English speakers will immediately give the right answer to the analogy question (sole), it is more difficult to identify and describe the exact relation that holds both between pairs such as hand and palm, and between foot and sole. This relation is not apparent in some lexical definitions of palm and sole, where the former is defined as the inner surface of the hand, and the latter as the underside of the foot.
Kant'sCritique of Judgment held to this notion of analogy, arguing that there can be exactly the same relation between two completely different objects.
Shared abstraction
In several cultures, the Sun is the source of an analogy to God.
Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle used a wider notion of analogy. They saw analogy as a shared abstraction.
Analogous objects did not share necessarily a relation, but also an
idea, a pattern, a regularity, an attribute, an effect or a philosophy.
These authors also accepted that comparisons, metaphors and "images"
(allegories) could be used as arguments, and sometimes they called them analogies. Analogies should also make those abstractions easier to understand and give confidence to those who use them.
James Francis Ross in Portraying Analogy (1982), the first substantive examination of the topic since Cajetan's De Nominum Analogia, demonstrated that analogy is a systematic and universal feature of
natural languages, with identifiable and law-like characteristics which
explain how the meanings of words in a sentence are interdependent.
Special case of induction
On the contrary, Ibn Taymiyya,[11][12][13]Francis Bacon and later John Stuart Mill argued that analogy is simply a special case of induction.[10] In their view analogy is an inductive inference from common known attributes to another probable common attribute, which is known about only in the source of the analogy, in the following form:
Premises
a is C, D, E, F, G
b is C, D, E, F
Conclusion
b is probably G.
Shared structure
According to Shelley (2003), the study of the coelacanth drew heavily on analogies from other fish.
Contemporary cognitive scientists use a wide notion of analogy, extensionally close to that of Plato and Aristotle, but framed by Gentner's (1983) structure mapping theory. The same idea of mapping between source and target is used by conceptual metaphor and conceptual blending theorists. Structure mapping theory concerns both psychology and computer science.
According to this view, analogy depends on the mapping or alignment of
the elements of source and target. The mapping takes place not only
between objects, but also between relations of objects and between
relations of relations. The whole mapping yields the assignment of a
predicate or a relation to the target. Structure mapping theory has been
applied and has found considerable confirmation in psychology.
It has had reasonable success in computer science and artificial
intelligence (see below). Some studies extended the approach to specific
subjects, such as metaphor and similarity.
An analogy can be stated using is to and as when
representing the analogous relationship between two pairs of
expressions, for example, "Smile is to mouth, as wink is to eye." In
the field of mathematics and logic, this can be formalized with colon notation to represent the relationships, using single colon for ratio, and double colon for equality.
In the field of testing, the colon notation of ratios and
equality is often borrowed, so that the example above might be rendered,
"Smile : mouth :: wink : eye" and pronounced the same way.
Linguistics
An analogy can be the linguistic process that reduces word forms thought to break rules to more common forms that follow these rules. For example, the Englishverbhelp once had the preterite (simple past tense in English) holp and the past participle holpen. These old-fashioned forms have been discarded and replaced by helped by using the power of analogy (or by applying the more frequently used Verb-ed rule.) This is called morphological leveling. Analogies can sometimes create rule-breaking forms; one example is the American English past tense form of dive: dove, formed on analogy with words such as drive: drove.
Neologisms can also be formed by analogy with existing words. A good example is software, formed by analogy with hardware; other analogous neologisms such as firmware and vapourware have followed. Another example is the humorous term underwhelm, formed by analogy with overwhelm.
Some people present analogy as an alternative to generative rules for explaining the productive
formation of structures such as words. Others argue that they are in
fact the same and that rules are analogies that have essentially become
standard parts of the linguistic system, whereas clearer cases of
analogy have simply not (yet) done so (e.g. Langacker 1987.445–447).
This view agrees with the current views of analogy in cognitive science
which are discussed above.
Analogy is also a term used in the Neogrammarian school of thought as a catch-all to describe any morphological change in a language that cannot be explained merely sound change or borrowing.
Science
Analogies
are mainly used as a means of creating new ideas and hypotheses, or
testing them, which is called a heuristic function of analogical
reasoning.
Analogical arguments can also be probative, meaning that they
serve as a means of proving the rightness of particular theses and
theories. This application of analogical reasoning in science is
debatable. Analogy can help prove important theories, especially in
those kinds of science in which logical or empirical proof is not possible such as theology, philosophy or cosmology
when it relates to those areas of the cosmos (the universe) that are
beyond any data-based observation and knowledge about them stems from
the human insight and thinking outside the senses.
Analogy can be used in theoretical and applied sciences in the
form of models or simulations which can be considered as strong
indications of probable correctness. Other, much weaker, analogies may
also assist in understanding and describing nuanced or key functional
behaviours of systems that are otherwise difficult to grasp or prove.
For instance, an analogy used in physics textbooks compares electrical circuits to hydraulic circuits. Another example is the analogue ear based on electrical, electronic or mechanical devices.
Mathematics
Some types of analogies can have a precise mathematical formulation through the concept of isomorphism.
In detail, this means that if two mathematical structures are of the
same type, an analogy between them can be thought of as a bijection which preserves some or all of the relevant structure. For example, and are isomorphic as vector spaces, but the complex numbers, , have more structure than does: is a field as well as a vector space.
Category theory takes the idea of mathematical analogy much further with the concept of functors. Given two categories C and D, a functor f from C to D can be thought of as an analogy between C and D, because f
has to map objects of C to objects of D and arrows of C to arrows of D
in such a way that the structure of their respective parts is preserved.
This is similar to the structure mapping theory of analogy of Dedre Gentner, because it formalises the idea of analogy as a function which makes certain conditions true.
A computer algorithm has achieved human-level performance on multiple-choice analogy questions from the SAT
test. The algorithm measures the similarity of relations between pairs
of words (e.g., the similarity between the pairs HAND:PALM and
FOOT:SOLE) by statistically analysing a large collection of text. It
answers SAT questions by selecting the choice with the highest
relational similarity.
The analogical reasoning in the human mind is free of the false inferences plaguing conventional artificial intelligence models, (called systematicity). Steven Phillips and William H. Wilson use category theory
to mathematically demonstrate how such reasoning could arise naturally
by using relationships between the internal arrows that keep the
internal structures of the categories rather than the mere relationships
between the objects (called "representational states"). Thus, the mind,
and more intelligent AIs, may use analogies between domains whose
internal structures transform naturally and reject those that do not.
Keith Holyoak and Paul Thagard (1997) developed their multiconstraint theory within structure mapping theory. They defend that the "coherence" of an analogy depends on structural consistency, semantic similarity and purpose. Structural consistency is the highest when the analogy is an isomorphism,
although lower levels can be used as well. Similarity demands that the
mapping connects similar elements and relationships between source and
target, at any level of abstraction. It is the highest when there are
identical relations and when connected elements have many identical
attributes. An analogy achieves its purpose if it helps solve the
problem at hand. The multiconstraint theory faces some difficulties when
there are multiple sources, but these can be overcome. Hummel and Holyoak (2005) recast the multiconstraint theory within a neural network
architecture. A problem for the multiconstraint theory arises from its
concept of similarity, which, in this respect, is not obviously
different from analogy itself. Computer applications demand that there
are some identical attributes or relations at some level of
abstraction. The model was extended (Doumas, Hummel, and Sandhofer,
2008) to learn relations from unstructured examples (providing the only
current account of how symbolic representations can be learned from
examples).
Mark Keane and Brayshaw (1988) developed their Incremental Analogy Machine
(IAM) to include working memory constraints as well as structural,
semantic and pragmatic constraints, so that a subset of the base
analogue is selected and mapping from base to target occurs in series.Empirical evidence
shows that humans are better at using and creating analogies when the
information is presented in an order where an item and its analogue are
placed together.
Eqaan Doug and his team
challenged the shared structure theory and mostly its applications in
computer science. They argue that there is no clear line between perception,
including high-level perception, and analogical thinking. In fact,
analogy occurs not only after, but also before and at the same time as
high-level perception. In high-level perception, humans make representations by selecting relevant information from low-level stimuli.
Perception is necessary for analogy, but analogy is also necessary for
high-level perception. Chalmers et al. concludes that analogy actually
is high-level perception. Forbus et al. (1998) claim that this is only a
metaphor.
It has been argued (Morrison and Dietrich 1995) that Hofstadter's and
Gentner's groups do not defend opposite views, but are instead dealing
with different aspects of analogy.
Often a physical prototype is built to model and represent some other physical object. For example, wind tunnels are used to test scale models of wings and aircraft which are analogous to (correspond to) full-size wings and aircraft.
For example, the MONIAC (an analogue computer) used the flow of water in its pipes as an analogue to the flow of money in an economy.
Cybernetics
Where
two or more biological or physical participants meet, they communicate
and the stresses produced describe internal models of the participants. Pask in his conversation theory asserts an analogy that describes both similarities and differences between any pair of the participants' internal models or concepts exists.
History
In
historical science, comparative historical analysis often uses the
concept of analogy and analogical reasoning. Recent methods involving
calculation operate on large document archives, allowing for analogical
or corresponding terms from the past to be found as a response to random
questions by users (e.g., Myanmar - Burma) and explained.
Morality
Analogical reasoning plays a very important part in morality. This may be because morality is supposed to be impartial
and fair. If it is wrong to do something in a situation A, and
situation B corresponds to A in all related features, then it is also
wrong to perform that action in situation B. Moral particularism
accepts such reasoning, instead of deduction and induction, since only
the first can be used regardless of any moral principles.
Structure mapping, originally proposed by Dedre Gentner,
is a theory in psychology that describes the psychological processes
involved in reasoning through, and learning from, analogies.
More specifically, this theory aims to describe how familiar knowledge,
or knowledge about a base domain, can be used to inform an individual's
understanding of a less familiar idea, or a target domain. According to this theory, individuals view their knowledge of ideas, or domains, as interconnected structures.
In other words, a domain is viewed as consisting of objects, their
properties, and the relationships that characterise their interactions. The process of analogy then involves:
Recognising similar structures between the base and target domains.
Finding deeper similarities by mapping other relationships of a base domain to the target domain.
Cross-checking those findings against existing knowledge of the target domain.
In general, it has been found that people prefer analogies where the
two systems correspond highly to each other (e.g. have similar
relationships across the domains as opposed to just having similar
objects across domains) when these people try to compare and contrast
the systems. This is also known as the systematicity principle.
An example that has been used to illustrate structure mapping
theory comes from Gentner and Gentner (1983) and uses the base domain of
flowing water and the target domain of electricity.
In a system of flowing water, the water is carried through pipes and
the rate of water flow is determined by the pressure of the water towers
or hills. This relationship corresponds to that of electricity flowing through a circuit.
In a circuit, the electricity is carried through wires and the current,
or rate of flow of electricity, is determined by the voltage, or
electrical pressure. Given the similarity in structure, or structural
alignment, between these domains, structure mapping theory would predict
that relationships from one of these domains, would be inferred in the
other using analogy.
Children
Children
do not always need prompting to make comparisons in order to learn
abstract relationships. Eventually, children undergo a relational shift,
after which they begin seeing similar relations across different
situations instead of merely looking at matching objects.
This is critical in their cognitive development as continuing to focus
on specific objects would reduce children's ability to learn abstract
patterns and reason analogically.
Interestingly, some researchers have proposed that children's basic
brain functions (i.e., working memory and inhibitory control) do not
drive this relational shift. Instead, it is driven by their relational
knowledge, such as having labels for the objects that make the
relationships clearer(see previous section).
However, there is not enough evidence to determine whether the
relational shift is actually because basic brain functions become better
or relational knowledge becomes deeper.
Additionally, research has identified several factors that may
increase the likelihood that a child may spontaneously engage in
comparison and learn an abstract relationship, without the need for
prompts. Comparison is more likely when the objects to be compared are close together in space and/or time, are highly similar (although not so similar that they match, which interfere with identifying relationships), or share common labels.
Law
In law,
analogy is primarily used to resolve issues on which there is no
previous authority. A distinction can be made between analogical
reasoning employed in statutory law and analogical reasoning present in
precedential law (case law).
Statutory
In statutory law analogy is used in order to fill the so-called lacunas, gaps or loopholes.
A gap arises when a specific case or legal issue is not clearly
dealt with in written law. Then, one may identify a provision required
by law which covers the cases that are similar to the case at hand and
apply this provision to this case by analogy. Such a gap, in civil law
countries, is referred to as a gap extra legem (outside of the law), while analogy which closes it is termed analogy extra legem (outside of the law). The very case at hand is named: an unprovided case.
A second gap comes into being when there is a law-controlled
provision which applies to the case at hand but this provision leads in
this case to an unwanted outcome. Then, one may try to find another
law-controlled provision that covers cases similar to the case at hand,
using analogy to act upon this provision instead of the provision that
applies to it directly. This kind of gap is called a gap contra legem (against the law), while analogy which fills this gap is referred to as analogy contra legem (against the law).
A third gap occurs where a law-controlled provision regulates
the case at hand, but is unclear or ambiguous. In such circumstances, to
decide the case at hand, one may try to find out what this provision
means by relying on law-controlled provisions which address cases that
are similar to the case at hand or other cases that are regulated by
this unclear/ambiguous provision for help. A gap of this type is named
gap intra legem (within the law) and analogy which deals with it is referred to as analogy intra legem (within the law). In Equity, the expression infra legem is used (below the law).
The similarity upon which law-controlled analogy depends on may
depend on the resemblance of raw facts of the cases being compared, the
purpose (the so-called ratio legis which is generally the will of the legislature) of a law-controlled provision which is applied by analogy or some other sources.
Law-controlled analogy may be also based upon more than one
statutory provision or even a spirit of law. In the latter case, it is
called analogia iuris (from the law in general) as opposed to analogia legis (from a specific legal provision or provisions).
In case law (precedential law), analogies can be drawn from precedent
cases. The judge who decides the case at hand may find that the facts
of this case are similar to the facts of one of the prior cases to an
extent that the outcomes of these cases are treated as the same or
similar: stare decesis.
Such use of analogy in precedential law is related or connected to the
so-called cases of first impression in name, i.e. the cases which have
not been regulated by any binding judge's precedent (are not covered by a
precedential rule of such a precedent).
Reasoning from (dis)analogy is also sufficiently employed, while a judge is distinguishing a precedent.
That is, upon the discerned differences between the case at hand and
the precedential case, a judge rejects to decide the case upon the
precedent whose precedential rule embraces the case at hand.
There is also much room for some other uses of analogy in
precedential law. One of them is resort to analogical reasoning, while
resolving the conflict between two or more precedents which all apply to
the case at hand despite dictating different legal outcomes for that
case. Analogy can also take part in verifying the contents of ratio decidendi, deciding upon precedents that have become irrelevant or quoting precedents form other jurisdictions. It is visible in legal Education, notably in the US (the so-called 'case method').
The law of every jurisdiction
is different. In legal matters, sometimes the use of analogy is
forbidden (by the very law or common agreement between judges and
scholars): the most common instances concern criminal, international,
administrative and tax law, especially in jurisdictions which do not have a common law system. For example:
Analogy should not be resorted to in criminal matters whenever its outcome would be unfavorable to the accused or suspect. Such a ban finds its footing in the principle: "nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege",
which is understood in the way that there is no crime (punishment)
unless it is plainly provided for in a law-controlled provision or an
already existing judicial precedent.
Analogy should be applied with caution in the domain of tax law. Here, the principle: "nullum tributum sine lege"
justifies a general ban on the usage of analogy that would lead to an
increase in taxation or whose results would – for some other reason – be
harmful to the interests of taxpayers.
Extending by analogy those provisions of administrative law that
restrict human rights and the rights of the citizens (particularly the
category of the so-called "individual rights" or "basic rights") is
prohibited in many jurisdictions. Analogy generally should also not be
resorted to in order to make the citizen's burdens and obligations
larger.
The other limitations on the use of analogy in law, among many others, apply to:
the analogical extension of statutory provisions that involve
exceptions to more general law-controlled regulation or provisions (this
restriction flows from the well-known, especially in civil law
continental legal systems, Latin maxims: "exceptiones non sunt excendentae", "exception est strictissimae interpretationis" and "singularia non sunt extendenda")
the usage of an analogical argument with regard to those law-controlled provisions which comprise lists (enumerations)
extending by analogy those law-controlled provisions that give the
impression that the Legislator intended to regulate some issues in an
exclusive (exhaustive) manner (such a manner is especially implied when
the wording of a given statutory provision involves such pointers as:
"only", "exclusively", "solely", "always", "never") or which have a
plain precise meaning.
In civil law
jurisdictions, analogy may be permitted or required by law. But also in
this branch of law there are some restrictions confining the possible
scope of the use of an analogical argument. Such is, for instance, the
prohibition to use analogy in relation to provisions regarding time
limits or a general ban on the recourse to analogical arguments which
lead to extension of those statutory provisions which envisage some
obligations or burdens or which order (mandate) something. The other
examples concern the usage of analogy in the field of property law,
especially when one is going to create some new property rights by it or
to extend these statutory provisions whose terms are unambiguous
(unequivocal) and plain (clear), e.g.: be of or under a certain age.
Teaching strategies
Analogies as defined in rhetoric are a comparison between words, but
an analogy more generally can also be used to illustrate and teach. To
enlighten pupils on the relations between or within certain concepts,
items or phenomena, a teacher may refer to other concepts, items or
phenomena that pupils are more familiar with. It may help to create or
clarify one theory (or theoretical model) via the workings of another
theory (or theoretical model). Thus an analogy, as used in teaching,
would be comparing a topic that students are already familiar with, with
a new topic that is being introduced, so that students can get a better
understanding of the new topic by relating back to existing knowledge.
This can be particularly helpful when the analogy serves across
different disciplines: indeed, there are various teaching innovations
now emerging that use sight-based analogies for teaching and research
across subjects such as science and the humanities.
Shawn Glynn, a professor in the department of educational
psychology and instructional technology at the University of Georgia,
developed a theory on teaching with analogies and developed steps to
explain the process of teaching with this method. The steps for teaching
with analogies are as follows:
Step one is introducing the new topic that is about to be taught and
giving some general knowledge on the subject.
Step two is reviewing the concept that the students already know to
ensure they have the proper knowledge to assess the similarities between
the two concepts.
Step three is finding relevant features within the analogy of the two
concepts.
Step four is finding similarities between the two concepts so students
are able to compare and contrast them in order to understand.
Step five is indicating where the analogy breaks down between the two
concepts.
And finally, step six is drawing a conclusion about the analogy and
comparing the new material with the already learned material. Typically
this method is used to learn topics in science.
In 1989, teacher Kerry Ruef began a program titled The Private Eye Project.
It is a method of teaching that revolves around using analogies in the
classroom to better explain topics. She thought of the idea to use
analogies as a part of curriculum because she was observing objects once
and she said, "my mind was noting what else each object reminded me
of..." This led her to teach with the question, "what does [the subject
or topic] remind you of?" The idea of comparing subjects and concepts
led to the development of The Private Eye Project as a method of
teaching.
The program is designed to build critical thinking skills with
analogies as one of the main themes revolving around it. While Glynn
focuses on using analogies to teach science, The Private Eye Project can
be used for any subject including writing, math, art, social studies,
and invention. It is now used by thousands of schools around the
country.
Religion
Catholicism
The Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 taught: For
between creator and creature there can be noted no similarity so great
that a greater dissimilarity cannot be seen between them.
The theological exploration of this subject is called the analogia entis.
The consequence of this theory is that all true statements concerning
God (excluding the concrete details of Jesus' earthly life) are rough
analogies, without implying any falsehood. Such analogical and true
statements would include God is, God is Love, God is a consuming fire, God is near to all who call him, or God as Trinity, where being, love, fire, distance, number must be classed as analogies that allow human cognition of what is infinitely beyond positive or negative language.
The use of theological statements in syllogisms must take into
account their analogical essence, in that every analogy breaks down when
stretched beyond its intended meaning.
Islamic jurisprudence makes ample use of analogy as a means of making
conclusions from outside sources of law. The bounds and rules employed
to make analogical deduction vary greatly between madhhabs and to a lesser extent individual scholars. It is nonetheless a generally accepted source of law within jurisprudential epistemology, with the chief opposition to it forming the dhahiri (ostensiblist) school.
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