2020-11- 05 ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด M – Metaphor & simile

Revision M-Q

2020-11- 05

ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด M – Metaphor & simile

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Dictionary.com

ออกเสียง Metaphor = ‘MET-uh-fawr’ / ‘-fer’

ออกเสียง simile = ‘SIM-uh-lee’

Dictionary.com

Simile vs. metaphor …

it’s the age-old question that none of us can keep straight.

So, let’s try looking at it a different way …

Similes and metaphors are both

ways to compare things, right?

But … a metaphor is a bit more dramatic,

like the theater-school student; he’s direct and he exaggerates … just a bit.

When complimenting you,

the metaphor tells you “your smile is sunshine,” and “baby, you’re a firework.”

No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

(And yes, most metaphors are into Katy Perry too.)

Then, there’s simile.

She’s that person who’s more reserved, analytical, and thoughtful.

When she compares things, she usually uses the words like or as.

She’s not as direct or dramatic as metaphor…

but she’s getting the same job done: comparing one thing to another.

When simile compliments you …

she uses her words to gently suggest“your smile is like sunshine,”

or “your personality is as energetic as a firework.”

Who you chose is up to you and it can depend on the situation …

they’re both great at comparisons, really.

metaphor

We know how Aristotle feels about a metaphor,

but what does this term mean at its most basic form?

A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a term is

applied to something to which it is not literally applicable

in order to suggest a resemblance,

as in She is a rose.

Excluding the possibility that the subject of this sentence is literally a flower,

this example suggests that the subject possesses figurative qualities or attributes of a rose, such asexquisite beauty or perhaps a prickly disposition.

One famous metaphor is the Doomsday Clock,

a symbolic clock that represents how close the planet is to global disaster.

What is the Doomsday Clock?

Doomsday is one of those evocative words that paint a very vivid picture.

As we define doomsday:

“the day of the Last Judgment,

at the end of the world; nuclear destruction of the world;

given to or marked by forebodings or predictions of

impending calamity;

especially concerned with or predicting future universal destruction.”

As you can see, it’s about as bottom-line as it can get.

Other words associated with doomsday are just as expressive, like Armageddon and apocalypse.

With that said, the “Doomsday Clock” has (unfortunately) been in the news of late.

Its hands have been moved up to just 100 seconds to midnight, which metaphorically means that the planet is about as close to global disaster as it ever has been. (Midnight = we’re in serious trouble.)

The very fact that such a thing has existed for so long

means that mankind has teetered on the precipice of disaster for quite awhile now. So, what exactly is this thing,

and how did it gain this status as a symbol of our collective impending doom?

The Doomsday Clock (there is no physical clock, BTW) is run by a group of people who produce an academic journal called the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

The clock was created in 1947 just after humanity had entered the Nuclear Age after the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

(That year, the bulletin was first formed by a group of scientists and engineers who participated in the Manhattan Project, which developed those weapons.)

Their symbolic clock was first set at seven minutes to midnight.

Why is the Doomsday Clock now set at 100 seconds?

In 2018, the clock was notably moved to two minutes to midnight for the first time in its history.

Now, 2020 marks another milestone: the clock has been set at 100 seconds, just under two minutes, to metaphorical doomsday.

According to official statement from the Bullet of the Atomic Scientists:

Humanity continues to face two simultaneous existential dangers

—nuclear war and climate change

—that are compounded by a threat multiplier,

cyber-enabled information warfare,

that undercuts society’s ability to respond.

The international security situation is dire,

not just because these threats exist,

but because world leaders have allowed the international political infrastructure for managing them to erode.

The statement specifically cites

international retreat from arms control agreements,

an insufficient global response to an increasingly threatened environment,

and the growing dangers of information warfare

and other disruptive technologies, such as deepfakes.

Another notable change to the time on the clock was when it advanced 30 seconds in 2017. The furthest it has been from midnight was 17 minutes back in 1991, as the Soviet Union fell apart. It’s been reset a total of 23 times (and counting) since 1947.

How often does the clock change?

The Bulletin group is not in the prognostication business

where ultimate cataclysm is concerned.

The academics, including many Nobel Laureates, that run the Clock

don’t update it in real time. They meet twice a year to assess world events, not forecasting events but tracking data (e.g., how many nuclear weapons there are in the world, the level of carbon dioxide in the environment) and assessing the response to these threats (e.g., citizen efforts, global agreements).

But, for as doom-and-gloom as the Doomsday Clock can be,

the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists always suggests meaningful action.

As they conclude in their 2020 statement:

Citizens around the world have the power to unmask social media disinformation and improve the long-term prospects of their children and grandchildren.

They can insist on facts, and discount nonsense.

They can demand—through public protest, at the ballot box, and in many other creative ways—that their leaders takeimmediate steps

to reduce the existential threats of nuclear war and climate change.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

What is metaphor?

"You're a peach!"

We've all heard the expression, and it's a good exampleof what we call metaphor.

A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase

denoting one kind of object or action is used in place of another

to suggest a likeness or analogy between them:

the person being addressed in "you're a peach" is being equated with a peach,

with the suggestion being that the person is pleasing or delightful in the way that a peach is pleasing and delightful.

A metaphor is an implied comparison,

as in "the silk of the singer's voice," in contrast to the explicit comparison of the simile, which uses like or as, as in"a voice smooth like silk."

When we usemetaphor, we make a leap beyond rational, ho-hum comparison

to anidentification or fusion of two objects,

resulting in a new entity that has characteristics of both:

the voice isn't like silk; it is silk.

Many critics regard the making of metaphors

as a system of thought antedating or bypassing logic.

Metaphor is the fundamental language ofpoetry,

although it is common on all levels and in all kinds of language.

Lots of common words we use every day were originally vivid images,

although they exist now as dead metaphors whose original aptness has been lost.

The word daisy, for example, comes from an Old English word meaning "day's eye." The ray-like appearance of the daisy, which opens and closes with the sun, is reminiscent of an eye that opens in the morning and closes at night.

The expression time flies is also metaphorical, with time being identified with a bird.

In poetry a metaphor may perform varied functions, from noting simple similarity between things to evoking a broad set of associations; it may exist as a minor element, or it may be the central concept and controlling image of the poem.

The metaphor of an iron horse for a train, for example, is the elaborate central concept of one of Emily Dickinson's poems—though neither iron horse nor train appears in the poem,

the first and final stanzas of which are:

I like to see it lap the Miles—

And lick the Valleys up—

And stop to feed itself at Tanks—

And then—prodigious step

And neigh like Boanerges—

Then—prompter than a Star

Stop—docile and omnipotent

At it's own stable door—

A mixed metaphor is the linking of two or more elements that don't go together logically.

It happens when the writer or speaker isn't being sensitive to the literal meaning of the words or to the falseness of the comparison being used.

A mixed metaphor is often two metaphors sloppily mashed together

as in, "the ball is in the court of public opinion," which joins "the ball is in your court" to "the court of public opinion."

A mixed metaphor may also be used with great effectiveness, however,

as in Hamlet's speech:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

For strictly correct completion of the metaphor,

sea should be replaced by a word like host.

By using "sea of troubles," however, Shakespeare evokes the overwhelming nature of Hamlet's troubles.

Simile vs. Metaphor

Many people have trouble distinguishingbetween simile and metaphor.

A glance at their Latin and Greek roots offers a simple way of telling these two closely-related figures of speech apart.

Simile comes from the Latin word similis (meaning “similar, like”),

which seems fitting, since the comparisonindicated by a simile will typically contain the words as or like.

Metaphor, on the other hand, comes from the Greek word metapherein (“to transfer”), which is also fitting, since a metaphor is used in place of something. “My love is like a red, red rose” is a simile, and “love is a rose” is a metaphor.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Simile' and 'metaphor' are just the beginning.

What Is a Rhetorical Device and Why are They Used?

As with all fields of serious and complicated human endeavor

(that can be considered variously as an art, a science, a profession, or a hobby),

there is a technical vocabulary associated with writing.

Rhetoric is the name for the study of writing or speaking

as a means of communication or persuasion,

and though a writer doesn’t need to know the specific labels for certain writing techniques in order to use them effectively,

it is sometimes helpful to have a handy taxonomy for the ways in which words and ideas are arranged.

This can help to discuss and isolate ideas that might otherwise become abstract and confusing.

As with the word rhetoric itself, many of these rhetorical devices come from Greek.