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How do metaphors shape your life?

We live, breathe and think in metaphors and communication would be impossible without them. But what they are, why do they exist and why do we need them in our language?

In Word of Mouth, Michael Rosen explored how metaphors shape our lives with James Geary, author of .

Here, James explains more about metaphors, and how they are more common than we might think.

Metaphor actually lives a secret life all around us

We tend to think of metaphor—equating one thing with another, as in Shakespeare’s line “Juliet is the sun”—as something that only happens in poetry. But metaphor actually lives a secret life all around us. According to one study, we utter about one metaphor for every ten to twenty-five words, or about six metaphors a minute.

I think that is a gross (pardon the metaphor) underestimate. Take (there’s another metaphor) this typical newspaper headline:

'Belt tightening lies ahead'

This is a fascinating headline because, taken as a whole, it is an obvious metaphor. But each word in the headline is a metaphor, too.

“Belt tightening” is a conventional metaphor for how households reduce spending because of dwindling amounts of disposable income.

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But the word “lies” is also a metaphor, because it metaphorically locates the abstract act of belt tightening (budget cutting) in physical space.

β€œBelt tightening” is a conventional metaphor for how households reduce spending.

The word “ahead” is a metaphor, too, because it metaphorically conveys that the belt tightening will take place in the future by situating the constriction in the physical space in front of the reader.

In this simple set of four words, there are three distinct metaphors at work.

Still not convinced? Look (another metaphor) no further than the common expressions we use every day. Whether you’re down in the dumps or riding high, on the straight and narrow or at a crossroads, cool as a cucumber or hot under the collar, you are using metaphor.

The word β€˜metaphor’ is, of course, a metaphor itself.

Derived from the Greek roots meta (over, across, or beyond) and phor (to carry), the literal meaning of metaphor is “to carry across.” A metaphor carries across associations, connotations and meanings from one thing to another.

A metaphor carries across associations, connotations and meanings from one thing to another.

Even the word ‘literal’—derived from the Latin litera, meaning ‘letter’ — is a metaphor. ‘Literal’ means ‘according to the letter’; that is, actual, accurate, factual. But litera is, in turn, derived from the verb linire, meaning ‘to smear’, and was transferred to litera when authors began smearing words on parchment instead of carving them into wood or stone.

Thus, the literal meaning of ‘literal' is to smear or spread, a fitting metaphor for the way metaphor oozes over rigid definitional borders.

Metaphor is present in everything

Metaphor is present in everything from ordinary conversation and commercial messaging to news reports and political speeches. Language is so rife with figurative phrases because metaphor is about more than just words.

We think metaphorically. Metaphorical thinking is the way we make sense of the world, and it’s essential to how we communicate, learn, discover, and invent.

Many metaphors equate a physical experience with an intellectual, emotional or psychological experience. Without the metaphor, we have no way of communicating about ideas, feelings, concepts or anything abstract.

Metaphorical thinking is the way we make sense of the world.

The “seeing = knowing” metaphor is a case in point: “I’m in the dark,” “Your argument is transparent” (or murky or opaque), “The explanation is crystal clear,” and “That really sheds light on the problem.”

See what I mean?

Metaphors are like volcanoes

One way to understand metaphors is to classify them like volcanoes.

One way to understand metaphors is to classify them like volcanoes - active, dormant and extinct.

Active metaphors are those still bubbling with figuration, as in early twentieth-century artist and author Wyndham Lewis’s definition: Laughter is the mind sneezing.

Dormant metaphors, which tend to petrify into clichés, are those whose figurative nature slumbers just below the surface, as in the expression: We’re getting in over our heads.

Extinct metaphors are those we don’t recognize as metaphors anymore, those whose metaphorical magma will never rise again, as in the phrase: I see what you mean.

Look at and listen to the language around you

There is a steady stream of metaphor coursing through the way we talk about money, for example.

Liquidity is the ability to quickly convert assets into cash. A firm is solvent when it has plenty of liquid assets. Cash flow occurs at the confluence of revenue streams. A company floats shares in an initial public offering. Banks get bailed out when they are too big to fail. When you need money, you can tap a friend, sponge off relatives, dip into savings, or skim a little something off the top.

The power and paradox of metaphor is that it tells us so much about a thing by telling us what that thing is not. Look at and listen to the language around you and you will discover a moveable feast of metaphor at work.

James Geary is the author of .

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