A closer look at metaphors

The topic of metaphor lies at the root of semiotics, both historically and analytically. Historically, there is the long tradition of ‘theories’ of metaphor, which dates back to Aristotle. Analytically, metaphors concern the study of figurative signs and also raise the more fundamental question of whether ‘literal’ meaning is possible at all. Topics such as arbitrariness, conventionality, motivation, and iconicity have dominated the semiotic discussion of metaphors.

Despite many differences in detail, two central concepts reappear as criteria for most traditional definitions of metaphor: ‘transfer’ and ‘similarity’. Major variants of the former concept are replacement, substitution, and translation. Variants of the latter are likeness, comparison, and analogy. A typical definition combines these criteria as follows: “a figure of speech in which a word or a phrase denoting one kind of object or action is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them”.

The idea of transfer is already expressed in the etymology of the term. The Ancient Greek metaphorá means precisely that – ‘transfer’, or more literally ‘a carrying from one place to another’. The two ‘places’ implied in this definition refer to the spheres of literal and of figurative meaning. Both are said to be related by similarity or implicit comparison. Two terms are introduced for the two domains of meaning interacting in the metaphorical process: the ‘tenor’ and ‘vehicle’. When Shakespeare refers to the ‘sun’ as ‘the eye of heaven’, the sun (which is in certain respects like an eye) is the tenor – the underlying idea of this metaphor – and the eye is the vehicle – that is, the image which is used to represent or ‘carry’ the tenor.