Showing posts with label Metaphor-Speak. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Metaphor-Speak. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
METAPHORS IN THE MAKING
To recap from an earlier post, entitled 'Metaphors be with You', a metaphor is when you say that something is something else, using figurative language to compare and contrast different objects or ideas. They are formed when words are put together to create pictures in your minds.
Poets use metaphor-speak for an idea as if it were another idea.
In “The Highwayman” Alfred Noyes says, “The wind was a torrent of darkness and the Moon was a ghostly galleon.”
Metaphors are FUN to use! AND they allow your brain to BULLDOZE THROUGH BARRIERS!
Let's do a simple exercise.
1. Select an object or idea as the subject of your thoughts. It is a good idea for you to make a simple drawing of your theme.
For example, suppose you wish to describe storytelling.
2. Identify what it is you want to communicate about storytelling. You may wish to express how enchanting it is to tell and listen to, stories.
3. Now think of another object or idea that strongly implies what and how you wish to express your thoughts. Perhaps you like the idea of “spaceship” to communicate the way stories transport you to other worlds.
4. Finally, craft a sentence in which you link the idea of ‘spaceships’ to ‘storytelling’. F
or example, you could write or say, “Storytelling is a spaceship that takes me on voyages to other worlds.”
Congratulations! You have just used ‘spaceship’ as a metaphor.
Using metaphors when you write and speak will allow you to communicate more effectively and in a more interesting way. It allows your imagination to break freeeeeee!
Now try your hand at crafting metaphors from the three images appended in this post, using the four-step process described above. Make your associations and metaphor away.
Suggestions: ‘Elephant’ could remind you of a good memory; ‘Four Aces’ could remind you of a winning hand;
‘An Egg’ could remind you of a new idea, and so on.
This is a simple way to help you think clearly, and to come up with creative ideas in challenging circumstances.
[Excerpted from the 'Thinkerbelles' edition of The InGenius Series of bookazines by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea. For annual subscriptions to the bookazines, please proceed to this link under 'Learning Miracles'. ]
Poets use metaphor-speak for an idea as if it were another idea.
In “The Highwayman” Alfred Noyes says, “The wind was a torrent of darkness and the Moon was a ghostly galleon.”
Metaphors are FUN to use! AND they allow your brain to BULLDOZE THROUGH BARRIERS!
Let's do a simple exercise.
1. Select an object or idea as the subject of your thoughts. It is a good idea for you to make a simple drawing of your theme.
For example, suppose you wish to describe storytelling.
2. Identify what it is you want to communicate about storytelling. You may wish to express how enchanting it is to tell and listen to, stories.
3. Now think of another object or idea that strongly implies what and how you wish to express your thoughts. Perhaps you like the idea of “spaceship” to communicate the way stories transport you to other worlds.
4. Finally, craft a sentence in which you link the idea of ‘spaceships’ to ‘storytelling’. F
or example, you could write or say, “Storytelling is a spaceship that takes me on voyages to other worlds.”Congratulations! You have just used ‘spaceship’ as a metaphor.
Using metaphors when you write and speak will allow you to communicate more effectively and in a more interesting way. It allows your imagination to break freeeeeee!
Now try your hand at crafting metaphors from the three images appended in this post, using the four-step process described above. Make your associations and metaphor away.
Suggestions: ‘Elephant’ could remind you of a good memory; ‘Four Aces’ could remind you of a winning hand;
‘An Egg’ could remind you of a new idea, and so on.This is a simple way to help you think clearly, and to come up with creative ideas in challenging circumstances.
[Excerpted from the 'Thinkerbelles' edition of The InGenius Series of bookazines by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea. For annual subscriptions to the bookazines, please proceed to this link under 'Learning Miracles'. ]
Saturday, May 16, 2009
METAPHORS BE WITH YOU!
Originally, metaphor was a Greek word meaning “transfer”.
The Greek etymology is from meta, implying “a change” and pherein meaning “to bear, or carry.” Thus, the word metaphor itself has a metaphorical meaning in English, “a transfer of meaning from one thing to another”:
The clouds were low and hairy in the skies, like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes ...
Robert Frost, “Once by the Pacific”
and Scratching at the window with claws of pine, the wind wants in...
Imogene Bolls, “Coyote Wind”
Metaphors help us learn faster, better, and happier, because:
* They help us to easily understand something about the object or idea to which they are being applied; they create pictures in our minds.
* They form a compressed story, and can make speaking and writing more lively and interesting.
* They can communicate a great deal of meaning with just a word or a phrase.
* They imply rather than directly state relationships, so they can get listeners and readers to think about what they are hearing or reading.
* Metaphors are FUN to use! AND they allow your brain to BULLDOZE THROUGH BARRIERS!
Remember : A metaphor is when you say that something is something else, using figurative language to compare and contrast different objects or ideas. They are formed when words are put together to create pictures in your minds. Poets use metaphor-speak for an idea as if it were another idea.
In “The Highwayman” Alfred Noyes says, “The wind was a torrent of darkness and the Moon was a ghostly galleon”.
[Excerpted from the 'Thinkerbelles' edition of The InGenius Series of bookazines by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]
The Greek etymology is from meta, implying “a change” and pherein meaning “to bear, or carry.” Thus, the word metaphor itself has a metaphorical meaning in English, “a transfer of meaning from one thing to another”:
The clouds were low and hairy in the skies, like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes ...
Robert Frost, “Once by the Pacific”
and Scratching at the window with claws of pine, the wind wants in...
Imogene Bolls, “Coyote Wind”
Metaphors help us learn faster, better, and happier, because:
* They help us to easily understand something about the object or idea to which they are being applied; they create pictures in our minds.
* They form a compressed story, and can make speaking and writing more lively and interesting.
* They can communicate a great deal of meaning with just a word or a phrase.
* They imply rather than directly state relationships, so they can get listeners and readers to think about what they are hearing or reading.
* Metaphors are FUN to use! AND they allow your brain to BULLDOZE THROUGH BARRIERS!Remember : A metaphor is when you say that something is something else, using figurative language to compare and contrast different objects or ideas. They are formed when words are put together to create pictures in your minds. Poets use metaphor-speak for an idea as if it were another idea.
In “The Highwayman” Alfred Noyes says, “The wind was a torrent of darkness and the Moon was a ghostly galleon”.
[Excerpted from the 'Thinkerbelles' edition of The InGenius Series of bookazines by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]
Friday, May 15, 2009
METAPHORICALLY SPEAKING
Metaphors are a way to describe something: they are smart ways of saying what you mean so that other people can see the meaning in what you say. People who are able to use metaphors well are examples of genius in action!
Metaphors enliven language. They transform what is boring into something vivid, visual, and alive!
Creative minds use metaphors to make the ordinary strange and the strange ordinary. In this way, we are able to see the meaning within otherwise complex thoughts.
Ordinary language can force someone to use too many words; metaphors are able to express maximum meaning via minimum words.
Metaphors help you see pictures in your mind so that you can understand something quickly. For example, if you were to say:
“School is Hell!”
your listeners interpret your words in diverse ways: that your school is run by The Devil, or that life in school is burning hot, or that you are perpetually in hot water, or that there’s no fun there, only suffering, and so on.
When you can’t find easy words to describe something, metaphors allow you to create new meanings from new feelings, thoughts, things, experiences, and relationships.
Aristotle (384-322 BC), the great Greek philosopher stated in Poetics:
“The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor.”
Children constantly use stories to build up theories…they use metaphor and analogy to make intellectual leaps to explain phenomena in life...
[Excerpted from the 'Thinkerbelles' edition of The Ingenius Series of bookazines by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]
Say Keng's personal comments:
Readers interested in exploring the power of metaphors should read the now classic, 'Metaphors We Live By', by George Lakoff & Mark Johnson.
In the words of the authors, "Metaphor is a fundamental mechanism of mind, one that allows us to use what we know about our physical and social experience to provide understanding of countless other subjects. Because such metaphors structure our most basic understandings of our experience, they are "metaphors we live by" - metaphors that can shape our perceptions and actions without our ever noticing them."
The use of metaphors & analogies is the hallmark of the proprietary Synectics group problem solving methodology. Readers can explore it further by reading the following excellent books:
- 'The Metaphorical Way of Learning & Knowing', by William Gordon;
- 'What Colour is Saturday? Using Analogies to Enhance Creative Thinking', by Jane McAuliffe;
[The foregoing two books are most likely to be out-of-print. Readers can try to search for them at abebooks &/or alibris.]
Metaphors enliven language. They transform what is boring into something vivid, visual, and alive!
Creative minds use metaphors to make the ordinary strange and the strange ordinary. In this way, we are able to see the meaning within otherwise complex thoughts.
Ordinary language can force someone to use too many words; metaphors are able to express maximum meaning via minimum words.
Metaphors help you see pictures in your mind so that you can understand something quickly. For example, if you were to say:
“School is Hell!”
your listeners interpret your words in diverse ways: that your school is run by The Devil, or that life in school is burning hot, or that you are perpetually in hot water, or that there’s no fun there, only suffering, and so on.
When you can’t find easy words to describe something, metaphors allow you to create new meanings from new feelings, thoughts, things, experiences, and relationships.
Aristotle (384-322 BC), the great Greek philosopher stated in Poetics:
“The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor.”
Children constantly use stories to build up theories…they use metaphor and analogy to make intellectual leaps to explain phenomena in life...
[Excerpted from the 'Thinkerbelles' edition of The Ingenius Series of bookazines by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]
Say Keng's personal comments:
Readers interested in exploring the power of metaphors should read the now classic, 'Metaphors We Live By', by George Lakoff & Mark Johnson.
In the words of the authors, "Metaphor is a fundamental mechanism of mind, one that allows us to use what we know about our physical and social experience to provide understanding of countless other subjects. Because such metaphors structure our most basic understandings of our experience, they are "metaphors we live by" - metaphors that can shape our perceptions and actions without our ever noticing them."
The use of metaphors & analogies is the hallmark of the proprietary Synectics group problem solving methodology. Readers can explore it further by reading the following excellent books:
- 'The Metaphorical Way of Learning & Knowing', by William Gordon;
- 'What Colour is Saturday? Using Analogies to Enhance Creative Thinking', by Jane McAuliffe;
[The foregoing two books are most likely to be out-of-print. Readers can try to search for them at abebooks &/or alibris.]
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