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From: dinitz@uicsl.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.ai
Subject: Re: metaphors - (nf)
Message-ID: <15500032@uicsl.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 19-Apr-84 09:53:00 EST
Article-I.D.: uicsl.15500032
Posted: Thu Apr 19 09:53:00 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 23-Apr-84 01:16:06 EST
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Nf-From: uicsl!dinitz    Apr 19 08:53:00 1984

#R:sri-arpa:-1221400:uicsl:15500032:000:2406
uicsl!dinitz    Apr 19 08:53:00 1984

Here are some sources for metaphor:

1. A book edited by Andrew Ortony. The title is
Metaphor and Thought.  There are several good articles in this book, and I
recommend it as a good place to start, but not as the last word.

2. The Psychology Dept. at University of Tennessee has been sporadically
putting out a mimeo entitled: The Metaphor Research Newsletter.  The latest
edition (which arrived today) indicates that as of January 1985 it will
become a full fledged journal called Metaphor, published by Erlbaum.

3. Dedre Gentner (of BBN) has been doing assorted work on metaphor.

4. Metaphors We Live By, by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, is fun to read.
They have some good ideas, but they do tend to make too big a deal out of
them.  I think its worth reading.


As far as your claim that "man is a BIC pen" is a "bad" metaphor, I
tend to shy away from such a coarse grained term.  For me, metaphors
may be more and less apt, more and less informative, more and less
novel, more and less easily understood, etc.  In this particular
example human beings are so complex that there is almost no object that
they cannot be compared to -- however strained the interpretation may
be.  BIC pens are well known (thanks to simple construction and a good
advertising agency) for their reliability and being able to withstand
unreasonable punishment (like being strapped to the heel of an Olympic
figure skater).  Similarly, humankind throughout the ages has
successfully held up under all kinds of evolutionary torture, yet we
continue (as a species) to function.  Now this interpretation may seem
a little bizarre to you, but to me it seemed to come almost
instantaneously and quite naturally.  Can you truly say it is "bad?"

Even an example as silly sounding (at first) as "telephones are like
grapefruits" yields to the great creative power of the human mind.  Despite
their simple outer appearance, they both conceal a more complex inner
structure (which as a youngster, I delighted to dissect).  Both are
"machines" for reproducing something -- the telephone reproduces sounds,
while the grapefruit reproduces grapefruits (this one admittedly took a few
seconds more to think of).  So what's a "bad" metaphor?


I would love to continue this discussion with interested parties privately,
so as not to take up space in the notesfile.  USENET mail can reach me at
...!uiucdcs!uicsl!dinitz

-Rick Dinitz