Communicating with Metaphors, page 5

What is a Metaphor?, continued

The implication is to take particular care with the means of expression, or the words, when your writing uses metaphors.

To help understand how to do this, I need to show you a bit more about the structure of a metaphor, explain the different kinds of metaphors, and discuss some figures of speech that are related to metaphors.

Dissecting a Metaphor

All right, folks, let’s get out our scalpels and surgical instruments, apprehend a wily metaphor, get it up on the dissection table, and take it apart to see what makes it tick.

As I’ve already explained, a metaphor adds to the understanding of one concept, idea, or thing by comparing it to something else.

The concept, idea, or thing that is the subject of the metaphor is called the tenor.

The metaphorical term or concept used for the comparison is known as the metaphor’s vehicle.

The point of similarity between a metaphor’s tenor and the vehicle is called the ground. In other words, the ground is what gives an effective metaphor its power and sense of aptness.

For example, consider:

Life is like a box of chocolates...you never know what you're gonna get.

In this example, life is the tenor and a box of chocolates is the vehicle. What they have in common is the ground, the fact that you never know what’s inside a box of chocolates or what life has in store.

Now that you understand the role the tenor, vehicle, and ground serve in a metaphor, I can use these words when I explain some of the types of metaphors.

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