John D. Casnig
Spokesperson,
Annual Top Ten List of Metaphors
613-547-2156
casnig...@...knowgramming.com
"Troop Surge" Floods Airwaves
Tops Most Popular Metaphors in 2007
Kingston, ON, Canada January 25/2008 -- The Metaphor Observatory in
conjunction with Sci-Phi Publishing's Knowgramming.com have released their
third annual Top Ten List of Metaphors in the media. The list of metaphors,
informally gathered from newscasts, music, advertisements, products and the
press, reveals how current social concerns are reflected in figurative
language.
Metaphors are judged for their accuracy, popularity, impact and relevance to
2007.
Topping this year's list is "troop surge", from the Iraq war strategy
introduced late 2006. Other entries include "perfect storm", "mortgage
meltdown" and the Nintendo Wii. The complete list and its
explanations can be seen at
http://metaphorobservatory.blogspot.com/2008/01/top-ten-metaphors-of-2007.html
or reached through a link at http://knowgramming.com .
Contemporary metaphor has an anthropological and historical
significance. Metaphor is when we substitute one concept for another in
order to convey an idea. We tend to reach for concepts that are
<italics>physically<italics> close at hand, usually found on our
body or in
our immediate environment. However, when we build metaphors from specific
current affairs, we are quietly recording what is foremost <italics>on our
minds<italics>. According to The Metaphor Observatory, society's Freudian
Slip is showing.
The Metaphor Observatory is an editorial blog "dedicated to detecting
metaphor usage in contemporary media". Knowgramming.com, a web site held by
Sci-Phi Publishing, provides metaphor learning resources to over a million
students, teachers and businesses annually.
This website
is dedicated to the proposal that the metaphorical relationships drawn
between any two disciplines are, in fact, universal, being
isomorphic mathematical derivations of the Unified Field Theory. Further, that this symmetric
aspect of
metaphor is extrapolatable both linearly and laterally, thus may be harnessed to mathematically
predict missing knowledge
and invention in all
other disciplines: an interdisciplinary Rosetta stone of
universal scope.
"The
metaphor reminds us that the universe is full of cousins." -
J.D. Casnig
Copyright John D. Casnig. Permitted
use only. Work should be cited as:
Casnig, John D. 1997-2009. A
Language of Metaphors. Kingston, Ontario, Canada: Knowgramming.com