Questions and rhetorical answers for
class discussion.
Note to Teachers: This series of
questions aims at helping students identify living and dead metaphor. Each
question is followed by an answer in question form, designed to aid in class
discussion. Students will explore their own individual understanding of each
metaphor to determine whether they find it personally living or dead.
1. Is "the growth of the economy" a dead or living
metaphor? Why?
A: Is "growth" exclusively for
living creatures, or does it simply mean "to become 'larger'
or 'more'"?
2. Is "raising his voice above the cries of the opposition" a
dead or living metaphor? Why?
A: Does "raising" mean "lifting in altitude" or
simply "increasing" ? Does "above" mean "higher
in altitude" or simply "more" ?
3. Is the phrase "we are all in the battlefield" a living metaphor?
A: Really, honestly, are we in a battlefield...?
4. Is " in the fight against our unseen enemy" also a living metaphor?
A: Does the enemy have qualities that can ever beseen? Can a human
be a vehicle for the enemy, without being the enemy itself?
5. Why is it difficult for us to draw a clear distinction between dead metaphor and living metaphor?
A: When a graffiti artist puts a "throwup" on the wall, are they
a) tossing an object upwards against the wall?
b) vomiting on the wall?
c) quickly painting their name?
Bonus "answer": Label a), b) and c) from above with "Living metaphor",
"dead metaphor" and "matter of fact".
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. 1997-2008. A
Language of Metaphors. Kingston, Ontario, Canada: Knowgramming.com
