Dissertation - World Federation of Music Therapy

metaphor influenced each other in our understanding of a phenomenon. The cognitive
semantics of Lakoff and Johson went one step further and claimed that metaphoric
activity is a basic act of understanding: through “mapping” qualities from one
cognitive domain is transferred to another in a – mostly unconscious – cognitive
operation.
Metaphor can be described as one of many speech figures in semantic theory (see
Table 3.1).
Table 3. 1 Figures of speech. (Descriptions adapted from Compton’s Dictionary)
FIGURES OF SPEECH. In written and spoken language there are certain effective ways of
saying things without saying them directly. Called figures of speech, they are used to
emphasize, clarify, and embellish what is being said. Most figures of speech simply take what
is well-known and use it to depict what is less familiar.
Metaphor is a figure of speech that is used to indicate resemblance. A Shakespeare example
(from As You Like It): All the world's a stage,/ And all the men and women merely players:/
They have their exits and their entrances; /And one man in his time plays many parts, the
author uses the theatre as a metaphor to construct a word picture about the meaning of life.
Simile resembles the metaphor. Whereas a metaphor is an implied resemblance, a simile is a
stated resemblance in other words, a similarity. And it uses the words "like" or, “as" in
showing how one thing is similar to another. A frequently quoted simile from the Scottish
poet Robert Burns is: My love is like a red, red rose.
Personification. While the metaphor and simile have fixed and slightly differing grammatical
structures, other figures of speech are generally much freer in their construction.
Personification is the application of human qualities to something that is not human, ex. "The
walls have ears," "Money talks," and "Fear stalked the land". Another term is
anthropomorphism, from the Greek meaning "to have the form of man." The device is often
applied to animals, like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and used in fables and novels, e.g.
Orwell’s Animal Farm.
Metonymy and Synecdoche. Metonymy means using the name of one thing for another
closely related term. In the question "What would the Pentagon think of the president's new
military proposals?" the Pentagon is used instead of Department of Defense, although it is
only the building in which the department is housed. Synecdoche means using a part to imply
the whole, as in saying "There are a lot of hard hats working on this new building." The term
"hard hats" refers, of course, to a construction crew.
Hyperbole and Understatement Hyperbole is a form of exaggeration, and understatement is
a negative exaggeration. To say, for instance (using a metaphor), "I have a mountain of work
to do" is obviously an exaggeration unless one is a mountain climber. "Adolf Hitler was not
the most beloved person of the 20th century" is a remarkable piece of understatement.
Alliteration and Onomatopoeia are used generally in poetry and fiction to create sound
effects in words. Alliteration is the use of the same sound, usually a consonant, at the
beginning of neighbouring words in a sentence or phrase such as "the dear, dead days beyond
recall" or Shakespeare's "Full fathom five thy father lies" from The Tempest. Onomatopoeia
uses words to imitate natural sounds such as the ringing of bells, the singing of birds, or the
voices of animals. In a broader sense it refers to any combination of imitative sounds and
rhythms that are used to reinforce the sense or moods of a passage of poetry or prose.
Idiom and Slang An idiomatic expression is a phrase that has become an accepted part of a
language but that makes little sense if taken literally. Most idioms are difficult, therefore, to
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