Diálogo e Comunicação Intercultural. A Educação com as - Inicio ...

They fathomed it out (= solved a problem by thinking,
calculating).
She dropped a hint (= let him know about it indirectly).
He gave me the bottom line (= the unadorned truth).
He trawled the Net to try and find the information.
Spanish
Llegaron al fondo del asunto
Acaba de caerse de un nido.
Eso cae por su propio peso.
Lo cree a pies juntillas.
These metaphors are probably based on our
experience of gaining knowledge about things that we are able
to hold, control and inspect. What is around us, distant, in the
air, or over our heads is more difficult to grasp, hold, control
and inspect and therefore more difficult to know about (or to
remember, as in the case of “Se le fue al santo al cielo”).
MADNESS IS UP
Perhaps an extension of UNKNOWN IS UP is
MADNESS IS UP.
Spanish
Se le subió la fama a la cabeza.
Está en la luna.
Tiene la cabeza llena de pájaros.
English
He’s up in the clouds.
She’s as high as a kite.
He’s lost his marbles ( = has senile dementia; marbles
are ‘canicas’, heavy glass balls).
She’s got a hang-up about it (= a complex).
BEING VISIBLE IS UP; BEING INVISIBLE IS DOWN
The higher up people and objects are, the more easily
they are seen. Sometimes things are visible by design,
sometimes by accident. Perhaps this visibility is desirable,
perhaps not. Metaphorically, things that are seen, observed,
put on display, considered and discussed by other people are
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