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Metaphor Analysis

The following entry defines metaphors as comparisons of two unlike things that are experienced and understood in relation to each other. In other words, in metaphors, one thing is transformed into the qualities of a second thing. Because of this transformational process, metaphors function to create reality, supply a mechanism of defining different realities, indicate shifts in social change, and offer a vocabulary for thoughts and feelings. Communication researchers have argued that people have scripts or schemas for enacting conflict (e.g., fight versus flight). Metaphoric analysis can help one understand how people perceive themselves and others. As such, there is much to be gained by examining linguistic choices and specifically, the adoption of metaphors.

Identifying Metaphors

When most people think about metaphors, the first thing that comes to mind is their literary application (e.g., in poetry). However, people also use metaphors every day to make sense of the world. For example, you might say that your aunt reminds you “of an old goose, weaving back and forth down the driveway into the house” with “wispy gray hair peeking out of a knitted hat and a scarf waving in the wind.” In doing so, you are comparing your aunt to a goose because your aunt’s walk is side-to-side rather than straight. You are also comparing your aunt’s hair to cobwebs or strands of dust and giving her scarf a lifelike capability because it appears to wave. As illustrated, on a very quotidian level, metaphors help people understand one thing in terms of another (e.g., an elderly aunt’s staggered gait may be understood in relation to the staggered gait of a goose).

Metaphors are also systematic. In other words, metaphors help us to organize a whole system of concepts in respect to one another. If your aunt compares her skin to “withered prune in the summer, dehydrated apricot in the fall, and an Asian pear in the winter,” she is doing more than comparing her skin to a variety of fruits. In this case, your aunt is using metaphors to organize her skin color around several fruits and three of the four seasons. Again, this stands as an example of how metaphors are used to understand how others perceive the world.

Script/Schema Theory

Roger Schank created script theory in the late 1970s. Much of his research, writing, and theorizing centers on the structure of knowledge, how we process information, and artificial intelligence. Schank advocated that all memory is episodic. In other words, we create meaning through our personal experiences. We organize our experiences into knowledge sets or schemata (i.e., knowledge about objects and their relationships with other objects, situations, actions, and events). For example, most people have a restaurant script that has expanded over the years based on experiences at various types of eateries. We know that our fine dining script includes slight variations of the following: adhering to a prescribed dress code, making reservations, using valet parking, ordering from a menu, enacting appropriate manners, making small talk at dinner, eating what we have ordered, paying the bill, and tipping the restaurant staff and parking attendants. Our fast food restaurant script, however, is quite different and is based on a quick informal eating experience that includes ordering, prepaying the bill, eating out of paper bags with plastic knives and forks, and exiting in less than 15 to 20 minutes.

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