Here is an example of an easy metaphor: “My lawyer is a shark.” Here is an example of a difficult metaphor: “Happiness is a ditch.” Notwithstanding whether or not you have already given up trying to interpret the second one, the question may still be asked: “What makes a metaphor difficult to understand?” which is […]
Tag: phrases
Strategies and tactics for ironic subversion
If you’ve ever made use of the simile “About as useful as knickers on a kipper” then, knowingly or not, you could have been indulging in a spot of ironic subversion. Dr Tony Veale BSc MSC PhD, who is a the Principal Investigator of the Creative Language System Group at University College Dublin School of […]
Riding the Incongruity Wave (30+ years of brainwave research)
Try reading the following sentences : ”He took a sip from the transmitter.” – “I take coffee with cream and dog.” – “He planted string beans in his car.” Did you experience anything unusual? Probably not, but if you had been hooked up to a set of scalp-electrodes and an electroencephalographic analyser which was recording […]
Ni phrases (It’s not just knights who say…)
If you thought that a ‘Ni phrase’ was simply an example of finely crafted absurdity from the creators of Monty Python – think again. For linguists, Ni-phrases literally span the globe – performing important functions not only in Japanese and Hindi, but also in Russian. Example publication : Ni-Phrases by Klaus Abels (Journal of Slavic […]