Verbal Communication

metaphor
23
is an implicit comparison of two things that are not alike and/or are
not typically associated. They become meaningful as people realize the speaker’s
purpose for relating the two seemingly disparate ideas. Metaphors are figurative
devices that can make our writing and speaking richer, but they require a person to
balance creative associations among ideas with the common rules of the language if
people are expected to figure out the meaning behind the association. A speaker
must have the linguistic knowledge and insight to realize when a nonliteral use of
words or ideas will be more meaningful than a literal and conventional use of those
words. Metaphors challenge the imagination, which can cause each person to make
sense of the metaphor in his or her own way.Thomas H. Olbricht,
Informative
Speaking
(Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman, 1968), 81.
In 1946, just after World War II ended, Winston Churchill stated the following in a
speech: “An iron curtain has descended across the continent of Europe.” Even
though people knew there was no literal heavy metal curtain that had been lowered
over Europe, the concepts of iron being strong and impenetrable and curtains being
a divider combined to create a stirring and powerful image of a continent divided
by the dark events of the previous years.Ronald H. Carpenter,
Choosing Powerful
Words: Eloquence That Works
(Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 1999), 84.
Some communication scholars argue that metaphors serve a much larger purpose
and function to structure our human thought processes.George Lakoff and Mark
Johnson,
Metaphors We Live By
(Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1980), 6. The
metaphor “time is money” doesn’t just represent an imaginative connection; it
shapes our social realities. We engage in specific actions that “save time,” “spend
time,” or “waste time” because we have been socialized to see time as a resource.
Many metaphors spring from our everyday experiences. For example, many objects
have been implicitly compared to human body parts; for example, we say a clock
has hands and a face.
Personification
24
refers to the attribution of human qualities
or characteristics of other living things to nonhuman objects or abstract concepts.
This can be useful when trying to make something abstract more concrete and can
create a sense of urgency or “realness” out of something that is hard for people to
conceive. Personification has been used successfully in public awareness campaigns
because it allows people to identify with something they think might not be
22. A direct comparison of two
things using the words
like
or
as
.
23. An implicit comparison of two
things that are not alike and/
or are not typically associated.
24. The attribution of human
qualities or characteristics of
other living things to
nonhuman objects or abstract
concepts.
Chapter 3 Verbal Communication
3.3 Using Words Well
156

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relevant to them, as you can see in the following examples: “Human papillomavirus
(HPV) is a sleeping enemy that lives in many people and will one day wake up and
demand your attention if you do not address it now.” “Crystal meth is a stalking
your children whether you see it or not. You never know where it’s hiding.”