Culture · 6 pages · 12 min

Why dead metaphors do not feel like figures

A dead metaphor is a picture speakers no longer assemble while they hear the phrase.

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From the opening

A dead metaphor is a figure used so long that speakers no longer feel a transfer while they understand the phrase. The words still come from an old picture, but they behave like ordinary vocabulary with a stored job. The opening covers why the picture is not heard, how a stored sense arrives, and when a dead figure revives.

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Inside

Why the picture is not heard
How a stored sense arrives
When a dead figure revives
Why origin is not use
Where the idea stops applying
A distinction worth keeping

Sources

Conventionalized metaphor processed as ordinary vocabulary
The split between etymological image and current use

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Why dead metaphors do not feel like figures

From the opening

Inside

Sources

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