Anonymous  +  208332 Wed, 22 Mar 06 05:35 AM Hello I'm trying to explain to my 17 years old that his example of a metaphor is incorrect.  He is saying that the sentence "You are a three year old." is a metaphor.  He is saying that "you" and "three year old" are the different ideas/concepts and that together the sentence is making a similarity between them. I try to explain to him that a metaphor is two different ideas or concepts where you draw a similarity between them.   Can someone explain this in a different way where he might understand. thanks     Anonymous Metaphors

	nona the brit  +  208358 Wed, 22 Mar 06 07:19 AM A metaphor is untrue if taken literally. At the moment, what he is stating is a simple truth about a child. You are a three year old. If this were a metaphor then all of these sentences would be too That table is made of wood. The door is painted white. These are just simple descriptions of a fact. Metaphors are when you play with language by describing something in a way that is NOT literally true to help create a vivid image in someone's mind via a comparison. To say to a three year old child 'You are three' is simply stating a fact about that child. What has this got to do with metaphors? To say to the same child that 'You are a little rubber ball today' (perhaps the kid has too much energy for me to cope with!) is patently UNTRUE. The child is not an actual rubber ball. But this conjures up a mental image of the kid bouncing round the room uncontrollably and is therefore a metaphor. nona the brit Joined on Wed, Sep 22 2004 England Veteran Member 11,713 The name says it all. Metaphors

	Grammar Geek  +  226234 Wed, 17 May 06 06:13 PM On the other hand, if he is saying to his 18 year old friend that he is "a three year old," technically, that's a metaphor. Grammar Geek Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006 Veteran Member 19,655 Barbara, who answers in American English. My housekeeping skills attest to the truth of the second law of thermodynamics: Left to themselves, things get more and more random! Metaphors

	CalifJim  +  226444 Thu, 18 May 06 11:55 AM A metaphor is created when a speaker says that S is P (word meaning) while communicating that S is R (speaker meaning). In a way, it is not saying (literally) what you mean.  It always involves a discrepancy between word meaning and speaker meaning. 1.  Sally is a block of ice. Speaker meaning (Metaphoric meaning):  Sally is emotionally unresponsive. 2.  Richard is a gorilla. Speaker meaning (Metaphoric meaning):  Richard is big, fierce, nasty, and prone to violence. 3.  You are a three-year-old. Speaker meaning (Metaphoric meaning):  You are mentally and emotionally immature. [Extensive borrowing from the article Metaphor, by John Searle, reprinted in the collection Expression and Meaning] Bottom line:  You are a three-year-old is a metaphor (provided it is not being applied literally to an actual three-year old). CJ CalifJim Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004 California Veteran Member 22,391 "There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche Articles, Metaphors