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Latest post Sat, Feb 23 2008 12:15 PM by MrPedantic. 7 replies.
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Lance76  +  189316 Fri, 27 Jan 06 08:48 AM

My daughter has a homework assignment on metaphors.   The excercise ask her to cirlce the two things being compared in the following metaphors.  What two things would you circle?

1. His tail was wagging so fast it was just a yellow blur.

2. There was a little brush of yellow tail whiping back and forth.

3. Its tongue hung out underneath a little wet raisin of a nose.

Joined on Fri, Jan 27 2006
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milky  +  189325 Fri, 27 Jan 06 09:16 AM
 Lance76 wrote:

My daughter has a homework assignment on metaphors.   The excercise ask her to cirlce the two things being compared in the following metaphors.  What two things would you circle?

1. His tail was wagging so fast it was just a yellow blur.

2. There was a little brush of yellow tail whipping back and forth.

3. Its tongue hung out underneath a little wet raisin of a nose.

Joined on Thu, Jan 15 2004
Senior Member 3,149
Hume said that if we had perfect or complete descriptive knowledge of reality, we could not, by reasoning, derive a single valid "ought".
MrPedantic  +  189785 Sat, 28 Jan 06 02:35 AM

Hello Lance

A metaphor is an implicit statement of some point of resemblance between two things that differ in other respects. But a fast-wagging tail isn't like a blur: it is a blur. So I wouldn't call #1 an example of metaphor.

In #2, "brush" is another word for "a fox's tail", so that too is not particularly metaphorical. "Whipping" is a little more figurative; though a "brush of a tail" probably wouldn't "whip" very effectively. A long thin tail would do the job better.

#3 on the other hand does seem to have a genuine metaphor...

MrP

Joined on Tue, Oct 12 2004
Veteran Member 13,616
...opella forensis / adducit febris...
milky  +  189792 Sat, 28 Jan 06 03:06 AM

<A metaphor is an implicit statement of some point of resemblance between two things that differ in other respects. But a fast-wagging tail isn't like a blur: it is a blur. So I wouldn't call #1 an example of metaphor.>

A blur is a representation of something.

<In #2, "brush" is another word for "a fox's tail", so that too is not particularly metaphorical. "Whipping" is a little more figurative; though a "brush of a tail" probably wouldn't "whip" very effectively. A long thin tail would do the job better.>

"Brush", when used to represent "tail",  means "resembling a brush".

<#3 on the other hand does seem to have a genuine metaphor..>.

"Seem to"? It does have genuine metaphor.

MrPedantic  +  189924 Sat, 28 Jan 06 01:10 PM

< A blur is a representation of something. >

A blur can be a representation of something – for instance, a blur of pink can be a representation of a distant face, in a painting.

And when we say: "Last week is a complete blur!", we're using the word metaphorically.

But when we say that the nebula M42 in Orion is a "blur", or that a speeding train is a "blur", the sense is neither representational nor figurative. The word denotes a real optical phenomenon: if the speeding train slows down, it is no longer a "blur".

The wagging tail falls into the latter category: the "blur" denotes a real optical effect.

As for "brush": it's the word for a fox's tail.

When a hunter cuts the brush off a dead fox, there's no hint of a metaphor.

MrP

Anonymous, 1 yr 261 days ago
1. His tail was wagging so fast it was just a yellow blur.

 

3. Its tongue hung out underneath a little wet raisin of a nose.

Goodman, 1 yr 260 days ago

My take is, it shoud be "His tail was wagging so fast that  it looked like a yellow blur.

MrPedantic  +  480646 Sat, 23 Feb 08 12:15 PM
There is a slight tautology there, as "blur" already implies "what happens when something moves too fast for the eye/brain to follow". Thus if something "looks like" a blur, it is a blur.

MrP

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