but a few contexts . If the essence of a metaphor is understanding and experiencing one thing in terms of another ( Lakoff and Johnson 1980 : 5 ) then metaphors could be defined as saying one thing ( 1 ) is something else ( 2 ) in order to make a comment about thing ( 1 ), or indeed thing ( 2 ) by comparing it to ( 1 ) in the first place . This may be a convoluted definition , but it is one that tries to not draw on metaphors themselves to define the word . Aristotle regarded a metaphor as an implicit comparison , based on rules of analogy ( Ritchie 2013 : 4 ) and the links to analogy do not stop there , with the Oxford English Dictionary drawing similar explanations with , ‘ a figure of speech in which a name or descriptive word or phrase is transferred to an object or action different from , but analogous to , that to which it is literally applicable ; an instance of this , a metaphorical expression .’ ( OED 2011 ). With these definitions in mind it is intriguing that metaphor is described as a stylistic ‘ framework ’ when the word ‘ framework ’ could be considered a metaphorical expression in itself , with the word being used in a literary and scholarly sense rather than literally to discuss structures or the frame of something tangible .
When considering metaphor in more detail one can draw on the typical structure seen when mapping or analysing a basic metaphor in real terms . There is usually a target , source , and ground . The target is the thing ( x ) you want to describe , the source is the thing you use to describe ( x ) and the ground is the word used to describe all the
ENGL383 qualities or predicate relations shared by the source and the target . In the above extract from Hamilton ’ s ‘ Satisfied ’ the character of Angelica describes meeting Hamilton for the first time and falling in love with him by comparing it to the experiment in which Ben Franklin tied a metal key to a kite string near thunder clouds to demonstrate the conduction and collection of electricity . Using the basic structure of a metaphor one can obtain that the target is falling in love , the source is Ben Franklin ’ s experiment , and the ground qualities are , in Angelica ’ s words , ‘ the feeling of freedom ’ and ‘ seeing the light ’, along with newness , the feeling that love is electric , her love is a current , and so on . In this instance , Angelica ’ s metaphor is visible because in both the extract and the wider lyrics of ‘ Satisfied ’ the target and source are identified to the audience ; she discusses having met someone and goes on to say ‘ It ’ s Ben Franklin with a key and a kite ’ in an elongated copula construction over several lines . Metaphors can also be invisible , and this is when the source is identified but the target is not and an example from a few lines later in ‘ Satisfied ’ is , ‘ It ’ s a dream and it ’ s a bit of a dance / A bit of a posture , it ’ s a bit of a stance .’. While one could infer Angelica is still discussing the meeting of Hamilton , the target is not immediately obvious anymore as simply ‘ it ’ is used repeatedly .
Metaphors can be categorised as traditional metaphorical expressions that linguistically help to explain something , and without further context Angelica ’ s metaphor could be interpreted as simply that . Alternatively , a metaphor can
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