Comparison With Other Types of Analogy
Metaphors are most frequently compared with similes. The Colombia Encyclopedia, 6th edition, explains the difference as:
- a simile states that A is like B, a metaphor states that A is B or substitutes B for A.
Where a metaphor asserts the two objects in the comparison are identical on the point of comparison, a simile merely asserts a similarity. For this reason a metaphor is generally considered more forceful than a simile.
The metaphor category also contains these specialised types:
- allegory: An extended metaphor wherein a story illustrates an important attribute of the subject.
- catachresis: A mixed metaphor used by design and accident (a rhetorical fault).
- parable: An extended metaphor narrated as an anecdote illustrating and teaching a moral lesson, such as Aesop's fables.
Metaphor, like other types of analogy, can usefully be distinguished from metonymy as one of two fundamental modes of thought. Metaphor and analogy both work by bringing together two concepts from different conceptual domains, whereas metonymy works by using one element from a given domain to refer to another closely related element. Thus, a metaphor creates new links between otherwise distinct conceptual domains, whereas a metonymy relies on the existing links within them.
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