Words, images, color combinations all evoke schemas

[coberst]

Words, images, color combinations all evoke schemas

Words have meaning for us only within a context that is meaningful. At some time in my life plants have become meaningful to me and thus the word “bloom” evokes that meaning; likewise “traveler” with journey and “ashes” with fire.

“Because words can evoke schemas, and metaphors map schemas into other schemas, words can prompt a metaphorical understanding.”

Poets use metaphor to convey meaning. Cognitive scientists study metaphor to comprehend the hidden aspects of the human mind. To understand poetic metaphor one must understand conventional metaphor. To study metaphor is to discover that “one has a worldview, that one’s imagination is constrained, and that metaphor plays an enormous role in shaping one’s everyday understand of everyday events.”

As creatures we perceive our self as a container having an interior and exterior with a boundary between. We experience our bodies as structured wholes with identifiable parts. We move about in space to achieve our needs and desires; sometimes our path is obstructed by objects that we try to eliminate or move around.

“Each of these quite basic interactions with the world is generalizable, and each is in fact generalized across a series of other domains. Each of these generalizations is a recurring structure or repeatable pattern by which we are able to understand the world as a unified place that we can make a sense of.”

Because I could not stop for Death—
He kindly stopped for me—
The Carriage held but just Ourselves—
And Immortality—Emily Dickinson

Without metaphors for death we could not comprehend this poem easily. Why do we know so many metaphors for death? Winter and other authors inform me that we have metaphors because without them we could not comprehend our world.


Quotes from “A Clearing in the Forest: Law, Life, and Mind” by Steven L. Winter

[rehilaration]

Why do we know so many metaphors for death? Winter and other authors inform me that we have metaphors because without them we could not comprehend our world

That's a very interesting observation... I find it especially interesting considering that nearly no one has ever experienced death and come back to tell of it, and yet we have so many common connotations of the word. For example, 'death' to me makes me think of cold, dullness, the end of things. But why couldn't it be something totally different? Perhaps our death here is nothing more than passage into something incredible beyond anything we could imagine. In that case, isn't it unfair to create these metaphors? That is where I suppose I'd agree with the point you made: we cannot imagine, so we assume and create our metaphors.

[Jiraiyathesage]

As a poet I feel it necessary to contribute to this interesting discussion-Words are my paint, the pen my literary brush. Poets- yes we do use metaphorical language. However that isn't the be all and end all. Poets can choose to write things as they are- at face value but this is hard considering how perception of what is face value can even be subjective. Although one of the most wonderful things about poetry is that since it is language it never stays static, meaning over time will change, values will change aswell.

I particularly liked the quote: “one has a worldview, that one’s imagination is constrained, and that metaphor plays an enormous role in shaping one’s everyday understand of everyday events.” This is quite true to me, although people don't like to admit their own ignorance. But admitting something is the 1st step to recovery as the cliche goes! Is the imagination really constrained or does that refer specifically to the writer of the quote? I must admit I find it quite satisfying writing from the perspective of my charaters in my poetry, to try and understand from a different perspective is a fine thing indeed.

I must be an optimist in part, because I do not view winter as a "bad" thing- even though I can see the associations with death, which I don't necessarily view as a "bad" thing either. Perhaps this is from the years ago I was once a Wiccan, so I view winter as merely a change from one thing into another, from a death of sorts to new life. Everything material must end, and winter is just a stage to spring which is an equally beautiful yet distinctive season. I view death as something to motivate us to live life to the fullest while we have the chance. If something is unfair then change it, and language is a flexible and changeable thing.

[DimitriosP]

Without metaphors for death we could not comprehend this poem easily. Why do we know so many metaphors for death? Winter and other authors inform me that we have metaphors because without them we could not comprehend our world.

I would venture to say that all modes of understanding and expressing reality are, in some ways, metaphors. Take the sciences for example. The foundation of all sciences is mathematics, yet math, in its infinite perfection is infinitely flawed. By this I mean that reality does not conform in any absolute way to the constructs that arrise in mathematics. Rather, math attempts to model reality within a particular framework. In this sense, math is like a metaphor, providing us with a means of understanding certain aspects of reality and also (and in my view, more importantly) a means to communicate this understanding.

[Michael]

In fact the whole thing is a metaphor. We ourselves are metaphors and our drive seems to be to unmask the reality behind the metaphor. We have the astonishing ability to turn anything into a metaphor! What a secretly protean world we live in.

Dimitrios is right, even the sciences are metaphors - as is every religion and religious belief (even if some of them are merely sociological).

[Jiraiyathesage]

In fact the whole thing is a metaphor. We ourselves are metaphors and our drive seems to be to unmask the reality behind the metaphor. We have the astonishing ability to turn anything into a metaphor! What a secretly protean world we live in.

Dimitrios is right, even the sciences are metaphors - as is every religion and religious belief (even if some of them are merely sociological).

If a metaphor is a tool of our individual ways of interpreting, then naturally it can be a great good or ill. I doubt things are evil in themselves, it is what is done to them (how they are used) that really is the good or ill. These different ways of interpreting are all shades them, capable of great beauty in their difference, likewise great conflict and destruction in their difference.