Prof Ashurova D. U., associate professor Normurodova N. Z. Course of lectures

Metaphor 
Metaphor is a relation between the dictionary and contextual meanings based on 
resemblance of two objects, ideas, actions: 
e.g.; She is a fox. 
The word «fox» denoting one object is transferred to another /she/ in order to 
indicate a resemblance between them, their common feature is «cunning». The 
metaphor is based on a common feature of two objects. The common feature is never 
mentioned. In other words, in metaphor we are given A and C and the problem is to see 
B - a common feature. The reader has to come to it by himself. It is important .to 
remember that the metaphor does not identify, the two notions are brought together on 
the basis of only one feature, other features being quite different. 
Metaphor can be expressed by all the parts of speech: nouns, adjectives, verbs – 
e.g. 
1. She is a machine in her husband's house. 
2.Money burns a hole in my pocket. 
3.People are afraid of themselves nowadays. They have forgotten the highest of 
all duties, the duty that one owes to oneself. Of course they are charitable. They 
feed the hungry, and clothe the beggar. But their own souls starve, and are naked
Metaphors expressed by one word are called simple. There are metaphors which are 
expressed by several words, a group of words. We call it metaphorical periphrasis. 
e.g.
Oh let me, true in love, but truly write, 
 And then believe me, my love is as fair 
 As any mother child, though not so bright 
 As those gold candles fixed in heaven's air.
/Shakespeare W./ 
 
When likeness is observed between inanimate objects and human qualities we 
speak of personification. 
e.g. 
 The face of London was now strangely altered. 
 
So, personification is a variety of metaphor. 
e.g.
A car came one way, a bus advanced with calm assurance from another. 
Shelley's poem «The Cloud» is built on Personification. 
e.g.
I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers 
From the seas and the streams. 
I bear light shade for the leaves when laid 
In the noonday dreams 

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16 
From my wings are shaken the dews that waken, 
The sweet buds every one 
When rocked to rest on their mother's breast, 
As she danced about the sun I wield the flail of the lashing hail 
And whiten the green plains under 
And then again I dissolve in rain 
And laugh as I pass in thunder. 
Metaphors like all stylistic devices can be classified according to their degree of 
unexpectedness. Thus, the metaphors which are absolutely unexpected are called 
genuine metaphors or individual metaphors /original, fresh/. The genuine metaphor 
aims at expressing speaker's or writer's feelings, and at impressing the hearer or reader 
in a definite way. 
Those metaphors which are called trite(traditional, hackneyed) are commonly 
used in speech and therefore are sometimes even fixed in dictionaries - a ray of hope, 
floods of tears, a storm of indignation, a flight of fancy, a shadow of a smile. Trite 
metaphors are not stylistic devices. They are considered to be expressive means of the 
language, which also serve the purpose of expressiveness. 
The metaphor is one the most powerful means of creating images. This is its 
main stylistic function. Sometimes metaphors express not only one image, but several 
of them. Such metaphors are called prolonged metaphors or sustained, or developed. 
e.g. The one charm of the past is that it is the past. But women never know when 
the curtain has fallen. They always want a sixth act, and as soon as the interest of the 
play is entirely over they propose to continue it. If they were allowed their own way, 
every comedy would have a tragic ending, and every tragedy would culminate in a 
farce.