The metaphor between splendour and frailty

Abstract

Metaphor generally has a positive connotation in the consciousness of communities, particularly due to its imaginative virtues and partially to its capacities to suggestively and allusively render contents which are hard to comprehend by means of the elements of the ordinary code. However, the appeal to metaphors connecting the instrument and the creative organ of human civilisation to entities which possess the perfection of nature is a sign of difficulty in understanding a complex reality rather than of comprehending a concept. The analogies by which it is sent to a referent are generally a precarious way to equate attributes, because it does not bring more knowledge to the receiver, but only a rather abusive extension of class, as the new member does not become known –its attributes being suggested not shown –, but subordinated to a class presumed to be known.

Keywords

• senses
• thinking
• language
• conceptualisation
• metaphor