Language has the power to transform reality and especially figurative language. Figurative language can also illuminate areas of life that are taken for granted, ignored, or made invisible. Language can "de-familiarize" the world and encourage viewing reality with a new and potentially paradigm-shifting perspective. Similarly, language can be systematically analyzed, dissected, picked apart, and deconstructed to reveal the deeper layers of meaning behind the words people use. Phrases and turns of speech or single words denote multiple layers of meaning. Those layers are overlooked when language is used flippantly. Nietzsche commented on the "dead" metaphors that pervade common speech: human beings no longer think deeply about the language we use and thus fail to appreciate the power language has over our interpretation of reality. At the most extreme, a misuse of language is referred to with the...
Using "literal" to exaggerate a dead metaphor signals how far listeners take for granted the figures of speech used in everyday language.
'There's no question he had a remarkable repertoire with bears and had a remarkable ability for them to tolerate him ... (but) just so people don't get the wrong idea, Tim definitely knew there were bears out there that were bad medicine.'" (Manning, p. 1) The phrase 'bad medicine' here implies a certain moral proposition in the bear's behavior, attributing a distinctly human way of perceiving the act of killing
4. Alexandre Gabriel Decamps Figure 8. Alexandre Gabriel Decamps' "The Monkey Painter," 1833. (Source: http://dalihouse.blogsome.com/2007/04/26/beasts-get-the-babes Figure 9. ( Source: http://www.artandpopularculture.com/Image:The_Experts%2C_1837_by_Alexandre-Gabriel_Decamps.jpg) Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps was an artist who often used animals portrayed as human beings to satirize society and especially the formal artistic community of the time. He was opposed to falsity and pretentions and the often biased views of the academic art coterie of the time was a subject of some of his works. This can be
Sophocles' Oedipus the King Look up and/or reflect on the meaning of: Tragedy: A tragedy is any event which causes great suffering and stress, such as the death of a loved one or a natural disaster. In the context of Greek literature, tragedy was the most popular form of theatre, with storytellers relying on the rhetorical technique of tragic irony to create emotionally resonant tales of lost love and territorial conquest. Philosophy: The
Primate Behavior Research There can be big differences in the messages from a scholarly, or scientific, article and a main stream, or non-scientific article. The titles and the messages written in the articles can give readers entirely different meanings. The original article may state the study was done one way, but the main stream article tries to write in layman terms and may miss the entire meaning, or the way the
Previous to Darwin, it has been considered that animals had nothing in connection with humans, since their brutish behavior had been very different from the sociable and civilized one displayed by people. French philosopher Rene Descartes apparently thought of animals to be nothing but machines that acted in conformity to the same laws to which inanimate matter had functioned. Quite the reverse happened when concerning humans, as, in spite
"that the author of nature is somewhat similar to the mind of man; though possessed of much larger faculties, proportioned to the grandeur of the work, which he has executed," indicating that there is existence of Deity who has similarity to man but us more apportioned to the deeds and the works of His hands. 7. How is anthropomorphism used in relation to the argument? Anthropomorphism is used in relation to
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