Metaphor type

valuable

adjective

Indirect metaphor

The bulk of metaphor-related lexical units in this corpus are indirect metaphors. For indirect metaphors, there is a contrast as well as comparison between the contextual and a more basic meaning.

The contextual meaning may be conventionalized and will thus be found in a general users’ dictionary. It may also be novel or specialized and will thus not be found in a general users’ dictionary.

The basic meaning is a more concrete, specific or human-related sense. Basic meanings can be found in general users’ dictionaries.

Example:

Professional religious education teachers like Marjorie B Clark (Points of View, today) are doing valuable work in many secondary schools (...). (K58-fragment01)

1  worth a lot of money

    The necklace is not very valuable

    a valuable antique


2  very useful and important

    The job gave her an opportunity to gain valuable experience.

   valuable insights/lessons/information: The research should provide valuable insights into

    organizational arrangements.

   a valuable contribution/resource/addition: Her latest book is a valuable contribution to the

    debate of cloning.

   prove valuable: The results could prove extremely valuable.

    a.   valuable time is important because there is not much of it available

          valuable seconds were wasted while Schumacher’s car was stuck in the pits.

basic meaning

contextual meaning

Direct metaphor

There is no contrast between the contextual and a more basic meaning. The contextual meaning is also the basic meaning. The comparison is expressed through direct language use. The direct language use may or may not be signaled.

Valuable is used indirectly in this context because it evokes a referent (‘very useful and important’) that is different from the basic - direct - meaning of valuable (‘worth a lot of money’). Metaphorical meaning arises through non-literal comparison between the contextual and the basic meaning.

ferret

noun

a small thin furry animal with a long tail that people use for hunting rabbits and rats


   

basic meaning

contextual meaning

Example with metaphor signal:

(...) he’s like a ferret. (KBD-fragment21)

Implicit metaphor

Clear and borderline metaphor

Borderline metaphor

In this corpus, borderline cases are only of the type indirect metaphor. They are of two kinds:

1) unclear metaphorical status due to ambiguous context

Example:

But by the time I had turned off the road from Bellingham at Kielder village and driven up the bumpy Forest Drive to East Kielder Farm, (...). (AHC-fragment60)*

The context does not specify whether the Farm is at a ‘higher location’ or ‘further down a road’. Because both interpretations are possible, up is a borderline case.

The basic sense belongs to the domain of religion while the contextual sense is general. Analysts could not reach an agreement and thus marked this form of bleaching or generalization as a borderline case.

Clear metaphor

The bulk of metaphors are clear cases. In this corpus, there are three clear metaphor types: direct, indirect and implicit metaphors (more details below).

  1. 2) unclear metaphorical status because analysts could not reach an agreement after extensive group discussion

Ferret is a direct metaphor. Its contextual meaning, ‘a small thin furry animal with a long tail that people use for hunting rabbits and rats,’ is also its basic meaning. The comparison is expressed by direct language use. The direct language use is signaled by like.

Example:

Naturally, to embark on such as step is not necessarily to succeed in realizing it. (A9J-fragment01)

Implicit metaphor is due to an underlying cohesive grammatical and/or semantic link in the discourse which points to recoverable metaphorical material.

In principle, it does not call for a non-literal indirect or direct comparison. Note, however, that it refers back to the metaphorically used lexical unit step. Since an analysis of the discourse would need to show step instead of it, it becomes implicitly metaphorical. (Naturally, to embark on such as step is not necessarily to succeed in realizing the step.)

Example without metaphor signal:

(...) They [system developers] seem to think that you can ask a businessman what his requirements are and get an answer that amounts to a draft system specification. A doctor doesn’t ask his patient what treatment to prescribe. The patient can explain only what the problem is. It is the doctor that provides the remedy. A user may have a deep knowledge of business problems, but knowing little about computers, has no idea how they should be tackled. (...) (A8R-fragment02)

The lexical units in blue have been marked as direct metaphor. Their direct metaphorical use is not signaled. Nevertheless, there is a comparison between two different domains (medical and systems development).

Example:

which absolves me and STG from any responsibility. (FPB-fragment01)

Relation to metaphor

* fragment specification from the BNC Baby