Metaphor

A metaphor is a linguistic means (= rhetorical figure) to express something or to represent it visually. The metaphor is often used in poetry.

The metaphor represents a linguistic link between two levels of meaning, which are usually not connected to each other. According to today`s metaphor theory, it consists of an image donor and an image recipient.
Example: The fire of love. The word love, which describes an abstract concept, acts as a recipient of the image. The concrete word fire acts as an image donor. The properties of the meaning of the word fire should approximately characterize the properties of the meaning of the word love and make love more vivid.

Metaphor is one of the tropes in rhetoric. These are forms of improper designation. The metaphor differs from other tropes in that the relationship between what is said literally and what is meant figuratively is specifically one of resemblance, rather than one of proximity or contiguity between particular and general, or of contrarity (irony).

Metaphors are mainly used for these reasons:

• There is no word of its own for what is meant.
• For an existing word or thing denoted is offensive or rated negatively. Therefore the word is paraphrased by a more innocuous expression e.g. "depart" for "die".
• An abstract concept should be made meaningful by a more descriptive fact, e.g. "The ravages of time".
• That factual property is based on a similarity that should be particularly emphasized. "The Lion of Munster" stands for Clemens-August von Galen. This emphasizes his combative attitude in the Nazi resistance.