Metaphors are Culturally
Driven
By Carl R ToersBijns
April 8, 2015
Why do we like to use metaphors and how does that impact my way of words and expressive behaviors as we try to create a moment of poetic creativity in a cognitive and linguistic manner so I can be sure the words used and written reflect the actual thoughts and perceptions of my mind.
The answer is not
that simple but when you search deep within yourself, you eventually find what
you are looking for and see for yourself how metaphorical creativity present
you with a conceptual moment and a manipulated idea to share devices of the
mind and come to a conclusion that is easy to understand as it draws cognitive
and graphic creativity for you to see with your own mind and within your own
culture.
Cultures are
hinged on perceptions, beliefs, customs and practices. To put credibility on
such effects there must be the use of the imagination as well as the presence
of elaboration to clarify thoughts or ideals through the use of words. Each language
has its own set of words but the words can change meanings unless the use of
metaphors steers it into the direction provided by the author for such ordinary
but important purposes as communication and journalism.
Perhaps the use of
metaphors is more imaginative in poetry than journalism but the need to balance
between fact and fiction has always been the key to skillful writings. Although
we give more lateral movement to poetry, we should also include a defined
latitude in journalism so we can distinguish the difference between the
creativity involved and the manipulation of desired outcomes and ideas.
We all possess a
fair amount of creative and cognitive devices. We all learned that metaphors
can be used to be factual in nature but exaggerated in expression. Thus we
balance the two in order to keep the elements clear and not formulate or design
more than one train of thought or pattern.
This is most
difficult to do and maintain over a long period of time as the metaphorical
creativity tends to dominate the need to go even further into the creative
world and device some kind of vision for you to see. Hence, the challenge is to
keep it in context as much as possible without straying or going off on a
tangent.
Under most
circumstances, people, different people but ordinary people, conceptualize an idea
or thought metaphorically and do so to better understand the idea under the
pressures of comprehensive skills and their own personal experiences. In such
cases, we must be assured the metaphor is kept within the context provided or
intended in order to create a reflection of the truth or actuality.
Under the burden
of being persuasive, we have to work under the pressure of comprehension and
context. One cannot accomplish facts without the other if you are using
metaphors as a means to convey an idea or concept. Keeping in mind, context can
be used in poetry in two ways; poets can designate or elaborate the context in
which they create the poetry and they may use the context as a means to say or
express something else.
In journalism, the
poetry is eliminated by the use of a straightforward example of describing the
scene or concept disallowing any creativity to set in, making the situation
appear to be a black and white situation or case remembering that the context
is the scene and the scene has to be preserved with facts to tell the truth.
While journalist
are injecting and producing the context (scene) in an almost literal manner,
they do use adjectives and other forms of descriptive nouns to keep it real.
This does not mean they can’t use that description of the surrounding context
without metaphors. Keeping the context literal and enhancing its surroundings
with metaphors appears to be an acceptable manner to express the description.
Here the context
remains the domain and the metaphors are working the edges of the surroundings
creating a pleasant mix of creativity with factual data or descriptions. Thus
the writer has two targets; the context and the surroundings with each its own
domain.
The descriptive statements
must match the domain and to mix or combine the two would only cause a
confusion of the facts when the metaphors used are describing something other
than the original domain of context.
The point here is
to simply ensure that the dominant literal description of the context is not
tampered with by the use of certain metaphors not remarkably general in nature
and distracting certain concepts or facts from the source of the domain
(context) rather than the surrounding perspectives.
Changing cultures
changes the meanings of perceptions and descriptions provided adding confusion
to the meaning of such writings. The writer has to focus on the dominantly literally
conceived source or context when it intends to convey a message or description.
Separating context
into a cultural context, we change the choices of the scene partly due to
motivated customs and practices as well as beliefs and traditions. It is true
that a symbolic belief is different from various parts of the world and this
adds another concept to the use of metaphors in our writings making it very important
to understand the differences between cultural diversities around the globe.
Adding another
dimension to the cultural context is the surrounding physical cultural
environment. It is important that the writer maintains a defined line in the
relationship between the scene and environment.
Keeping it culturally
accurate in order to convey personal relationships or physical connections
validated through various cultural means keeping in mind that some cultural
inferences are based on human biology and how that gives the character or
descriptive personality linked to the contextual domain described. This is how
we create misunderstandings and metaphors just add more to the confusion if the
link is not properly connected to the cultural context described.
This the cultural
context includes many things including the belief systems, the technology available
to the persons or character and other various specific forms of cultural variations
either geographically, ethnically or religiously.
One could not
begin to talk about cultural influences without talking about social
implications or social context. Remember the conceptual creation is based on
the main form or domain of the context provided. This cannot change under most
circumstances.
We cannot confuse
the main domain with a target domain. We cannot construct a new structure out
of the original structure as it changes the meaning or context as well as the
metaphorical efforts to describe the surrounding environment. They are all
connected and all related at one point of the concept and that domain is a
fixed or permanent domain.
Removing the original
social structure or context creates a new social structure or context. This
must be avoided unless the writer deliberately changes the meaning of the primary
domain and creates a new target domain on purpose. This can be done accurately
if all methods are used to harmonize the context and surroundings to a common
theme or conceptualization.
I found this analysis
helpful in my writings and pay attention to not overly combine the effect of
these metaphorical factors or influences in my writings. I have become more
aware of the blending factors and how they change the concept or context
unintentionally. Thus the interaction in using metaphorical induced ideas or
concepts should take into consideration all what has been noted to be an
integration theory that makes the motivation to input metaphors into the works
accurate and reasonable under such recognized factors.
I am not
suggestion writing a conventional style metaphoric paper. I am merely
suggesting that context of writings can be changed unintentionally when they
are modified in response to contextual factors such as was written in this
paper.
Concluding my
thoughts, we should keep in mind poems and poetic languages sometimes disregard
cultural social and personal backgrounds of the reader possibly distorting the
original idea or approach. Secondly, there are social and historical as well as
technological perspectives or concepts we have to include or be aware of to
avoid contradictory views or mixing context rather than building natural
bridges of comprehension and systematical views.
The use of
metaphors can be a natural and educating experience in the writings of poetic
materials or in journalism. These views have long been supported by the current
use of metaphors in various context and stories. In a critical climate as we
live in today, we actually stand to be at a greater risk to offend or
underestimate the degree of accuracy between what is written and what the writer
actually wanted to convey to the reader.
Citation:
Reading
the writings of Zoltán Kövecses
“Metaphor
and poetic creativity: a cognitive linguistic account”
Eötvös
Loránd University Budapest
