Six Categories of Metaphors 隐喻的六种分类

On the other hand, According to Peter Newmark, there are mainly six types of metaphors: dead, cliché, stock, recent, original and adapted metaphors.

Dead metaphors are those whose images are well-known by people. Their images are unconscious. The phrases like “the foot of the mountain”, “the mouth of the volcano” and “the leg of the table” belong to dead metaphors.

Cliché metaphors are those that have been used so often that it is no longer interesting.

Stock metaphors are established metaphors which are efficient and concise method of covering a physical or mental situation both referentially and pragmatically” (Peter 108). Phrases “to keep the pot boiling” and “a wooden face” are stock metaphors.

Recent metaphors are new metaphors which have spread rapidly in the Source Language. For example, the word “fuzz” is used to refer to the “policeman” and the word “groovy” is used for “good”.

Original metaphors are those created by the source language writer (Peter 107-112). It contains the core of an important message of the author, his personality and his comments on life. Here is an example: Love is a sweet “tyranny”. The “love” usually is regard as something sweet as honey, but this author compares it to a tyranny, which clearly shows the person’s idea on love. So the original metaphors always contain some fresh ideas that come from the authors.

The last is the adapted metaphor. Adapted metaphors are usually idiomatic sayings that can be used in the new conditions. For example: “The ball is a little in their court.” It can be translated literally as “球偏向他们的那一边” but the implied meaning is “形势对他们更有利”. This idiomatic saying is originally used in the sports game, but it has the implied meaning to show the situation is favorable to one party.