Mixed Metaphors: Their Use and Abuse

Writing guides teach us to avoid mixed metaphors like 'that wet blanket is a loose cannon', and suggest that we should limit ourselves to one metaphor per paragraph. But clearly this is terrible advice. The 'Tomorrow, tomorrow, and tomorrow' speech in Macbeth packs six metaphors into a few lines, and is considered a literary masterpiece. Scientific descriptions of light and matter necessarily include conflicting metaphors because we don't have a perfect metaphor for these concepts. Whilst it's true that mixed metaphors can sound ignorant or confusing, what we really need is a more nuanced definition of mixed metaphors, and a better system for identifying their benefits and drawbacks in different contexts. In Mixed Metaphors: Their Use and Abuse, Karen Sullivan employs findings from linguistics and cognitive science to explore why some mixed metaphors are criticised but similar metaphors are praised. By using Conceptual Metaphor Theory, she demonstrates how, once we understand how metaphoric ideas are put together, we can better appreciate the different ways that metaphors can be mixed, and how audiences are likely to respond to these differences. By analysing over 100 metaphors from politicians, sportspeople, writers, and other public figures, Mixed Metaphors: Their Use and Abuse delineates how mixing occurs and identifies the characteristics that make mixed metaphors annoying, amusing or astounding--

• | Author: Karen Sullivan
• | Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• | Publication Date: Nov 29, 2018
• | Number of Pages: 240 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Hardcover/Language Arts & Disciplines
• | ISBN-10: 1350066044
• | ISBN-13: 9781350066045