Analysis Crunch: Metaphors vs. Idioms
I was reviewing for our Analysis and realized I keep getting metaphors and idioms confused. Here are some examples I came up with to help me figure them out.
1.) It's raining cats and dogs-
metaphore because it is not literal. In it's
literal sense, cats and dogs would be falling from the sky.
2.) Iraq's government is in it's infancy-
idiom because it is more literal than the previous
example. Infancy can also be referred to as "beginning
of..."
therefore, the statment literally means that Iraq's government is in
it's beginning.
3.) The guy is a rock-
metaphore because he is not literally a rock, he is just very muscular and may feel hard as a rock.
4.) The problem was easy as pie-
idiom because it's not literally a piece of pie
5.) cry me a river-
idiom beause rivers are water and therefore it refers to the literal meaning of crying.
Comments
The book has a good diagnostic test for idioms: (71-72)
*Elements are not separately modifiable without the loss of idiomatic meaning
i.e. *she pulled her brother's left leg
*Elements do not coordinate with genuine semantic constituents
i.e. *she pulled and twisted her brother's leg
*elements cannot take contrastive stress or be the focus of topicalizing transformations
i.e.What she did to her brother's leg was pull it.
*elements cannot be referred back to anaphorically
i.e. *mary pulled her brother's leg; John pulled it too
So, to test 'it's raining cats and dogs' lets add something to an individual part of the phrase: 'it's raining cats in speedos and dogs in snorkels'. I don't think that destroys the meaning, so I would not say it is a phrasal idiom. However, because I think you could substitute synonyms and not completely destroy the non-literal reading, I would call this a frozen metaphor (i.e. 'its raining felines and canines').