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Metaphors in Speaking
言语中的暗喻
Good morning, everyone.
大家早上好。
Today we'll continue our discussion on the art of speaking, focusing on the use of metaphors in speaking.
今天我们将继续讨论说话的艺术，重点是言语中暗喻的使用。
Now, why do we need to talk about metaphors in speaking?
那么，为什么我们需要谈论言语中的暗喻呢？
Well, according to research findings, we utter about six metaphors a minute.
根据研究结果，在我们的言谈中，一分钟大概会使用六次暗喻。
And metaphorical thinking is essential to how we understand ourselves and others, how we communicate, learn, discover and invent.
而暗喻思维对于我们如何理解自己和他人，以及我们如何交流、学习、发现和发明至关重要。
Actually, metaphor is a way of thought before it is a way with words.
实际上，暗喻更是一种思维方式，而不是一种用词方式。
Now, to assist me in explaining this, I've enlisted the help of a man whose contributions to the field are so tremendous that he himself has become a metaphor.
为了帮助我解释这一点，我得到了一个人的帮助，他对这一领域的贡献如此巨大，以至于他自己也成了一个暗喻。
I am, of course, referring to none other than Elvis Presley.
当然，我指的不是别人，正是埃维斯·普里斯利（猫王）。
His All Shook Up is such a touching love song.
他的All Shook Up是一首非常感人的情歌。
It's also an example of how we inevitably resort to metaphor when we deal with anything abstract, like ideas, emotions, feelings, concepts, thoughts.
这也是一个例子，说明当我们处理任何抽象的事情时，比如想法、情感、感觉、概念、思想，总会不可避免地求助于暗喻。
In this, Elvis is following Aristotle's classic definition of metaphor, that is, metaphor is the process of giving the thing a name that belongs to something else.
在这一点上，埃维斯遵循了亚里士多德对暗喻的经典定义，即暗喻是赋予事物一个属于其他事物的名称的过程。
And this is the mathematics of metaphor.
这就是暗喻的数学原理。
X equals Y. It's very simple, isn't it?
X等同于Y。这很简单，对吧？
This formula works wherever metaphor is present.
只要有暗喻，这个等式就能成立。
Elvis uses metaphor, and so does Shakespeare in this famous line from Romeo and Juliet, that is, "Juliet is the sun".
埃维斯使用了暗喻，莎士比亚在《罗密欧与朱丽叶》中的这句名言也使用了暗喻，即“朱丽叶是太阳”。
Now, here, Shakespeare gives the thing, Juliet, a name that belongs to something else, the sun.
在这句话中，莎士比亚将原本属于“太阳”的名字给了朱丽叶。
In fact, whenever we give a thing a name that belongs to something else, we give it a whole network of analogies too.
事实上，每当我们给一样东西起一个属于其他东西的名字，同时也赋予了它一个完整的类比网络。
We mix and match what we know about the metaphor's source, in this case; the sun, with what we know about its target, Juliet.
我们把对喻体的了解与本体混合、匹配到了一起，在这个例子中，就是把对太阳的了解与对朱丽叶的了解匹配在一起。
And metaphor gives us a much more vivid understanding of Juliet than if Shakespeare had literally described just what she looks like.
与莎士比亚直接用文字去描写朱丽叶是什么样子相比，暗喻能让我们对她拥有更生动的了解。
So, how do we make and interpret metaphors?
那么，我们要如何制造和解释暗喻呢？
This might look familiar.
这可能看起来很眼熟。
The first step is pattern recognition.
第一步是模式识别。
Metaphor is not just the detection of patterns; instead, it is the creation of patterns.
暗喻不仅仅是对模式的检测；相反，它是模式的创造。
And the second step is conceptual synesthesia.
第二步是概念通感。
And what is synesthesia?
什么是通感？
It is the experience of a stimulus received by one sense organ in another sense organ as well, for example like colored hearing.
它是一个感官接收到另一个感官的刺激的体验，例如色听。
People with colored hearing actually see colors when they hear the sounds of words or letters.
色听的人会在听到单词或字母的声音时，看到颜色。
We all have synesthetic abilities.
我们都有通感能力。
And many of the metaphors we use every day are synesthetic.
我们每天使用的许多暗喻都是通感的。
For instance, silence is sweet; neckties are loud.
例如，甜蜜的沉默；聒噪的领带。
So metaphor creates a kind of conceptual synesthesia, in which we understand one concept in the context of another.
因此，暗喻创造了一种概念通感，在这种通感中，我们会在一个概念的情境下理解另一个概念。
Let's move on to the third step, that is, cognitive dissonance.
我们再来看看第三步，也就是认知失调。
There is a test called the Stroop test.
有一种测试叫做Stroop测试。
What you need to do is, identify as quickly as possible the color of the ink in which words of color are printed.
您需要做的是，尽快识别打印颜色词的墨水的颜色。
If you're like most people, you will experience a moment of cognitive dissonance when the name of the color is printed in a differently colored ink, for example, the word"red" is printed in blue ink.
如果你和大多数人一样，当某种颜色用与它的含义不同的颜色的墨水打印时，你会体验到认知失调，例如，“red”这个词是用蓝色墨水打印的。
Then you may wonder what the test intends to tell us.
你可能会好奇，这项测试想要告诉我们什么。
Well, the test shows that we cannot overlook the literal meaning of words even when the literal meaning gives the wrong answer.
测试表明，我们无法忽视单词的字面意思，即使字面意思给出的是错误的答案。
Stroop tests have been done with metaphor as well.
人们也用Stroop测试了暗喻。
The participants had to identify, as quickly as possible, the literally false sentences.
参与者必须尽快识别出字面上错误的句子。
They took longer to reject metaphors as false than they did to reject literally false sentences.
他们拒绝隐错误的句子所花的时间比拒绝字面错误的句子所花的时间要长。
Why?
为什么？
Because we cannot ignore the metaphorical meaning of words either, for example, one of the sentences was "Some jobs are jails."
因为我们无法忽视单词的比喻意义，例如，其中一句话是“有些工作是监狱。”
Now, unless you're a prison guard yourself, the sentence "Some jobs are jails." is literally false.
除非你自己是一名狱警，否则“有些工作是监狱”这句话从字面上来看就是错误的。
Sadly, it's metaphorically true.
不巧的是，从比喻意义上来说，它是对的。
And the metaphorical truth interferes with our ability to identify it as literally false.
而比喻上的正确干扰了我们对它字面错误的判断力。
Metaphor matters because it's around us every day, all the time.
暗喻之所以重要，是因为它无时无刻不在我们身边。
How and in what ways does metaphor matter?
暗喻如何以及以什么方式起作用？
Well, I'd say metaphor matters, first of all, because it creates expectations.
嗯，我想说暗喻很重要，首先，因为它创造了期望。
So pay careful attention the next time you read some financial news.
所以，下次你看财经新闻的时候，一定要留意。
Agent metaphors describe price movements as the deliberate action of a living thing, as in"The NASDAQ climbed higher."
拟人化的暗喻用来描述价格运动，就像是有人有意那么做。比如：“NASDAQ指数攀至新高”
Object metaphors describe price movements as non-living things, as in "The Dow fell like a brick."
拟物化的暗喻用物体来描述价格运动，比如：'道琼斯指数像砖头一样下跌。'
Researchers once asked a group of people to read market commentaries, and then predict the next day's price trend.
研究人员请一群人在读了一些股评之后，来预测第二天的股价走势。
Those exposed to agent metaphors had higher expectations that price trends would continue.
那些读过拟人化暗喻的人更多地期待股价走势会持续。
And they had those expectations because agent metaphors imply the deliberate action of a living thing pursuing a goal.
而他们这样期待是由于拟人化的暗喻暗示了有人在刻意追逐一个目标。
If, for example, house prices are routinely described as climbing and climbing, higher and higher, people might naturally assume that rise is incessant.
如果房价总是被说成是不断攀升，越走越高，人们自然会以为房价上升势不可挡。
Also, metaphor matters because it influences decisions by activating analogies.
此外，暗喻之所以重要，是因为它通过激活类比来影响决策。
Let me give you an example, which was actually an experiment.
我来给大家举个例子，它其实是一个实验。
A group of students was told that a small country had been invaded and had asked for help.
一群学生被告知，一个小国被入侵并寻求帮助。
And they had to make a decision. What should they do?
他们必须做出决定。他们应该怎么做呢？
Intervene, appeal to the United Nations, or just do nothing?
干预，向联合国申诉，还是袖手旁观？
They were each then given one of the three descriptions of this hypothetical crisis.
这个假想的危机有三种不同的解释，他们每人听到了其中的一种。
Each of the three descriptions was designed to trigger a different historical analogy: World War II, Vietnam, and the third was historically neutral.
每个解释意在引起对不同历史事件的类比：二战，越战，或者一个中性的事件。
Those exposed to the World War II scenario made more interventionist recommendations than the others.
听到二战类比的学生比其他学生更多地建议美国干预这场危机。
This shows that just as we cannot ignore the literal meaning of words, we cannot ignore the analogies that are triggered by metaphor.
这表明，正如我们不能忽视单词的字面意义一样，我们也不能忽视由暗喻引发的类比。
Metaphor matters because it opens the door to discovery.
暗喻很重要，因为它开启了发现的大门。
Whenever we solve a problem, or make a discovery, we compare what we know with what we don't know.
每当我们要解决问题，或做新的探索时，我们就把已知和未知进行比较。
And the only way to find out about the latter is to investigate the ways it might be like the former.
而我们发现未知的唯一途径就是探讨未知和已知有何相似性。
Now we know that metaphor is ubiquitous, yet it's hidden.
暗喻虽然无处不在，却是隐藏身形。
But you just have to look at the words around you and you'll find it.
而你只要注意周围的用词，就可以找到它。
Ralph Waldo Emerson described language as "fossil poetry".
诗人艾默生曾将语言描述为“化石般的诗”。
But before it was fossil metaphor.
但在那之前，它是化石般的暗喻。
And these fossils still breathe.
而这些化石现在仍具有生气。
OK. Let me sum up today's lecture.
好。我来总结一下今天的讲座。
We've looked at how metaphor is defined, how people understand metaphors and how metaphors might influence people's expectations and decisions.
我们了解了暗喻的定义，人们对暗喻的理解，以及暗喻可能给人们的期望和决定带来的影响。
Before we call it a day, I'd like to walk you through a famous quote from Francis Bacon: "Some books are to be tasted, others swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested."
结束之前，我想给你讲一句弗朗西斯·培根的名言：“有些书值得细细品味，有些书则应该囫囵吞之，又有极少一部分书应该深入理解并掌握其中的东西。”
Well, how many metaphors are there in the statement?
那么，这句话中有几个暗喻呢？
That's your takeaway homework.
这就是大家的作业。
