Metaphor暗喻言说.doc

Metaphor 暗喻言说

Metaphor lives a secret life all around us.
暗喻秘密地生活在我们中间。
We utter about six metaphors a minute.
于我们的言谈中，每分钟大约会出现六个暗喻。
Metaphorical thinking is essential to how we understand ourselves and others,
暗喻思维是一把钥匙，它可以开启我们相互理解
how we communicate, learn, discover and invent.
沟通、学习、发现和创新的大门。
But metaphor is a way of thought before it is a way with words.
首先，暗喻是一种思维方式。
Now, to assist me in explaining this, I've enlisted the help of one of our greatest philosophers,
为了说明这一点，我请教了一位当代最伟大的哲学家，
the reigning king of the metaphorians, a man whose contributions to the field are so great thathe himself has become a metaphor.
当权的暗喻皇帝，一位因其对暗喻学的巨大贡献而自身成了一位暗喻的人物。
I am, of course, referring to none other than Elvis Presley.
当然，我指的不是别人，正是猫王埃尔维斯-普雷斯利。
Now, "All Shook Up" is a great love song.
好，《神魂颠倒》（意即整个人都被动摇了）是一首经典情歌。
It's also a great example of how whenever we deal with anything abstract
也是一个极好的暗喻范例，它诠释了当我们面临抽象事物时，
ideas, emotions, feelings, concepts, thoughts -- we inevitably resort to metaphor.
无论是主意、情绪、感觉、概念亦或是思想，都不得不求助于暗喻。
In "All Shook Up," a touch is not a touch, but a chill.
在《神魂颠倒》中，触摸不再是触摸，而是寒气。
Lips are not lips, but volcanoes. She is not she, but a buttercup.
嘴唇不再是嘴唇，而是火山。她不再是她，而是毛茛花（一种小黄花）。
And love is not love, but being all shook up.
爱情也不再是爱情，而是变得神魂颠倒了。
In this, Elvis is following Aristotle's classic definition of metaphor
在这里，埃尔维斯采用的完全是亚里士多德对暗喻的经典定义，
as the process of giving the thing a name that belongs to something else.
亦即是把B事物的名称赋予给A事物的过程。
This is the mathematics of metaphor. And fortunately it's very simple. X equals Y.
这就是暗喻的数学公式。幸好它很简单。X等于Y。
This formula works wherever metaphor is present.
这个公式适用于所有的暗喻。
Elvis uses it, but so does Shakespeare in this famous line from "Romeo and Juliet:" Juliet is the sun.
埃尔维斯用到它，莎士比亚也同样用到它，于《罗密欧与朱丽叶》中有这样的名句：朱丽叶是太阳。
Now, here, Shakespeare gives the thing, Juliet, a name that belongs to something else, the sun.
在这里莎士比亚赋予朱丽叶一个属于其它事物的名称，太阳。
But whenever we give a thing a name that belongs to something else, we give it a whole network of analogies too.
但是当我们赋予A事物以B事物的名称时，我们也赋予它一整套的类比。
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.
我们把对喻体的认知，此处是太阳，与对本体的认知--朱丽叶联系在一起，
And metaphor gives us a much more vivid understanding of Juliet than if Shakespeare had literally described what she looks like.

这样的暗喻可使我们更生动地理解朱丽叶，强过莎士比亚忠实地描述她的相貌。

So, how do we make and understand metaphors? This might look familiar.
那我们如何运用和理解暗喻呢？大家对此并不陌生。
The first step is pattern recognition. Look at this image. What do you see?
第一步就是模式识别。请看这张图。你看到了什么？
Three wayward Pac-Men, and three pointy brackets are actually present.
其实只有三个在外沿的吃豆人和三个尖角括号而已。
What we see, however, are two overlapping triangles.
但我们实际看到的是两个重叠的三角形。
Metaphor is not just the detection of patterns; it is the creation of patterns.
暗喻不仅仅是模式辨识，也是模式创造。
Second step, conceptual synesthesia.
第二步，概念联觉。
Now, synesthesia is the experience of a stimulus in once sense organ in another sense organ as well, such as colored hearing.
联觉是指一种感官受到的刺激引起另一种感官的感受，例如色彩听觉。
People with colored hearing actually see colors when they hear the sounds of words or letters.
有色彩听觉的人就会在听到词语的声音时将会看到色彩。
We all have synesthetic abilities. This is the Bouba/Kiki test.
我们都拥有联觉的能力。这是Bouba/Kiki测试。
What you have to do is identify which of these shapes is called Bouba, and which is called Kiki.
请你说出哪个形状叫Bouba，哪个叫Kiki。

If you are like 98% of other people, you will identify the round, amoeboid shape as Bouba, and the sharp, spiky one as Kiki.

如果你象其余百分之九十八的人一样，你会把这个圆圆的，变形虫形状的叫做Bouba，把尖尖的，刺猬状的叫做Kiki。
Why do we do that? Because we instinctively find, or create, a pattern between the round shape and the round sound of Bouba, and the spiky shape and the spiky sound of Kiki. And many of the metaphors we use every day are synesthetic. Silence is sweet. Neckties are loud. Sexually attractive people are hot. Sexually unattractive people leave us cold. Metaphor creates a kind of conceptual synesthesia, in which we understand one concept in the context of another.
Third step is cognitive dissonance. This is the Stroop test. What you need to do here is identify as quickly as possible the color of the ink in which these words are printed. You can take the test now. 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. The test shows that we cannot ignore the literal meaning of words even when the literal meaning gives the wrong answer.
这是为什么？因为我们本能地去找寻，或者创造一个模式，把圆的图形与Bouba这个圆的声音联系起来。对尖的图形和尖的声音Kiki也是如此。 我们日常生活中的暗喻多是联觉性的：沉默是甜的（抑或沉默是金）。领结是花骚的。性感的人是火辣的。而不性感的人让我们觉得冷冰冰的。暗喻构筑了一个概念联觉的空间，我们在其中用一种概念的情境来理解另一种概念。
第三步是认知失调。这是Stroop测试，请你尽快指出构成这些词的字母在图片中实际的颜色就从现在开始。如果你和大多数人一样，颜色的名称和图片中实际的颜色不符会使你暂时地认知失调。这个测试表明我们无法忽视这些词的字面意义，尽管字面意义上的答案是错误的。

Pay careful attention the next time you read the financial news. Agent metaphors describe price movements as the deliberate action of a living thing, as in, "The NASDAQ climbed higher." Object metaphors describe price movements as non-living things, as in, "The Dow fell like a brick." Researchers asked a group of people to read a clutch of market commentaries, and then predict the next day's price trend. Those exposed to agent metaphors had higher expectations that price trends would continue. They had those expectations because agent metaphors imply the deliberate action of a living thing pursuing a goal. If, for example, house prices are routinely described as climbing and climbing, higher and higher, people might naturally assume that that rise is unstoppable. They may feel confident, say, in taking out mortgages they really can't afford. That's a hypothetical example of course. But this is how metaphor misleads.
下次你看财经新闻可要注意，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”。拟物化的暗喻用物体来描述价格运动，比如：“道琼斯指数象砖头一样下跌。” 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。那些读过拟人化暗喻的人更多地期待股价走势会持续。而他们这样期待是由于拟人化的隐喻暗示了有人在刻意追逐一个目标。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。他们会感觉良好，以至于背负超过支付能力的按揭。当然这只是个虚构的例子。但是暗喻确实会这样误导人。

Metaphor matters because it opens the door to discovery. Whenever we solve a problem, or make a discovery, we compare what we know with what we don't know. And the only way to find out about the latter is to investigate the ways it might be like the former. Einstein described his scientific method as combinatory play. He famously used thought experiments, which are essentially elaborate analogies, to come up with some of his greatest discoveries. By bringing together what we know and what we don't know through analogy, metaphorical thinking strikes the spark that ignites discovery. Now metaphor is ubiquitous, yet it's hidden. But you just have to look at the words around you and you'll find it. Ralph Waldo Emerson described language as "fossil poetry." But before it was fossil poetry language was fossil metaphor. And these fossils still breathe.
暗喻很重要，因为它开启了发现的大门。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。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。 爱因斯坦曾把他的科学方法描述为组合的游戏。他在其有名的思想实验中，实质上就是复杂的类比中，成就了一些最伟大的科学发现。当我们用类比把已知和未知联系在一起时，暗喻的思维就会点燃发现的火花。 暗喻虽然无处不在，却是隐藏身形。而你只要注意周围的用词就可以找到它。诗人艾默生曾将语言描述为“化石般的诗”。但是在它成为化石般的诗之前，语言是化石般的暗喻。而这些化石现在仍具有生气。

Take the three most famous words in all of Western philosophy: "Cogito ergo sum."
就拿在西方哲学中最有名的三个词来说：Cogito ergo sum
That's routinely translated as, "I think, therefore I am." But there is a better translation.
通常被翻译为“我思故我在。”但是有一种更好的译法。
The Latin word "cogito" is derived from the prefix "co," meaning "together," and the verb "agitare," meaning "to shake."
这里拉丁文"cogito"是从前缀"co"而来，意思是"在一起"，而动词"agitare"是“摇动”的意思
So, the original meaning of "cogito" is to shake together.
所以"cogito"的原意是一起摇动。
And the proper translation of "cogito ergo sum" is "I shake things up, therefore I am."
而"cogito ergo sum"的适切的翻译是"我摇动事物，故我在."
Metaphor shakes things up, giving us everything from Shakespeare to scientific discovery in the process.
暗喻摇动事物，它带给我们从莎士比亚到科学发现的各样事情。
The mind is a plastic snow dome, the most beautiful, most interesting,
我们的思想是一个圣诞节的雪花球，它最美丽、最有趣，
and most itself, when, as Elvis put it, it's all shook up.
也最本色的时候，就是它被使劲摇动的时候，像埃尔维斯所说的一样。
And metaphor keeps the mind shaking, rattling and rolling, long after Elvis has left the building. Thank you very much.
暗喻让我们的思想不住的摇动，叮当作响，滚动不已，尽管埃尔维斯早已离开。谢谢各位。