I Can Understand Metaphors And Use Them

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I find the meanings of metaphors to be pretty easy to understand, and I can often infer the meaning of a metaphor through it's context. Deciphering metaphors is not that difficult, this is what I think to myself:

"Well, that phrase makes no sense and seems unrelated to the situation, so it's probably figurative language. Now, what similarities are there between the figurative phrase and the current context? What metaphorical relationship is there between the phrase and this situation?"

To think that for most of my life, I thought a metaphor was what you take when you don't get enough fiber!

"When a boat runs ashore, the sea has spoken."

Yes I can. I just did. I actually understood it when I first heard it in the movie Benny & Joon. But when I used it in class as a quote, no one understand it and they were all NTs.

What does that one mean? (Never heard it before).

Some I get, some I don't

"Waste not, want not" was one I couldn't figure out (pre-Google) for a long time.

i can construct metaphors, but i can not understand many metaphors that i did not create.

i know the definition of the word "metaphor", but i do not understand the differences between metaphors and adages or proverbs.

"make hay while the sun shines" is an adage that is composed of metaphors, and i can not understand it. i know what it means but i can not understand why it means what it means. if i was not told what it means, i would never have calculated it's meaning

i know it's meaning is "capitalize on an opportunity whilst it is ripe", but the meaning behind it's ostensible meaning is lost to my mind..

does it mean that cut grass or lucerne can only be dried during a sunny day? does it mean that cut lucerne that is exposed to precipitation on a cloudy day, or dew at night, is more prone to become mouldy and therefore be unsuitable for feeding cattle?
how does one make hay anyway? one has to grow the crop that is processed into hay. one can not magically "make" hay.
i will never know.

i never understood the saying "a stitch in time saves nine" until i was intensively educated about it's meaning. i thought it meant that a "wormhole in space saves nine people's lives" which made no sense. when i was informed that one stitch early in the development of a tear in material can save nine stitches later on, i told them i understood, but i still did not understand the fundamental construction of the sentence, but i did understand that it meant that "rapid attention to, and early correction of a problem would prevent the development of a much bigger problem". but what is the significance of the number nine? it does not even rhyme strictly with "time". what does the phrase "in time" mean? everything is done "in time" because nothing can happen outside of time.

the saying " a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush" is a mystery to me. i have never been taught what that means. does it mean that caged birds are not as valuable as free birds? what if a bird in the bush lands on my hand? it would both be a bird in my hand and a bird in the bush, so i can not discriminate the finer points of that saying.

i can make up my own metaphoric sentences, and i can do it easily.

one metaphoric saying i have made up is that for me, autism is like being on the subjective side of an almost perfect one way mirror.
when i communicate with people, i can see mainly only the reflection of myself on my side of the one way mirror, but i can faintly see the people on the other side of the mirror, and those on the other side off the mirror can easily see me, and they see only a faint reflection of their own selves on their side of the mirror.

my mother used to confuse me intentionally with illogical statements. for example, when me and my mother and father were in the car on the way to our recreational property when i was a child, and when i used to be a chatterbox about every thing that i saw, she said "next time we bring you, we will leave you at home". i was bamboozled when she said that, and she used to laugh, but i saw her comment as completely incomprehensible.

i need things to be spelled out incontrovertibly or else my mind will leak into all the cracks of alternative possibilities of of comprehension and i will never settle on one solid meaning.

here is an ad in australia that i can not comprehend even though i have tried very hard to do so.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHdx08-wpow[/youtube]

is the african american pleased about his handful of gold, or does he eventually scream because it is very hot? i have no idea about what this ad means. if anyone can help i would appreciate it.

@ B9


I think that you overthink things a bit-"nine' kinda ryhmes with 'time' - and gives the sentence rythm. So thats the only significance to nine. But the number 9 DOES crop up mysteriously in another common phrase which I will discuss in a moment.

Only a fellow aspie would jump to the conclusion that "in time" means that its a stitch in the "time space continum"- and not 'in time' as in "I hope we get home in time to watch the superbowl".

Lol.

A stitch...in time ( to avert further damage)...saves nine (more stitches). Thats the construction.

These adages were made up by farmers and thier homemaker wives- not by space scientists. You gotta assume a down to earth meaning a peasant could grasp.

Yes- you do make hay by drying grass in the sun. So if there is a break in the cloudy days- you better get off your ass and starting making the hay.

My Mom used to say "strike while the iron is hot" to convay the same thing.

I THINK thats a reference to old fashion clothes irons. Before modern electic irons- you would place cast iron irons in the fire in the fire place (hense the expression "lots of irons in the fire").

About birds and bushes.

Imagine that you're a shipwrecked sailor trying to survive on a deserted island in the middle of the ocean. You would have to forage for food.

If you wanted to cook some white meat which would be more valuable to you?

That bird you already caught ( ie in your hand)?

Or that flock of ten free birds in that yonder bush?


Back to the number nine.

When I was a kid I was always baffled by the expression "the whole nine yards".

I figured it had something to do with sports. But couldnt figure out which sport.

I looked it up a big thick scholarly book about word usage- and it turned out the experts were also stumped. The author said "yards" are important to tailors and to athletes, but the number nine has no special meaning in either the tailor trade, nor in any sport.

Then finnally a couple months ago I saw a TV show about world war two flying fortress bombers with ball turret guns. The bullet belts that feed the guns in the ball turrets were... nine yards long!

"Ignore THAT messerschmidt! Give THIS one the WHOLE NINE YARDS!"

Mystery solved!

Yes, I have no problem with metaphors. It's extremely rare that I ever take one literally and have to process and reassess someones message. I'm sure I've done it before, but I can't even remember the last time it's so rare.

_________________
No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

"Pot kettle black" it took me a while to understand this. It just means accusing others of doing something you are guilty of doing/have done yourself.

"Beating a dead horse" took me a while too. It means it's redundant and there is no point in saying it.

"Slower than molasses in January" also took me a while. It just means going very slow and even the Molasses being poured in the jar that month would be done before you get done.

Simple definitions help me understand metaphors better.

@B9

I just logged back in with a better computer than can read videos.

I cant figure out wtf is happening in that commercial either.

In the USA we say things like "you can save a boatload of money" ( or a S-word load of money), but never a "volcano of money"( nor anything metaphor like that).

Having a ship materialize in the guys backyard would make sense to me if they were to make a figure of speech come to life in the surreal way implied by the commercial.

But I dont get a volcano as a joke.

The Black guys is excited- about the great savings before he screams- but Im not sure if he is screaming because of excitment -or- because he got physically burned- either.