Tag Archives: Democrats

The Hill We Climb

Uncategorized, , , , , , , ,

Last week, Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States.  As part of the ceremonies, a 22-year-old African-American poet, Amanda Gorman, captivated the nation with a stirring poem about unity entitled, “The Hill We Climb.” Ms. Gorman is the current National Youth Poet Laureate who was handpicked by the First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, to deliver the address.  She recited her poem in a powerful voice with poise and gravitas far beyond her years, using expertly choreographed hand and arm gestures, transforming the simple reading of a poem into a thrilling display of literary and artistic talent. Ms. Gorman’s performance was as bright as her yellow dress and as exciting as her red headband. In a word, she was brilliant.

In my view, brilliance is never singular; rather it is the combination of many talents and visions that create an extraordinary work of art.  The Beatles were not only incredible musicians, they were genius lyricists and were aided by a visionary producer, George Martin.  Shakespeare was not only a brilliant dramatist but was also a master of wordplay and created plays that touched on universal themes.  In her poem, “The Hill We Climb,” Amanda Gorman combines slam poetry, rap, free verse, performance art and politics in a way no one has ever done before. 

In my blog today, I would like to humbly offer an analysis of why her poem was so brilliant.  There have been many insightful commentaries online in the past few days documenting her subtle references to past political leaders and poets, as well as to the Trump presidency and the Capitol riots.  I will mention some of those references in passing, but I will try to provide an analysis from a linguist’s point of view. I believe she deftly employed seven distinct rhetorical strategies in her poem: 1) rhymes, 2) alliteration 3) repetition, 4) nature metaphors, 5) journey metaphors, 6) contrast and chiasmus, and 7) themes of unification.  I provide examples from her poem, with specific words and phrases under study in italics. You can see the performance of her inaugural poem on YouTube here, and read the transcript here. 

1) Rhymes: Ms. Gorman uses a wide variety of rhyme schemes in her poem.  In some cases, she uses simple monosyllabic end rhymes such as in the opening lines of her poem, rhyming shade with wade, and beast with peace. 

File:Golden sunrise.jpg - Wikimedia Commons
Source: Wikimedia Commons

Example: “When day comes we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade?

The loss we carry, a sea we must wade. 

We’ve braved the belly of the beast. 

We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace.”

She repeats this first rhyme later with blade and made and with grew and true.

Example: “If we’re to live up to our own time, then victory won’t lie in the blade, but in all the bridges we’ve made.” 

Example: “Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true. 

That even as we grieved, we grew.” 

            She also uses internal rhymes in some instances, sometimes with slant rhymes, as with tired, tried and tied.  (Slant rhymes occur when two words or phrases have similar sounds such as bat and back as compared to exact rhymes such as bat and cat.) 

Example: “That even as we hurt, we hoped; that even as we tired, we tried; that we’ll forever be tied together, victorious.”

Moreover, she uses more complex multisyllabic end rhymes and internal rhymes throughout the poem. In one example, she uses slant rhymes with redemption and inception. 

Example: “This is the era of just redemption. 

We feared it at its inception.”

She also rhymes succeeded and defeated. 

Example: “And this effort very nearly succeeded. But while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated.” 

In one exceptional section, she creates a long series of rhymed phrases or parts of words as with dare it, American, inherit, repair it, and share it. 

Example: “That is the promise to glade, the hill we climb if only we dare it. 

Because being American is more than a pride we inherit; 

it’s the past we step into and how we repair it. 

We’ve seen a forest that would shatter our nation rather than share it, would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy.” 

One may question the inclusion of the word American as a rhyme in this series, but if you listen to her live performance, she seems to specifically emphasize the first three syllables of the word, and destresses the first syllable. 

            At the beginning of the poem, while she is talking about the dawn, she creates a pair of multisyllabic rhymes with knew it and do it.  And then at the end of the poem, while referring back to her metaphor of the dawn, she repeats this multisyllabic pattern with greater emphasis as she rhymes free it, see it and be it. 

Example: “And yet, the dawn is ours before we knew it. Somehow, we do it.”

Example: “The new dawn blooms as we free it. 

For there is always light. 

If only we’re brave enough to see it. 

If only we’re brave enough to be it.”

One last slant rhyme deserves special mention.  At the beginning of the poem she forces a rhyme between the phrase just is with justice. I believe here she is referencing the quote by Martin Luther King, Jr. that has been in the news lately following the Black Lives Matter protests: “True peace in not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.”

Example: “We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace.

In the norms and notions of what just is isn’t always justice.”

2) Alliteration: One way that poets call attention to a section of a poem is to begin each of a series of words with the same vowel or consonant sound.  In one section, Ms. Gorman uses seven words in a row all beginning with a hard “c” sound.  Her list of traits of the country she is hoping for is an overarching theme of the poem, at the same time referencing Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous quote, also alliterative, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

File:Color fabrics.jpg - Wikimedia Commons
Source: Wikimedia Commons

Example: “We are striving to forge our union with purpose, to compose a country committed to all cultures,colors, characters and conditions of man.”

3) Repetition: Ms. Gorman also uses repetition to emphasize certain points in her poem. The use of repetition is common in sermons and political speeches, most notably by Martin Luther King, Jr. in his “I Have a Dream” speech and in Maya Angelou’s poem, “Still I Rise.”  Towards the end of her poem, Ms. Gorman repeats the phrase “we will rise” four times.  Interestingly, she also introduces this section of the poem with a variant, “we will raise” and follows the section with another variant, “we will rebuild.”  It’s brilliant poetic structure.  In this same section of the poem, she increases the intensity of the repetition by including a series of compound adjectives – bronze-pounded, gold-limned, wind-swept, lake-rimmed, and sun-baked. 

Example: “With every breath from my bronze-pounded chest, we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one. 

We will rise from the gold-limned hills of the West. 

We will rise from the wind-swept Northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution. 

We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the Midwestern states. 

We will rise from the sun-baked South. 

We will rebuild, reconcile and recover in every known nook of our nation, in every corner called our country our people diverse and beautiful will emerge battered and beautiful.”

4) Nature Metaphors: There is a long tradition in poetry going back hundreds of years in which poets describe situations in terms of ordinary people in touch with nature.  As I have argued many times in this blog, we often think in terms of our common experiences with the world at large.  Thus, we immediately understand images of hills, mountains, rivers, the sun and moon, etc.  I believe that Ms. Gorman entitled her poem, “The Hill We Climb” to tap into this common experience.  She uses other nature metaphors throughout the poem, reminiscent of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s political speeches.  She begins the poem describing the problem as a dark night turning into a bright day, in the phrase “when day comes” and she follows that with several mentions of shade changing to light.  In one instance, she describes the challenge of Americans overcoming their divided country as crossing an ocean or sea, and she follows this with an allusion to the Biblical story of Jonah swallowed by a whale, referred to as surviving being in the belly of the beast.

Example: “When day comes we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade?

Example: “The loss we carry, a sea we must wade. 

We’ve braved the belly of the beast.” 

Later in that same section of the poem, she refers to the dawn of a new day, after having metaphorically weathered a storm. 

Example: “And yet, the dawn is ours before we knew it. Somehow, we do it. Somehow, we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished.”

File:Peru - Cusco Trekking 021 - climbing the hills (7114029049).jpg - Wikimedia Commons
Source: Wikimedia Commons

Later in the poem she repeats the metaphor of climbing a hill, and compares the challenges of our country as being lost in a forest, while anticipating moving from the forest to an open area sometimes called a glade. 

Example: “That is the promise to glade, the hill we climb if only we dare it. 

Because being American is more than a pride we inherit; 

it’s the past we step into and how we repair it. 

We’ve seen a forest that would shatter our nation rather than share it, would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy.” 

More importantly, she ends the poem with the repetitions of “we will rise” described earlier. 

5) Journey Metaphors: In addition to metaphors of nature, Ms. Gorman uses several journey metaphors. These types of metaphors describe the movement of group of people from a crisis to the resolution of the problem in a notable period of growth.  Not surprisingly in a speech about unifying the country, she weaves journey metaphors into her poem in several ways. 

Movement from night to day and dark to light.

Example: “When day comes we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade?”

Example: “When day comes, we step out of the shade aflame and unafraid. 

The new dawn blooms as we free it. For there is always light.” 

Movement from low to high.

Example: “And so, we lift our gazes not to what stands between us, but what stands before us.”

Example: “With every breath from my bronze-pounded chest, we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.”

Example: “We will rise from the gold-limned hills of the West. 

Category:Sandia Mountains - Wikimedia Commons
Source: Wikimedia Commons

We will rise from the wind-swept Northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution. 

We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the Midwestern states. 

We will rise from the sun-baked South.”

Movement from backwards to forwards.

Example: “We will not march back to what was, but move to what shall be: a country that is bruised, but whole; benevolent, but bold; fierce and free. 

We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation, because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation.” 

Movement from broken to whole or injured to healthy. 

Example: “Somehow, we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished.”

Example: “With every breath from my bronze-pounded chest, we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.”

Example: “We will rebuild, reconcile and recover in every known nook of our nation, in every corner called our country our people diverse and beautiful will emerge battered and beautiful.”

Movement from the past to the future.

Example: “In this truth, in this faith we trust, for while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us.”

Example: “We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour, but within it, we found the power to author a new chapter, to offer hope and laughter to ourselves.”

Example: “So, let us leave behind a country better than one we were left.” 

6) Contrast and Chiasmus: Another way of showing movement or progress in a poem is by setting up contrasts between two events or situations.  A chiasmus (pronounced kye-AS-mus) is a specific type of contrast in which two concepts are presented in reverse order in one sentence.  Perhaps the most famous example is from John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address when he said, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” In her poem, Ms. Gorman sets up several of these types of chiasmus. In one instance, she uses a clever contrast between two meanings of the words arms, one as weapons and one as human limbs. 

Contrast

Example: “That even as we grieved, we grew. 

That even as we hurt, we hoped; that even as we tired, we tried; that we’ll forever be tied together, victorious.”

Example: “We will not march back to what was, but move to what shall be: a country that is bruised, but whole; benevolent, but bold; fierce and free.”

Chiasmus

Example: “We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another.” 

Example: “In this truth, in this faith we trust, for while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us.” 

Example: “So, while once we asked: ‘How could we possibly prevail over catastrophe?’ Now we assert, ‘How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?’”

7) Themes of Unification:  As a grammar nerd, I could tell from the first three words of the poem that she was going to be talking about unification. Linguists and writers know that it is not always what one says that is important, it’s what one doesn’t say. She opens the poem with the phrase, “when day comes…”.  Note that she doesn’t say “the day” with the definite article or “a day” with an indefinite article. Indefinite and definite articles used with nouns indicate a specific concept being introduced or referenced, respectively. We can say, “a day I’ll never forget” or “the day I was late for work.”  By not including any article, Ms. Gorman indicates the concept as day as a natural phenomenon as in the idea of night follows day or summer follows spring.  In this way, she sets up the entire poem about universal themes, rather than specific issues.  She uses this idea of a new day coming at the beginning and the end of the poem to frame or bookend the entire speech. 

Example: “When day comes we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade?” 

Example: “When day comes, we step out of the shade aflame and unafraid.”

Beyond this rhetorical strategy, there is another omission worth mentioning.  She never uses the first-person singular pronoun, I.  Rather she always uses the first-person plural pronoun, we.  Admittedly, most poets do not write about themselves so there is no reason to use first person pronouns, but even when Ms. Gorman is referring to herself, she uses the third person. I believe she does this deliberately to remove herself as the agent in the change she describes; rather she asks that we all work together to achieve those goals, not any one person individually. 

Example: “We, the successors of a country and a time where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president, only to find herself reciting for one.”

She adds another layer of emphasis to this sense of unity in her final line by saying that we not only have to see the light, but that we must be it, perhaps as a nod to the famous line attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”

Example: “If only we’re brave enough to be it.”

As a final rhetorical technique, she recognizes that it is not just the politicians in Washington DC who can make the changes.  It must come from people all across the country.  Thus, she specifically mentions different parts of the country, every nook and corner, along with the powerful compound adjectives discussed earlier. 

Example: “We will rise from the gold-limned hills of the West. 

We will rise from the wind-swept Northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution. 

We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the Midwestern states. 

File:Chicago Skyline and Lake Michigan.JPG - Wikimedia Commons
Source: Wikimedia Commons

We will rise from the sun-baked South. 

We will rebuild, reconcile and recover in every known nook of our nation, in every corner called our countryour people diverse and beautiful will emerge battered and beautiful.”

Summary:  Needless to say, this young poetess has crafted an incredibly powerful and uplifting poem.  By using a variety of rhetorical strategies, she outlines how we can heal our divided country and move forward. Interestingly, she never mentions any politicians or political parties by name, nor any specific national issues.  She makes allusions to the riots at the Capitol on January 6th, but does not give any specifics. I assume she is talking about reuniting Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives and rich and poor Americans.  She does make several allusions to slavery so perhaps we can also assume she is hoping for racial equality, and perhaps justice for all disadvantaged groups, as she says, “all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man.”  One can only hope her dreams of a better future for these United States can become a reality. 

Invasions and Infestations: Words and Metaphors Do Matter

Figurative Language, Immigration, Media, Metaphors, Politics, Rhetoric, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hello! I feel obliged to write a post today concerning the recent statements in the news that “Words Matter.”  Following the two horrific mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, many people blamed President Trump for inciting the shooter in Texas since his screed published online shortly before the attacks used language quite similar to Trump’s recent rhetoric about a so-called invasion of Mexicans into the United States.  Trump also recently argued that Baltimore, Maryland was a “rodent-infested” city, and seemed to target Elijah Cummings, an African-American Congressman who lives in Baltimore.  Moreover, he also told four female minority members of Congress to “go back where you came from,” a well-known racist trope.  Trump’s apologists claim that the El Paso shooter was mentally ill and acted alone. 

As a linguist, I must remain neutral in these political arguments.  I will leave the assignation of blame to pundits and politicians.  Today I would like to talk about how and why these metaphors are so powerful in shaping the beliefs and actions of certain Americans.  Linguists have been talking for decades about the importance of language in influencing people’s beliefs.  I have discussed this many times in the past few years in this blog space.  Back in 2013 I wrote a post called “Do Metaphors Matter?” examining this very topic.  I would like to revisit the topic with an expanded analysis including three increasingly large social circles of 1) the body, 2) the family, and 3) the home.  I will argue that defending these three areas of our lives can be traced back to our early Homo sapiens ancestors, and can explain the power of many of our current political metaphors. 

Readers of this blog are well aware that my approach to understanding metaphors has been inspired by the ground-breaking work of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson.  They were the first to describe how metaphors usage is part of our everyday thinking.  Johnson’s book The Body in the Mind describes how many of our metaphors are derived from our experiences of using our own bodies.  In my research, I discovered more than 100 separate metaphors based on our body position, using our heads, arms, legs, hands and feet.  Thus, we have examples such as facing the problem, standing up for one’s rights, backing a candidates, reaching across the aisle, or getting a stronghold in another country.

A self-defense class. Source: Wikipedia commons

Sadly, many of these body metaphors are based on ideas of defending oneself against attackers.  We don’t even think about this, but most of the ways we talk about arguments use metaphors such as taking a stand on the issue, confronting your opponent or arguing from a position of strength.  In evolutionary terms, this makes sense. We are all familiar with the stories of our ancient ancestors fighting off cave bears or saber-tooth cats to survive.  We would not have survived as a species if we were not good at defending our bodies.

Source: Wikimedia commons

At a higher level of awareness and social grouping, we can also talk about the importance of our families in our lives.  The idea of belonging to a family is another rich source of metaphor creation on several different generational levels.  We talk about the founding fathers of our country, our soldiers in World War I and World War II as brothers in arms, or your latest pet project at work as your baby.  We also have the metaphorical expressions of “necessity is the mother of invention” and Uncle Sam referring to the U.S. government.  While there are not any metaphorical expressions referring directly to defending one’s family, we can understand that there is a natural instinct among all parents and grandparents to protect their loved ones in case of attack.  This is common in the natural world as well.  I am not a hunter but I have heard the saying that the only thing more dangerous than a grizzly bear is a momma grizzly bear defending her cubs. It is not surprising that two of our most powerful civil rights groups founded by women have the word mother in the name of the organization, e.g., Mothers Against Drunk Driving which not coincidentally spells out the acronym MADD indicating their anger at all the lives lost to drunk drivers.  There is also a group fighting for more gun regulations called Moms Demand Action.  

Source: Wikimedia commons

At the next higher level of social group is the sense of home.  The notion of home has several meanings.  Literally it means the house that people live in with their families.  But metaphorically it has other more powerful meanings.  A home is much more that a building, it represents the sense of love, family and belonging to a place.  In my much younger days I served two years in the Peace Corps in West Africa.  The other volunteers and I spoke often of going back home after our service was complete, as do thousands of military service men and women today.  Of course, we were not simply speaking of returning back to the houses that we grew up in, but to our family, friends, community and country.  We have many metaphors derived from our experience of living in a home, e.g., we call the founding fathers the framers of the constitution as if they were building a house, we talk about opportunity knocking (on the door) and the window of opportunity closing, and some politicians want to make a clean sweep of corruption in Washington D.C.  In terms of defending our homes, we also talk about having gatekeepers who maintain order in society, avoiding backdoor activities of corrupt politicians, and more to the point, having our national defense system literally called Homeland Security.  The Stand Your Ground laws in some states allow a homeowner to shoot someone who invades their property.  It is loosely based on the old British idea that “a man’s home is his castle.” This phrase is loaded with metaphorical power.  It involves the sense of standing to protect oneself (the body), or your loved ones (the family) on your ground or property (the home).  It’s a triple play for 2nd Amendment proponents who instinctively desire to defend themselves. 

In a larger sense, we also extend the meaning of home to include our streets, neighborhoods and communities.  And we protect our communities against outside interference.  Thus we have the acronym NIMBY, meaning Not In My Backyard, a phrase used by homeowners threatened by the possibility of a landfill, nuclear waste disposal site, a new airport or any other dangerous or noisy development.  

Source: Wikimedia commons

What does this have to do with mass shootings?  It is pretty clear that it is part of human nature to defend one’s body, family and home for danger.  When someone refers to a city being infested by rodents, most of us would shudder in disgust.  Anyone who has gone camping has most likely experienced insects crawling over our bodies during the middle of the night.  Harmless insects such as ants are annoying, but animals such as spiders or rodents that carry diseases is definitely a dangerous situation.  No one would like to think of their homes being infested by creepy, dangerous animals.  Also, it is normally the poor urban areas that are infected by rats, poor urban areas which are usually populated by poor people and minorities who have been forgotten by society.  Saying that a certain area is infested by rodents is clearly sending a message that the area is in bad condition because of the fault of the minorities to keep the area clean, even though it is almost always the case because the government has not provided the resources to maintain that area.  It is rarely the fault of the local people. 

Source: Wikimedia commons

When politicians talk about an invasion of immigrants, they too are sending a clear message that immigrants coming into this country is a dangerous thing.  The term invasion reminds people of military takeovers, such as Viking attacks in Europe during the Middle Ages, or German invasions of parts of Europe during World War II.  What could be more dangerous than an invasion?  People are well aware that their homes may be taken or destroyed or their family members could be killed during an invasion.  (We also talk about a flood of immigrants as if a tidal wave is coming to wipe out everyone and everything in its path.)

This discussion begs the question of why white people in America are so afraid of African-American, Hispanic, Asian or other minority people in the first place. To most Americans this fear is absurd.  Anyone who has lived or worked with people of color knows that they are just like anyone else in the world.  They are hardworking, law-abiding, family-loving people.  But to bigoted or racist people, minorities represent “the other” — people not like themselves, and thus they cannot be respected or trusted. Where does this idea come from?  Sadly it seems to have been part of human evolution for thousands of years.  No one knows exactly why Neanderthal Man disappeared.  Neanderthals lived in Europe for 400,000 years before disappearing shortly after the arrival of the rival species, Homo sapiens.  It is possible that the Neanderthals died off from disease, food shortages or climate change, but they may have also been killed by tribes of Homo sapiens.  In human prehistory, most hunter gatherer tribes coexisted peacefully for thousands of years.  However, when agriculture was discovered about 4000 BC, towns and cities quickly developed since people could, for the first time, stay in one place to live.  Sadly, the development of agriculture led to imbalances of food, money and power.  It is not long after that the first records of slavery occurred.  It seems to be part of human nature that a group in power will try to subjugate another, less powerful, group of people.  

Source: Wikimedia commons

Americans tend to think of slavery as a problem of American history, but of course, anyone who has seen the movie Gladiator, will remember that slavery existed in Ancient Greece and Rome.  Also, anyone who has seen the mini series Roots, based on the book by Alex Haley, will remember that the African slave trade, although promoted by Europeans and Americans, was also facilitated by some African tribes capturing and selling members of other African tribes.  I happened to live in the West African country of Benin during my Peace Corps service.  I have been to the museums in the coastal cities such as Ouidah, where the African slaves were sold off to the American traders. I saw the actual shackles and chains used by some African tribes to capture other Africans.  To most people, the idea of selling a person is appalling, as if they were simply property.  However, even our revered founding fathers counted slaves as only 3/5 of a person. 

This idea of subjugating people also has its origins in something called the Great Chain of Being.  This notion also goes back to the Ancient Greeks.  The idea was that people lived in the middle of a specific ranked order of beings, animals and plants.  In its most famous iteration Medieval Christians assigned the basic order, from highest to lowest, God, angels, humans, animals, plants and minerals, depicted in this drawing from 1579.  European kings used this idea to establish that they were closer to God thus higher in rank than ordinary people.  Colonial European powers used this idea to justify the horrible treatment they gave to African, Asian and Pacific Island nations as they plundered their natural resources for their own benefits.  And of course, 17th century Europeans and colonial American states used this idea to justify slavery as a means of obtaining a free source of labor.  Needless to say, our own treatment of Native Americans for the past several centuries has been just as bad. 

The Great Chain of Being, 1579 Drawing. Source: Wikimedia commons

Although these ideas sound horribly outdated, we find similar ideas in the Bible: 

Genesis 1:26: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”  

While this passage is only speaking of humans having dominion over animals, it too has provided justification for hunters to kill animals for no reason.  While most modern hunters kill animals only for the meat, or to protect themselves from animals from attacking their families or their livestock, there are still so-called trophy hunters who kill only for the pleasure of killing a rare or dangerous animal.  You may remember the public outrage when a beloved lion named Cecil was killed by a trophy hunter in Zimbabwe in 2015. 

Sadly, people in many cultures around the world have treated other people as animals, lower in value than humans.  You may have read the remarkable book, The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, in which he describes the men who hunted escaped slaves as if they were wild animals. Scientists used African-American men as guinea pigs in studies of syphilis at the Tuskegee University in Alabama between 1932 and 1972.  Even sadder still is the fact that human trafficking and other forms of slavery still exist in almost every corner of the world. It is perhaps no surprise then that in the United States and other parts of the world, immigrants are seen as less than human, somehow a lower form of life that must be stopped from coming into the home country.  These immigrants are a threat to the status quo of the privileged white social class who want to maintain their superiority over less powerful groups.  The ultimate irony, of course, is that in the United States, everyone except Native Americans are immigrants.  Our ancestors came from other parts of the world at different times in American history.  However, immigrants with darker skin, people of color, are judged to be the other, and thus become targets of discrimination and bigotry.  The reasons for this bigotry are complex.  In addition to the personal reasons of defending oneself or one’s family, there are also economic reasons — the fear of immigrants taking the jobs of Americans, political reasons — the fear that our government will be controlled by minorities, or social reasons — the fear of miscegenation, i.e., that the “pure” white race will be diluted by intermarriage with people of color.  

Now, to come full circle to the question of the importance of metaphors, I remind my readers of the work of George Lakoff on the idea of understanding governments in terms of what he calls the metaphorical “Nurturant Parent family” or the “Strict Father family.” 

In Lakoff’s model, liberals tend to think of government as nurturing parents who take care of their children.  Therefore they expect Congress to ensure a healthy economy, provide health care to the sick, food stamps to the poor and other safety nets to help those in need.  In contrast, conservatives tend to think of government as a strict father.  In a blog post a few years ago, Lakoff explains this idea further.

https://georgelakoff.com/2016/03/02/why-trump/

“The basic idea is that authority is justified by morality (the strict father version), and that, in a well-ordered world, there should be (and traditionally has been) a moral hierarchy in which those who have traditionally dominated should dominate. The hierarchy is: God above Man, Man above Nature, The Disciplined (Strong) above the Undisciplined (Weak), The Rich above the Poor, Employers above Employees, Adults above Children, Western culture above other cultures, Our Country above other countries. The hierarchy extends to: Men above women, Whites above Nonwhites, Christians above nonChristians, Straights above Gays.”

Needless to say, this metaphorical family structure follows the same logic as the Great Chain of Being dating back to the days of the Ancient Greeks.  There are two important points to be made here.  First, some conservatives may believe in this sort of hierarchy and act on it thinking they are justified in doing so based on their belief in maintaining the “well-ordered world.”  Secondly, people who blindly believe in this moral hierarchy may not think on their own; instead they will just believe what someone else tells them, if that person is in a position of higher authority.  For example, years ago a colleague of mine confessed that he did not know who to vote for in the upcoming presidential election, but he wasn’t worried because the pastor at this church was going to tell him who to vote for.  

Of course, I am in no way justifying this type of behavior.  I am only trying to explain how language and metaphors fit into the schema or world views of some people who try to justify their racist behavior.  Words do indeed matter, especially when they incite people to turn their beliefs into actions of killing innocent people for the tragically misguided purposes of maintaining their power in society. 

A Tsunami of Immigrants?

Figurative Language, Immigration, Media, Metaphors, Politics, Rhetoric, war, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The contentious topic of immigration has been in the news the past few weeks.  The Trump administration allegedly directed two government agencies – DSH, the Department of Homeland Security, and ICE – Immigration and Customs Enforcement – to separate children from their parents at several different border checkpoints in Texas.  Public outcry has led to policy changes and the reunification of most of these families.  However, the crisis highlighted years of discrimination against immigrants going back to the founding of this country.  This sort of discrimination against immigrants has been alive and well in Europe for hundreds of years as well.

Clues of this type of discrimination can be found in the metaphors used to describe immigrants.  While many are neutral terms, others are clearly negative in their connotations. A few years ago, the blogger David Shariatmadari wrote a nice article entitled “Swarms, floods and marauders: the toxic metaphors of the migration debate” on how negative metaphors in England are used against immigrants using such terms as swarms or floods of migrants or describing them as marauders.  Also, a recent article in the Atlantic by Franklin Foer describes “How ICE Went Rogue,” detailing how ICE agents have become increasingly aggressive in arresting and deporting immigrants regardless of their legal or illegal immigration status. Formerly, ICE agents were restricted by government policies as to whom they could arrest.  After Donald Trump became president, ICE officials claimed that their handcuffs were removed.

I have discussed metaphors of immigration in past blog posts but I thought it was time to take a fresh look.  I originally thought that most immigration metaphors were negative, such as those listed above, but recently I have found examples of neutral metaphors, i.e., those that simply describe immigrants or immigration issues without negative connotations. What follows is a short list of metaphors from several different concepts including war, insects, animals, nature, rivers and oceans.  For clarity, I indicate whether each type of metaphor is neutral or negative.  I include examples from recent news articles with links to each source.  Some examples are excerpts from articles; others are merely headlines.  Italics are mine.

 

War/Military Operations – Negative

I found a few examples of metaphors from wars or military operations to describe immigrants. In addition to the marauder example mentioned earlier, I found evidence of politicians describing their countries as being under siege, under attack or being on the front lines of the battle with immigrants.

under siege

Example:  “British towns are being ‘swamped’ by immigrants, and their residents are ‘under siege’, Michael Fallon, the UK defence secretary, said on Sunday.” (source: The Financial Times)

under attack

Example:  “Trump Uses Language of Exterminators in Attack on ‘Illegal Immigrants’” (source: New Yorker Magazine)

front lines

Example:  “A town at the front lines of the migrant crisis: ‘We can’t let them die’” (source: the Los Angeles Times)

 

Insects and Animals – Negative

Sadly, large groups of immigrants coming into a country are often compared to bothersome insects or animals.  Donald Trump recently compared immigrants to animals that were infestingour country.  I include his tweet below along with a stunning criticism of this language usage by blogger Josh Marshall.  I also include examples of swarminginsects and stampeding cattle as suggested by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.  Finally, I include the controversial example of Donald Trump calling some immigrants animals.  In his defense, he was referring to the violent MS-13 gang members, not all immigrants. 

infest

Example:  “Democrats are the problem. They don’t care about crime and want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our Country, like MS-13. They can’t win on their terrible policies, so they view them as potential voters!” (source: New Yorker Magazine)

“Josh Marshall makes the unavoidable historical connection:

‘The use of the word ‘infest’ to talk about people is literally out of the Nazi/anti-Semites’ playbook for talking about the Jewish threat. It was also a standard for talking about Chinese in the western United States and it remains part of the vocabulary for talking about Romani (Gypsies) in parts of Europe. This is the most hard-boiled kind of racist demagogic language, the kind that in other parts of the world has often preceded and signaled the onset of exterminationist violence. The verb ‘to infest’ is one generally used to describe insects or vermin (rats), creatures which are literally exterminated when they become present in a house or building or neighborhood.'”

swarm

Example:  “David Cameron criticised over migrant ‘swarm’ language” (source:  BBC)

animals

Example:  “We have people coming into the country, or trying to come in — and we’re stopping a lot of them — but we’re taking people out of the country. You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people. These are animals.” (source: New York Times)

stampede

Example:  “We are not going to let this country be overwhelmed,” Sessions told the press at a Wednesday news conference. “People are not going [to] caravan or otherwise stampede our border. We need legality and integrity in the system. People should wait their turn, ask to apply lawfully before they enter our country. So we’re sending a message worldwide.” (Source: Newsweek)

 

Nature – Neutral

It is very common to use our experiences with nature to describe abstract processes. With immigration issues, I found many examples of metaphors based on trees and erosion of hills to describe these issues, including problems that have a root cause or are deep rooted, grassroots opposition to the Trump administration’s immigration policies, the erosion of national security or the danger of going down a slippery slope to beginning to take away civil rights of Americans.

deep rooted

Example:  “There are an estimated 11m-12m immigrants living in the United States illegally, most of them Latino. Many have families, jobs and property, and far deeper roots in America than in their countries of origin.” (source: The Economist)

grassroots

Example:  “From ‘angry grandmas’ to lemonade stands: How grass-roots groups stepped in to help separated families” (source: CNN)

root cause

Example:  “Letter: To curb illegal immigration, find the root cause” (source: The Chicago Tribune)

erode

Example:  “President Donald Trump’s recent tweets against open borders come as no surprise. Indeed, even fervent immigration advocates worry that open borders would lower the wages of low-skilled natives, erode national security, and overburden the social safety net.” (source: USA Today)

slippery slope

Example:  “The slippery slope of the Trump administration’s political embrace of calling MS-13 ‘animals’” (source:  The Washington Post)

 

Nature – Negative

There are also a few examples of metaphors of nature with negative connotations.  Since some immigrants come into countries illegally, they often hide from authorities and can be described as living in the shadows. The difficult social and economic problems of immigration are sometimes called thorny issues while these immigration issues can be compared to a swamp or quagmire.   Sadly, movements of immigrants into a country may be compared to a natural disaster such as an avalanche.

shadows

Example:  “Illustrations tell story of family ‘living in the shadows’ because of illegal immigration” (source:  West Palm Beach TV)

thorny

Example:  “The Thorny Economics of Illegal Immigration” (source: The Wall Street Journal)

quagmire

Example:  “Republicans caught in immigration quagmire” (source:  USimmigration.com)

avalanche

Example:  “Spain set for ‘avalanche’ of African immigrants” (source: The Local)

 

 

 

Rivers and Oceans – Neutral

Movement of people is often compared to the movement of water in rivers or oceans.  These metaphors can be both neutral or negative in their connotations.  A few neutral metaphors include having a wave, tide or steady stream of immigrants.  The word influx is of Latin origin meaning “flowing in.”  Thus we also find an influx of immigrants in news articles. We can also see a ripple effect of one event influencing another.  In this case, we see the ripple effect of immigration policies on the lives of immigrants.

wave

Example:  “The United States experienced major waves of immigration during the colonial era, the first part of the 19th century and from the 1880s to 1920.” (source: history.com)

tide

Example:  “The Deadly Cost of Turning Back the Immigration Tide” (source: the Daily Beast)

steady stream

Example:  “Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas economists estimate that immigrants and their children comprised more than half of the US workforce growth in the last 20 years and expect this group to make up an even larger percentage over the next 20 years. And, according to Pew Research Center, without a steady stream of a total of 18 million immigrants between now and 2035, the share of the US working-age population could decrease to 166 million.” (source: CNN)

influx

Example:  “Illegal Immigration Influx Continues — 50,000 Attempt Border Crossing for Second Straight Month” (source: townhall.com)

ripple effect

Example:  “The deadly ripple effect of harsh immigration policies” (source: open democracy.net)

Rivers and Oceans – Negative

We can also find examples of water movement metaphors with a negative connotation.  As we saw with an avalanche of immigrants, some metaphors compare immigrant movements to natural disasters, this time caused by rivers or oceans.   Thus, we can find examples of politicians trying to stem the flow of immigrants, being swamped or flooded by immigrants.  In an extreme example, we can also talk about a tsunami of immigrants as if they are causing great damage and destruction.

stem the flow

Example:  “TRUMP’S WALL ISN’T GOING TO STEM THE FLOW OF UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS” (source: Newsweek)

swamped

Example:  “British towns are being “swamped” by immigrants, and their residents are “under siege”, Michael Fallon, the UK defence secretary, said on Sunday.” (source: The Financial Times)

flood

Example:  “Myth No. 1: Undocumented immigrants are flooding into the United States”  (source: The Washington Post)

tsunami

Example:  “Immigration crisis: Official: ‘A tsunami of people crossing the border’” (source: Fox News)

*******

The obvious question is why people have such negative attitudes towards immigrants. In the United States, everyone except Native Americans is an immigrant.  And yet some politicians, themselves with immigrant backgrounds, set policies restricting movement of immigrants into the country.  The usual explanation is that these immigrants are coming into the country illegally whereas their ancestors came legally. However, most immigrants would come legally if the laws were not so restrictive.  Almost all migrants go to another country to escape persecution, economic crisis or to create a better life for themselves and their children. My own Irish ancestors came to the United States after the potato famine in Ireland during which thousands of people died from starvation.  Many modern immigrants coming into the United States are escaping wars in Central America while those going into Europe and the United Kingdom are escaping brutal conflicts in the Middle East.  Who can blame them for trying to survive? I would hope that modern governments accept immigrants into their countries with the same compassion and understanding that was extended to our ancestors.

 

Moats around the Protected

Figurative Language, Metaphors, Politics, Rhetoric, , , , , ,

Hello folks!

Sorry it has been so long since my last post.  I have been busy with work projects, home repairs and family events.  I have also had several technical problems with the blog. I almost had it shut down twice because of bugs and “exceeding my inode usage.” WTH!? But, I am back on track, at least for now.

I am writing to share a brilliant article by Steven Brill in a recent Time magazine called “How My Generation Broke America,” an excerpt from his new book, Tailspin: The People and Forces Behind America’s Fifty-Year Fall, and Those Fighting to Reverse It.

You can read the article in print by Steven Brill, “How My Generation Broke America” inTime, May 28, 2018, pp. 32 – 39. You can also find it online  here under the slightly different title, “How Baby Boomers Broke America.”

Not only is it a very insightful article about the rise of inequality in the United States in the last few decades, it is also chock-full of colorful metaphors.  For example, in one section, he is describing how the most affluent people in the country were trying to become even more wealthy, “…they were able to consolidate their winnings, outsmart and coopt the forces that might have reined them in, and pull up the ladderso more could not share in their success or challenge their primacy.” “By continuing to get better at what they do, knocking away the guardrails limiting their winnings, aggressively engineeringchanges in the political landscape, and by dint of the often unanticipated consequences of their innovations, they created a nation of moatsthat protected them from accountability and from the damage their triumphs caused in the larger community” [italics added].

Wow!  My head is spinning from the wild combination of metaphors. Of course, as readers of this blog well know, we speak in this fashion all the time without even thinking about it.

Allow me to unpack these metaphors and a few others to try to make send of it all. As usual, the quotations are all directly from the article.  I have added italics to highlight the metaphors.

animals and insects

We commonly create metaphors based on our experiences with insects and animals. Two metaphors of horses are represented here, that of a gallopinghorse or using reinsto stop a horse.  Metaphorically, something that is gallopingis moving at a fast pace, usually with the sense that the horse or the situation is a bit out of control.  Having to rein something inalso indicates that the problem is dangerous and needs to be controlled.  A final example from the insect world compares the hundreds of lobbyists in Washington DC to a swarmof bees.

galloping

Example:  “How did the world’s greatest democracy and economy become a land of crumbling roads, gallopingincome inequality, bitter polarization and dysfunctional government?”

rein them in

Example:  “Then, in a way unprecedented in history, they were able to consolidate their winnings, outsmart and co-opt the forces that might have reinedthem in, and pull up the ladders so more could not share in their success or challenge their primacy.”

swarming lobbyists

Example:  “Indeed, money has come to dominate everything so completely that the people we send to D.C. to represent us have been reduced to begging on the phone for campaign cash up to five hours a day and spending their evenings taking checks at fundraisers organized by those swarminglobbyists.”

 

machines

            Metaphors based on machines are commonly created because of our experiences with automobiles, household appliances or power tools. Here we find examples of the engineof a vehicle being compared to the processes that stimulate the economy.  Similarly, when the engineis not working well, it may sputteras it struggles to find the right gas and air mixture. Metaphorically, a sputtering engineindicates a process that is not working correctly.  Also, machines must be designed or engineeredby someone.  Thus, we can speak metaphorically about a process or economic system that is engineeredby politicians.

engine

Example:  “Ingenious financial and legal engineeringturned our economy from an engineof long-term growth and shared prosperity into a casino with only a few big winners.”

A Rolls Royce aircraft engine

engine is sputtering

Example:  “Meanwhile, the celebrated American economic-mobility engine is sputtering.”

engineering

Example:  “By continuing to get better at what they do, by knocking away the guardrails limiting their winnings, aggressively engineeringchanges in the political landscape, and by dint of the often unanticipated consequences of their innovations, they created a nation of moats that protected them from accountability and from the damage their triumphs caused in the larger community.”

physical forces

            We often create metaphors based on our experiences with using the strength of our own bodies to move objects. Here we find examples of bringing down,undercutting, squeezing, blocking, pushing aside, pushing back, breakingorcrashingsomething. In each case we see that an abstract process is compared to a physical action.  In another common metaphor, we talk about riggingsomething.  The original meaning is derived from the process of tying ropes to sails on a ship. A subsequent meaning implied that the riggingwas some sort of trick that could be played on someone.  The metaphor of riggingis commonly used in politics to indicate an unfair system or process.

bring America down

Example:  “About five decades ago, the core values that make America great began to bring America down.”

undercutting democracy

Example:  “Election reforms meant to enhance democracy wound up undercuttingdemocracy.”

squeezing out every penny

Example:  “Most Americans with average incomes have been left to fend for themselves, often at jobs where automation, outsourcing, the decline of union protection and the boss’s obsession with squeezing out every pennyof short-term profit have eroded any sense of security.”

block

Example:  “America’s rightly celebrated dedication to due process was used as an instrument to blockgovernment from enforcing job-safety rules, holding corporate criminals accountable and otherwise protecting the unprotected.”

broken America

Example:  “For them, the new, brokenAmerica works fine, at least in the short term.”

crashed the economy

Example:  “There may be no more flagrant example of the achievers’ triumph than how they were able to avoid accountability when the banks they ran crashedthe economy.”

push aside, pushback

Example:  “Thus, the breakdown came when their intelligence, daring, creativity and resources enabled them to push asideany effort to rein them in. They did what comes naturally – they kept winning. And they did it with the protection of an alluring, defensible narrative that shielded them from pushback, at least initially.”

rigged

Example:  “A gerrymandering process has riggedeasy wins for most of them, as long as they fend off primary challengers…”

journeys

            There is a single, extraordinary example of a journey metaphor that I have never heard before. Metaphors of traveling are very common in political speeches but less common in articles and books.  In this case, Brill describes the process of the wealthy making decisions as a comparison to driving along a dangerous road without guardrails.

knocking away the guardrails

Example:  “By continuing to get better at what they do, by knocking away the guardrails limiting their winnings, aggressively engineering changes in the political landscape, and by dint of the often unanticipated consequences of their innovations, they created a nation of moats…”

airplanes

Metaphors of cars, ships and airplanes are also very common in descriptions of American politics.  In this article, Brill uses several colorful examples. The title of his new book, Tailspin, is an example from aviation in which an out-of-control plane spins downward to a horrible crash. Metaphorically, to say something is in a tailspinindicates that it is about to crash. In some cases, the crew of a crashing plane can eject or bail outfrom the plane before it crashes. The phrase bail outcan be used to describe the process when people get out of situation before it totally falls apart. Finally, a phrase from the early days of jet airplanes is used here as well. Test pilots who flew planes at maximum speeds to test new jets in the 1950s were said to be pushing the envelope.  Metaphorically, to push the envelopemeans that people are trying new and dangerous ways of doing something.

tailspin

Example:  “The story of America’s tailspinis not about villains, though there are some.”

bail out

Example:  “The recovery from the crash of 2008 – which saw banks and bankers bailed outwhile millions lost their homes, savings and jobs – was reserved almost exclusively for the wealthiest.”

push the envelope

Example:  “As the financial engineers continued to push the envelopewith ever-riskier versions of the original invention, they crashed the economy.”

military

Military metaphors are very common in political campaigns as candidates battle against each other to win an elected office. They also appear occasionally in other writings about politics.  There are a few choice examples here including the usual metaphors of battlesand battalions.  There is also an example of a shieldmetaphor.  Of course, shieldswere wooden or metal objects used to ward off weapon attacks during battles.  Metaphorically, we use the term shieldto indicate any process of warding off verbal or procedural attacks in modern politics.  Another interesting metaphor commonly used by Brill to describe the protected wealthy class is being entrenched.  The word trenchoriginally meant a ditch built in a battlefield to protect the soldiers from bullets or bombs from enemies across from them, as in the famous trenchesof World War I.  Being entrenchedmeant that you were in a trenchand safe from harm.  Metaphorically, people being entrenchedare safe in their political or social positions.  Here, Brill implies that the privileged few are safe from attacks from the public or politicians; in fact he refers to them as the entrenched meritocracyor the entrenched aristocracy.

battle

Example:  “In a battlethat began a half-century ago, the achievers won.”

battalions, weaponize

Example:  “Regulatory agencies were overwhelmed by battalionsof lawyers who brilliantly weaponizedthe bedrock American value of due process so that, for example, an Occupational Safety and Health Administration rule protecting workers from a deadly chemical could be challenged and delayed for more than a decade and end up being hundreds of pages long.”

shield

Example:  “Thus, the breakdown came when their intelligence, daring, creativity and resources enabled them to push aside any effort to rein them in. They did what comes naturally – they kept winning. And they did it with the protection of an alluring, defensible narrative that shieldedthem from pushback, at least initially.”

entrenched

Example:  “Daniel Markovits, who specializes in the intersection of law and behavioral economics, told the class of 2015 that their success getting accepted into, and getting a degree from, the country’s most selective law school actually marked their entry into a newly entrenchedaristocracy that had been snuffing out the American Dream for almost everyone else.”

business

            There are also a few metaphors from the business world.  Brill likens the financial gains of the privileged class as winningsfrom a lottery or a casino.  He directly refers to their gaming of the economic system as a casino.  More pointedly, he also refers to the process of the wealthy people as putting their thumb on the scales.  This phrase refers to the old trick of a store clerk secretly pressing down on a scale while measuring the weight of meat, flour, sugar or other items, thus increasing its weight and price. Here Brill claims that the protected class is putting their thumbs on the scale of democracy.

winnings

Example:  “It’s the protected vs. the unprotected, the common good vs. maximizing and protecting the elite winners’ winnings.”

casino

Example:  “Ingenious financial and legal engineering turned our economy from an engine of long-term growth and shared prosperity into a casinowith only a few big winners.”

put a thumb on the scales

Example:  “The First Amendment became a tool for the wealthy to put a thumb on the scalesof democracy.”

food

Eating food is always a rich source of metaphors. Here we find two interesting examples. Brill compares the protected class grabbing the vast majority of the wealth in this country for the past several decades to gluttonsas if they are eating vast quantities of food.  In a rather unusual metaphor that I have not seen before, Brill also compares the immediate profit-gaining Wall Street trades to getting a sugar high.  As we know, eating a large amount of sugar may feel good for a while, but then when the sugar wears off, the person will feel very sick.  Similarly, a short-term profit may be good for some investors but may have serious consequences later.

gluttons

Example:  “It may be understandable for those on the losing side of this triumph of the achievers to condemn the winners as gluttons.”

sugar highs

Example:  “They created exotic, and risky, financial instruments, including derivatives and credit default swaps, that produced sugar highsof immediate profits but separated those taking the risk from those who would bear the consequences.”

buildings

            The English language contains many metaphors based on our experiences with buildings and the lands surrounding them.  In another extraordinary metaphor, Brill compares the wealthy protecting their earnings to medieval kings who built moatsaround their castles to protect them from attack. He also uses a more modern sense of changing the political landscapein the same way that people change the landscapingaround their homes.

In yet another unusual metaphor, he talks about the wealthy pulling up the ladder.  This action has several different origins.  I first heard this expression many years ago in my anthropology classes. Native American peoples of the American Southwest often built homes into the sides of cliffs.  Some of the entrances were so high, they could only be reached by ladder.  In cases of attacks by other tribes, they could pull up the ladderso that no one could reach their homes.  There are also uses of this phrase from ships and planes. In the case where large ships could not anchor close to shore, sailors (or pirates?) had to paddle out to the ship on small boats.  When they reached the ship they had to climb a ladder to get on board.  The last person to get on the ship pulled up the laddersince it was no longer needed. During World War II, some of the large bombers also had doorways into the planes that could only be reached by climbing up a ladder.  Similarly, the last person to board the planepulled up the ladderbehind him.  Metaphorically, the phrase has a sinister sense, perhaps from the ship situation, in which pulling up the laddermeant that no one else could come aboard, thereby stranding other people or leaving them behind. Thus, pulling up the ladderindeed means leaving people behind who are not able to enjoy what other people have achieved.

Finally, another phrase of laying the groundworkhas its origins in planning a building excavation.  Metaphorically, it indicates the start of a new process or procedure. Here Brill suggests that there is some hope in the country getting back on track and ending the mass inequality that exists in the United States today.

moats

Example:  “…they created a nation of moats that protected them from accountability and from the damage their triumphs caused in the larger community.”

landscape

Example:  “By continuing to get better at what they do, by knocking away the guardrails limiting their winnings, aggressively engineering changes in the political landscape.”

pulled up the ladder

Example:  “Then, in a way unprecedented in history, they were able to consolidate their winnings, outsmart and co-opt the forces that might have reined them in, and pull up the ladder so more could not share in their success or challenge their primacy.”

 

 

laying the groundwork

Example:  “They are laying the groundworkfor the feeling of disgust to be channeled into a restoration.”

*****

This article by Steven Brill illustrates how many colorful metaphors can help describe and explain complex political situations.  Although the state of the union is pretty scary given the vast amount of income inequality in the United States today, I share the hope of the author that perhaps the American people can fight back and take the thumb off the scales of democracy.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^

gallop, rein, swarm, engine, sputtering engine, engineer, bring America down, undercut democracy, squeeze, block, broken America, crashed economy, push aside, pushback, rigged, knock away guardrails, tailspin, bail out, push the envelope, battle, battalions, weaponize, shield, entrenched, winnings, casino, put a thumb on the scales, glutton, sugar high, moat, landscape, pull up the ladder, lay the groundwork

 

 

Seasons and Light

Figurative Language, Media, Metaphors, Politics, Rhetoric, , , , , , , , ,

With the change back to normal time from daylights savings time today, I thought it might be “time” to look back at a few metaphors about the changing of seasons and the amount of sunlight we enjoy in the summer and miss in the fall and winter. I was also remiss in not noting metaphors of the word eclipse as we experienced the amazing solar eclipse this past summer. Here are a few metaphors of seasons, sunlight, moonlight and eclipses.

seasoned

Most temperate climates have four seasons: spring, summer, fall and winter. Each of these seasons has its own set of metaphorical qualities. Spring is associated with life and new growth; summer is related to nice weather and easy living; fall or autumn is associated with life becoming more difficult or the end of one’s life; winter is connected to death and decay. Someone who is described as being seasoned is someone who has lived for many years and has gained a great deal of knowledge in his or her lifetime.

Example:   In the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump was fairly new to politics, but Hillary Clinton was a seasoned political veteran.

spring

Example: In 2011, many countries in North Africa and the Middle East experienced revolutions. These changes in government are known as the Arab Spring.

 

 

nuclear winter

Example: During the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union, a nuclear war would have killed everyone at the site of the war. This would have created a nuclear winter.

autumn

Example: President Ronald Reagan spent his autumn years on his ranch in California before passing away in 2004.

election season

Example: In many countries, elections only take a few weeks or months. In the United States, the election season for presidential elections lasts almost two years.

sunny

The concept of the light provided by the sun is involved in many English metaphors. Literally, a day is sunny if the sun is shining brightly. Metaphorically, a person or a situation can be sunny if the person is happy or the situation seems to be going well.

Example: After the 2008 financial crisis, most Americans hoped for sunny predictions for a quick economic recovery but the recession lasted for years after that.

sunlight, sunshine

The ideas of sunlight or sunshine can be used metaphorically to indicate that a situation is good or that a dark situation is made more clear. It is well known that bright sunlight can kill germs or disinfect a surface that might have germs. Thus we have an unusual phrase that sunlight is the best disinfectant which carries a metaphorical meaning that uncovering and discussing a problem is the best way to solve it.

Example: When it came to the Watergate scandal of the early 1970s, sunlight was the best disinfectant on President Nixon’s questionable practices at the Watergate Hotel.

shine

The word shine as an intransitive verb indicates the action of an object that gives off light such as the sun, moon or stars. However, people can also shine metaphorically if they do something to the best of their abilities.

Example: Although not many people knew Sarah Palin before 2007, John McCain choosing her as his running mate allowed her to shine on a national stage.

dawn of a new day

Dawn is the time that the sun first rises in the morning and shines light on a person’s part of the world. The phrase dawn of a new day indicates that a new time period is beginning usually with a positive connotation.

Example: When Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, many Americans thought it was the dawn of a new day for progressive reforms in government. However, the lack of progress in Congress in his first term left the country with many of the same problems as the previous decades.

dawn on

Metaphorically, the phrase to dawn on means to realize something as if it is the first time that an idea comes into a person’s head.

Example: For most Americans, the idea that the United States could be attacked by terrorists seemed impossible until September 11, 2001 when it dawned on them that it was indeed possible.

on the horizon

The horizon is the line between the sky and the land from the perspective of wherever one is looking at a distance. Metaphorically, a horizon indicates anything that is possible in the future.

Example: During the start of an economic downturn, most Americans realize that are probably going to be many budget cuts and job losses on the horizon.

rainbow coalition

A rainbow is a pattern of all colors of light in an arc across the sky after a rainstorm. The concept of many colors together is used metaphorically to indicate many different races of people working together. A coalition is a group of people who work together for a common cause. Many countries have such groups called rainbow coalitions.

Example: The Reverend Jesse Jackson’s social activism group of many races working together is called the Rainbow Coalition.

dark

In contrast to the positive connotations of sunlight, darkness has many negative connotations such as evil, illegal activity or unethical behavior.

Example: During the Great Depression of the 1930s, there were many dark days for Americans who could not find work or afford to feed their families.

shadows

When sunlight hits an object, a dark shadow is cast behind it. Metaphorically, a shadow indicates the dark part of a person or situation, often meaning secretive or illegal activities.

Example: Americans do not like it when their elected officials make deals in the shadows. Government work should be done in the light of day when everyone can see what is going on.

shadowy figures

People whose identities or behavior is unknown may be called shadowy figures especially if they are suspected of illegal or unethical behavior.

Example: Osama bin Laden was known for years as a shadowy figure before he began his terrorist attacks on the United States.

moonlight

The moon is the subject of many stories and myths in every culture around the world. Doing something in the moonlight indicates that it is not completely clear what is happening. However, moonlight is used most often as a verbal metaphor indicating that someone is working at night, usually doing a second or third job in addition to one’s day job.

Example: People who have jobs with low wages often moonlight in other occupations in order to earn enough money to pay their bills.

eclipse

An eclipse is a rare phenomenon when the earth passes directly between the sun and the moon (a lunar eclipse) or when the moon passes directly between the sun and the earth (a solar eclipse) temporarily blocking out the light of the sun. In metaphorical terms, a person, group or action that becomes more important that the previous one may be called an eclipse.

Example: Voter turnout by minorities in the 2008 presidential election eclipsed all other elections up to that point.

*******

Stay tuned for more metaphors of the fall!  Thanks for reading!

 

Metaphors of Truthiness, Part 2

Figurative Language, Media, Metaphors, Politics, Rhetoric, , , , , , , , , , ,

Today I continue Part 2 of my analysis of metaphors in a brilliant new article about facts and opinions in the latest issue of The Atlantic magazine by Kurt Andersen. (Mr. Andersen, by the way, will be a guest on the Bill Maher show this coming Friday.) This time I will analyze the conceptual metaphors of vision, objects, clothing, balance and gravity, science, buildings, movement and literary references.

Vision

Since we experience the world through our five senses, it is not surprising that we find metaphors of vision in many articles on politics. Andersen claims that being sane or insane is not a binary choice; rather we are on a spectrum somewhere between the two extremes, as if we are on a light spectrum representing all colors. Seeing reality clearly is very important. Metaphorically, not seeing clearly is referred to as blurring the lines, as if our vision is failing. In an unusual metaphor, Andersen also refers to these unclear lines as if they are obscured by smog on a city skyline.

spectrum

Example: “Each of us is on a spectrum somewhere between the poles of rational and irrational.”

blur the lines

Example: “Today, each of us is freer than ever to custom-make reality, to believe whatever and pretend to be whoever we wish. Which makes all the lines between actual and fictional blur and disappear more easily. Truth in general becomes flexible, personal, subjective.”

smog

Example: “The intellectuals’ new outlook was as much a product as a cause of the smog of subjectivity that now hung thick over the whole American mindscape. After the ’60s, truth was relative, criticizing was equal to victimizing, individual liberty became absolute, and everyone was permitted to believe or disbelieve whatever they wished.”

 

Objects

One of the most confusing types of metaphors to explain is the type in which an abstract concept is treated as if it is a physical object. In yet another way to describe people with crazy behavior is to say that they are untethered from reality. The word tether originally meant a rope to secure an animal on a farm. Later it was also used to describe a line used to secure a blimp to its mooring. In any case, someone who is untethered from reality is clearly disconnected from a position of safety or control. We also describe unusual or illegal behavior as if it is an object that can be hidden from view. Thus we have the metaphorical phrase of a cover up. Social events or services can also be described as having an upside or a downside as if we are looking at an object from a certain point of view. In an unusual metaphor, Andersen describes the contours of reality as if it is a round object with a particular shape to be studied. Finally, another strange but common way to describe crazy behavior is to say that people are loopy, as if their body is in the form of metal loops that never quite line up to a complete circle.

untethered

Example: “When did America become untethered from reality?”

cover up

Example: “The infiltration by the FBI and intelligence agencies of left-wing groups was then being revealed, and the Watergate break-in and its cover-up were an actual criminal conspiracy.”

downside, upside

Example: “Particularly for a people with our history and propensities, the downside of the Internet seems at least as profound as the upside.”

contours of reality

Example: “Today I disagree about political issues with friends and relatives to my right, but we agree on the essential contours of reality.”

loopy

Example: “Another way the GOP got loopy was by overdoing libertarianism.”

 

Clothing

It is always interesting to see metaphors of clothing in popular English writing. One common way of describing people whose behavior is well outside social norms is to say they are on the fringe of society. There is even a common phrase of the lunatic fringe to describe these people. The term fringe originally meant the decorative hem or border of a piece of clothing. Spatially, normal people are in the middle of the article of clothing, while people with unusual behavior are on the fringe. Similarly, intact clothing is considered normal while clothing with fraying or unraveling threads is considered abnormal. Thus, people can be described as unraveling as if they are threads on an old shirt.

General Armstrong Custer’s buckskin jacket with fringe

fringe

Example: “The old fringes have been folded into the new center. The irrational has become respectable and often unstoppable.”

unravel

Example: “I wonder whether it’s only America’s destiny, exceptional as ever, to unravel in this way.”

 

 

 

Balance and Gravity

As humans, we are well aware of our sense of balance. Otherwise we would not be able to walk or even stand up straight. Thus, it is not surprising that we have conceptual metaphors based on the idea of balance. In Andersen’s article we find the concept applied to both mental and political stability in the United States. He speaks of the balance, seesawing, tipping and the center of gravity.

balance

Example: “For most of our history, the impulses existed in a rough balance, a dynamic equilibrium between fantasy and reality, mania and moderation, credulity and skepticism.”

seesaw

Example: “We still seemed to be in the midst of the normal cyclical seesawing of American politics. In the ’90s, the right achieved two of its wildest dreams: The Soviet Union and international communism collapsed; and, as violent crime radically declined, law and order was restored.”

center of gravity

Example: “The party’s ideological center of gravity swerved way to the right of Rove and all the Bushes, finally knocking them and their clubmates aside. What had been the party’s fantastical fringe became its middle.”

tip

Example: “I really can imagine, for the first time in my life, that America has permanently tipped into irreversible decline, heading deeper into Fantasyland.”

 

Science

Although less common than other metaphors seen here, our experience with science lessons in high school or college allows us to use metaphors of scientific tools or phenomenon.   For example, a crucible is a small porcelain pot used for melting materials in a lab. Metaphorically, a crucible is a social situation in which great changes are happening. In biology, cell walls are not totally closed; rather they are permeable, meaning fluids can pass through the cell membranes. Metaphorically, borders between opposing ideas can also be permeable instead of fixed. In science, substances that are poisonous to plants, animals or humans are considered toxic. We use this same term to describe any event or situation that is harmful to the people involved. Scientists are sometimes engineers who create new inventions or design new projects. Metaphorically, we can speak of people engineering political situations to their advantage. Finally, Andersen includes a wonderful scientific metaphor (grammatically a simile) that compares the Christian dominance of right-wing politicians as the chemical change of phase from liquid to gas!

crucible

Example: “Treating real life as fantasy and vice versa, and taking preposterous ideas seriously, is not unique to Americans. But we are the global crucible and epicenter.”

permeable

Example: “The borders between fiction and nonfiction are permeable, maybe nonexistent. The delusions of the insane, superstitions, and magical thinking? Any of those may be as legitimate as the supposed truths contrived by Western reason and science.”

toxic

Example: “Those earnest beliefs planted more seeds for the extravagant American conspiracy thinking that by the turn of the century would be rampant and seriously toxic.”

engineer

Example: “I doubt the GOP elite deliberately engineered the synergies between the economic and religious sides of their contemporary coalition. But as the incomes of middle- and working-class people flatlined, Republicans pooh-poohed rising economic inequality and insecurity.”

a phase from liquid to gas

Example: “The Christian takeover happened gradually, but then quickly in the end, like a phase change from liquid to gas. In 2008, three-quarters of the major GOP presidential candidates said they believed in evolution, but in 2012 it was down to a third, and then in 2016, just one did.”

 

Buildings

As I have demonstrated many times in this blog, the concept of buildings is used to create very common metaphors in politics. In a very specific metaphor concerning door hinges, a door cannot swing open or closed properly unless it is correctly hinged to the doorframe. Metaphorically, someone who is unhinged is considered crazy as if they are not properly attached to reality. More commonly, the idea of old buildings that are crumbling or need to be torn down is used metaphorically to describe the changing of social ideas or political institutions.

unhinged

Example: “Left-wingers weren’t the only ones who became unhinged. Officials at the FBI, the CIA, and military intelligence agencies, as well as in urban police departments, convinced themselves that peaceful antiwar protesters and campus lefties in general were dangerous militants.”

crumbling

Example: “The distinction between opinion and fact was crumbling on many fronts.”

torn down

Example: “The problem is that Republicans have purposefully torn down the validating institutions,” the political journalist Josh Barro, a Republican until 2016, wrote last year. “They have convinced voters that the media cannot be trusted; they have gotten them used to ignoring inconvenient facts about policy; and they have abolished standards of discourse.”

 

Movement

We also have experience traveling in or driving vehicles such as cars or boats. A boat without power or a rudder will be out of control and drift with the current of a river or ocean. Metaphorically, any gradual movement that does not seem to be controlled may be described as a drift. A car or truck out of control may go off course or careen off the road. Metaphorically, any process that seems to be out of control may be described as careening instead of going in a straight line. A vehicle with a lot of power and zoom along at a high speed, while one that runs out of gas may sputter out and stop moving. Processes observed over a long time may also be described as zooming or sputtering out. Other vehicles with a great deal of mass, such as freight trains, may have trouble stopping after traveling at a high rate of speed because of its momentum.   Metaphorically, a process that seems to have a great deal of success may be described as having unstoppable momentum.

drift

Example: “But our drift toward credulity, toward doing our own thing, toward denying facts and having an altogether uncertain grip on reality, has overwhelmed our other exceptional national traits and turned us into a less developed country.”

careen

Example: “As the Vietnam War escalated and careened, antirationalism flowered.”

zoom, sputter out

Example: “As the pioneer vehicle, the John Birch Society zoomed along and then sputtered out, but its fantastical paradigm and belligerent temperament has endured in other forms and under other brand names.”

unstoppable momentum

Example: “The idea that progress has some kind of unstoppable momentum, as if powered by a Newtonian law, was always a very American belief.”

 

Literary references

In rare cases, we can find metaphors based on famous books or movies. Once in a while, we find people comparing strange behavior to the antics of the characters in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. In that story, Alice transforms herself by looking in a mirror and gets lost by chasing a rabbit down a hole. Metaphorically, passing through the looking glass or going down the rabbit hole are indicative of going into a fantasy instead of staying in reality. In a second example from the book and movie, The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy puts her faith in a magical wizard behind a curtain. However, she accidentally finds out that the wizard is simply an ordinary man. Metaphorically, a person who is not who people think he or she is may be described as the Wizard of Oz coming out from behind the curtain.

through the looking glass, down the rabbit hole

Example: “We have passed through the looking glass and down the rabbit hole. America has mutated into Fantasyland.”

Wizard of Oz

Example: “Karl Rove was stone-cold cynical, the Wizard of Oz’s evil twin coming out from behind the curtain for a candid chat shortly before he won a second term for George W. Bush, about how ‘judicious study of discernible reality [is] … not the way the world really works anymore.’”

*******

As one can see, there is a great variety of metaphors we can use to describe the changing belief systems in people, and how those belief systems influence voting decisions. Kurt Andersen’s excellent article reveals the complexity of our English language usage of both common and unique metaphors. Thanks for reading!

Metaphors of Truthiness, Part 1

Figurative Language, Media, Metaphors, Politics, Rhetoric, , , , , , , , ,

Back in 2005, the comedian Stephen Colbert coined a new word, truthiness, meaning the truth of something that people feel in their gut instead of their mind. At the time, he was in the character of his alter ego, a conservative politician, who was parodying some of the comments of the Bush administration. However, the word has caught on, and now it has been used in a wide variety of situations in which people seem to have their own versions of the truth, much to the consternation of politicians and journalists. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the late senator from New York, famously said, “You are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.”

In a brilliant article in the latest issue of The Atlantic magazine entitled “How American Lost its Mind” (September, 2017, pp. 76-91), Kurt Andersen details the growth of what he calls Fantasyland, the phenomenon of people all across America believing in statements and events that have very little basis in reality. Not surprisingly, he points to many half-truths spoken by Donald Trump (he cites one study which claims that Trump’s statements were found to be lies 50% of the time), or the “alternative facts” of his spokesperson Kellyanne Conway. However, it is not only those on the right who are guilty of living in Fantasyland. He notes people on the far left also believe in 9/11 conspiracy theories, that extraterrestrials have visited the earth, and that vaccines cause autism, despite a lack of evidence that any of these claims are true. In fact, Andersen provides a lengthy history of this phenomenon that includes Americans from all walks of life, tracing it all the way back to the Esalen Institute and counterculture movements of the 1960s, the Watergate conspiracy theories of the 1970s, the Reagan era, Clinton foibles, and the latest Trump political machinations.

As a linguist, I am fascinated by this phenomenon for two reasons. For one, linguists are normally concerned with the rhetoric or metaphors of political speeches designed to persuade an audience to agree with or vote for that speaker. However, in the case of Andersen’s Fantasyland, it is interesting to think of what the listeners are understanding rather than what the speaker is saying. Normally, we do not have the privilege of knowing what is truly going on in the minds of voters. The details that Andersen provides in his article shed light on the mind-sets of many Americans. Secondly, I am also fascinated by the metaphors used to describe this phenomenon. It is well known that we use a wide variety of metaphors to describe people who are allegedly crazy such as being batty, loopy, a few cards short of a deck, etc. However, I was amazed to see how many different metaphors Andersen used to describe other aspects of this truthiness phenomenon including conceptual metaphors from animals, nature, humans, family, farming, cooking, science, balance, vision, clothing, objects, movement, buildings, and literary references.

Today I include several examples from each type of metaphor. However, since I found such an incredible variety of metaphors, I will have to split this blog post into two parts. I will provide the second part of the post in about a week. As usual, the quotations are taken directly from the article. Some quotes are repeated in different categories if they have two or more types of metaphors. Italics are mine.

Animals and Arachnids

It is very common to create metaphors based on our common experience with animals, insects and arachnids. Andersen uses some colorful metaphors to describe various aspects of the phenomenon of people holding unusual beliefs. In one case, he describes some of these people as being batty, a metaphor perhaps based on the erratic flying motion of bats or the correlated metaphor of having bats in your belfry. He also describes certain groups working together as being a spider web of people or other groups of people as rabble, a Middle English word meaning a pack of wild animals. Anderson quotes Donald Trump reviving an old myth that Bill and Hillary Clinton had something to do with the apparent suicide of their colleague Vince Foster, calling it fishy. Finally, he describes the situation of Americans experiencing this Fantasyland phenomenon as being canaries in a coal mine since canaries were used in coalmines to detect poisonous gases. If they suddenly died, it was a warning to the mineworkers to get out of the mine as fast as possible.

batty

Example: “The Reagan presidency was famously a triumph of truthiness and entertainment, and in the 1990s, as problematically batty beliefs kept going mainstream, presidential politics continued merging with the fantasy-industrial complex.”

web

Example: “Within a few decades, the belief that a web of villainous elites was covertly seeking to impose a malevolent global regime made its way from the lunatic right to the mainstream.”

rabble rouser

Example: “But over the past few decades, a lot of the rabble they roused came to believe all the untruths.”

fishy

Example: “He revived the 1993 fantasy about the Clintons’ friend Vince Foster—his death, Trump said, was ‘very fishy,’…”

canary in a coal mine

Example: “I wonder whether it’s only America’s destiny, exceptional as ever, to unravel in this way. Or maybe we’re just early adopters, the canaries in the global mine, and Canada and Denmark and Japan and China and all the rest will eventually follow us down our tunnel.”

 

Nature

Other aspects of nature are also commonly used to create conceptual metaphors. Andersen’s article contains quite a few of these as well. A common metaphor from nature is to call a new social trend as a grassroots movement, as if the people are growing like grass in one’s yard. Roots of trees are also used metaphorically to indicate the origins of certain phenomena. In this case, Andersen talks about the taproots of certain kinds of prejudice in America. Another common nature metaphor is to talk about a trend as if it is a person sliding down a hill or a slippery slope. There are also quite a few examples of river metaphors: popular media is referred to as mainstream, as if it is flowing in the middle of a river; social trends may flow out from a source; there might be tidal surges of new social constructs knocking down the flood walls, while there may be efforts to slow the flood or repair the levees to stop the damage, and there may be a cascade of false beliefs creating a pool in which people surf and swim. Finally, there is a nice contrastive pair of metaphors, comparing the darkness of winter to the light of spring and hope for a better future.

grassroots movement

Example: “We must call out the dangerously untrue and unreal. A grassroots movement against one kind of cultural squishiness has taken off and lately reshaped our national politics—the opposition to political correctness. I envision a comparable struggle that insists on distinguishing between the factually true and the blatantly false.”

taproot

Example: “Trump launched his political career by embracing a brand-new conspiracy theory twisted around two American taproots—fear and loathing of foreigners and of nonwhites.”

slippery slopes

Example: “There are many slippery slopes, leading in various directions to other exciting nonsense. During the past several decades, those naturally slippery slopes have been turned into a colossal and permanent complex of interconnected, crisscrossing bobsled tracks, which Donald Trump slid down right into the White House.”

mainstream

Example: “The word mainstream has recently become a pejorative, shorthand for bias, lies, oppression by the elites.”

flow out

Example: “Conservatives are correct that the anything-goes relativism of college campuses wasn’t sequestered there, but when it flowed out across America it helped enable extreme Christianities and lunacies on the right—gun-rights hysteria, black-helicopter conspiracism, climate-change denial, and more.”

tidal surge, flood walls

In this case, Andersen is describing the work of Charles Reich, a 1970 book on counterculture called The Greening of America.

Example: “His wishful error was believing that once the tidal surge of new sensibility brought down the flood walls, the waters would flow in only one direction, carving out a peaceful, cooperative, groovy new continental utopia, hearts and minds changed like his, all of America Berkeleyized and Vermontified.”

slow the flood, repair the levees

Example: “But I think we can slow the flood, repair the levees, and maybe stop things from getting any worse.”

cascade, surf, swim

Example: “False beliefs were rendered both more real-seeming and more contagious, creating a kind of fantasy cascade in which millions of bedoozled Americans surfed and swam.”

winter, light

Example: “Even as we’ve entered this long winter of foolishness and darkness, when too many Americans are losing their grip on reason and reality, it has been an epoch of astonishing hope and light as well.”

 

Farming

I found it fascinating that Andersen often describes the growth of different belief systems as if they were crops growing on a farm. He claims that the beliefs were like seeds that flowered or sprouted into new social movements. He describes a case for the Esalen Institute, a pioneering New Age center in California in the 1960s, as a hotbed of ideas, as if they were plants growing in a greenhouse. In a common fruit metaphor, he describes some conservatives as cherry-picking libertarian policies to suit their needs, as if these policies were ripe cherries. Finally, Andersen claims that some of Donald Trump’s ideas are hogwash, named for the leftover food scraps given to hogs on the farm.

seeds

Example: “Those earnest beliefs planted more seeds for the extravagant American conspiracy thinking that by the turn of the century would be rampant and seriously toxic.”

flower

Example: “As the Vietnam War escalated and careened, antirationalism flowered.”

sprout

Example: “Conspiracy theories were more of a modern right-wing habit before people on the left signed on. However, the belief that the federal government had secret plans to open detention camps for dissidents sprouted in the ’70s on the paranoid left before it became a fixture on the right.”

hotbed

Example: “Esalen’s founders were big Laing fans, and the institute became a hotbed for the idea that insanity was just an alternative way of perceiving reality.”

cherry-pick

Example: “Republicans are very selective, cherry-picking libertarians: Let business do whatever it wants and don’t spoil poor people with government handouts; let individuals have gun arsenals but not abortions or recreational drugs or marriage with whomever they wish; and don’t mention Ayn Rand’s atheism.”

hogwash

Example: “During the campaign, Trump repeated the falsehood that vaccines cause autism. And instead of undergoing a normal medical exam from a normal doctor and making the results public, like nominees had before, Trump went on The Dr. Oz Show and handed the host test results from his wacky doctor. Did his voters know that his hogwash was hogwash?”

 

Cooking

Perhaps correlating with the farm metaphors are a few examples of cooking metaphors. In a common way to describe an unreasonable idea or person, Andersen describes them as being half-baked, as if it is a loaf of bread not quite ready to come out of the oven.   He also provides a wonderful metaphor based on a cup of tea – steeping the tea bag in water, letting the smells and vapors permeate the room.

half-baked

Example: “That is, they inspired half-baked and perverse followers in the academy, whose arguments filtered out into the world at large: All approximations of truth, science as much as any fable or religion, are mere stories devised to serve people’s needs or interests.”

steep, vapors

Example: “The right has had three generations to steep in this, its taboo vapors wafting more and more into the main chambers of conservatism, becoming familiar, seeming less outlandish.”

 

Human Body

Not surprisingly, we commonly create metaphors based on our own human experiences. In one unusual metaphor, we talk of a crazy person as a crackpot, referring back to an old slang term for the head as a pot. Another common way to describe crazy behavior as someone who is losing grip on reality as if it is an object that can be grasped with the hands. Andersen also compares Trump’s need for attention to a person who is ravenous and insatiable for food. I also noticed two metaphors of illness and cancer. Andersen quotes Rick Perry claiming that Donald Trump was a “cancer on conservatism” while he also notes that the American acceptance of Fantasyland has metastasized as if it is a cancer that will spread to other countries.

crackpot

Example: “Belief in gigantic conspiracies has moved from the crackpot periphery to the mainstream.”

grip on reality

Example: “Even as we’ve entered this long winter of foolishness and darkness, when too many Americans are losing their grip on reason and reality, it has been an epoch of astonishing hope and light as well.”

ravenous and insatiable

Example: “But Trump’s need for any and all public attention always seemed to me more ravenous and insatiable than any other public figure’s, akin to an addict’s for drugs.”

cancer on conservatism

Example: “Before Trump won their nomination and the presidency, when he was still ‘a cancer on conservatism’ that must be “discarded” (former Governor Rick Perry) and an ‘utterly amoral’ ‘narcissist at a level I don’t think this country’s ever seen’ (Senator Ted Cruz), Republicans hated Trump’s ideological incoherence—they didn’t yet understand that his campaign logic was a new kind, blending exciting tales with a showmanship that transcends ideology.”

metastasized

Example: “The American experiment has metastasized out of control. Being American now means we can believe anything we want.”

 

Family

I also found examples of metaphors based on family relations. Andersen describes Esalen as a mother church in the United States as if it had given birth to a new type of religion. He also provides another brilliant contrastive pair of metaphors, describes incredulity and skepticism as fraternal twins.

mother church

Example: “Esalen is a mother church of a new American religion for people who think they don’t like churches or religions but who still want to believe in the supernatural.”

fraternal twin

Example: “Trump’s genius was to exploit the skeptical disillusion with politics—there’s too much equivocating; democracy’s a charade—but also to pander to Americans’ magical thinking about national greatness. Extreme credulity is a fraternal twin of extreme skepticism.”

*******

That’s all for Part 1.  Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for Part 2 coming soon!

Health Care Metaphors

Figurative Language, Media, Metaphors, Politics, Rhetoric, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , ,

Hello! Anyone watching TV or reading the newspapers lately has no doubt seen the huge battle going on in Washington D.C. over healthcare. Barack Obama and the Democrats managed to pass the Affordable Care Act during his tenure as president. The Republicans promised for seven years to “repeal and replace” the so-called Obamacare as soon as they were in the office. Now, however, even though the Republicans control the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives, they have not been able to pass any new legislation to replace Obamacare. Several different versions of a new health care bill have been presented but they have all been defeated by either the House or the Senate. This past week, the latest version was voted down, in part because of three Republicans who voted against it, including a dramatic “thumbs down” vote by John McCain at the last minute.

Readers of this blog may have also noticed that there has been a bewildering variety of metaphors used to describe this process. Here are a few that I have been watching in the past few weeks. I list them here by conceptual metaphor with one or two examples of each. The sources for each quotation are included in the descriptions and explanations as a hyperlink. Italics are mine.

Body Shape: skinny

One of the most unusual metaphors to describe the latest health care bill was calling it the skinny repeal version, implying that it was a thin version of an earlier more comprehensive bill. We tend to describe people (or animals) as being skinny, normal or fat (more politely heavy) thus we can metaphorically use descriptions of body shapes to describe the thickness of a legislative document. Here is a headline from the New York Post.

Example:  Trump fumes over health care reform after ‘skinny repeal’ defeat

Food: vinegar and honey

We often use our experiences with food to describe abstract processes, such as something being bitter or sweet. Some writers at the Daily Beast have described the Republican healthcare bill as being all vinegar, no honey since it seemed to be taking health care away from millions of people while increasing premiums on those who do have insurance – nothing sweet about it, only a sour taste.

 

 

Example: How Donald Trump’s “All Vinegar, No Honey” Approach To Health Care Reform Ended Up Backfiring

Journey: rocky start, bridge

Journey metaphors are very common in political speeches, and they also appear in headlines and articles about political processes. In one case, a headline in the Washington Examiner describes health care reform as being off to a rocky start, as if it is a person walking on an uneven rocky path instead of a smooth walkway. In another example from Fox Business News, Senator Ted Cruz argued that he could bridge the gap between warring factions of the Republican Party as if he could making a connecting bridge between two distant parts of a road.

Example: Bipartisan healthcare reform off to a rocky start in the Senate

Example: Ted Cruz: Amendment can bridge gap between split Republican Party

 

 

 

Building: collapse, fall apart

            We often describe creating processes as if they are buildings we are constructing. Conversely, when processes do not work, we can describe them as if these buildings are collapsing or falling apart. Recent headlines at politico.com and cnn.com refer to these two processes.

Example: House Republicans despair after health care collapse

Example: How the Republican health care bill fell apart

Machines and Engines: fix, overhaul, backfire

When a machine is not working properly, we must make efforts to fix it. Metaphorically, we can also fix any process that is not working out well. Political writers and pundits commonly refer to legislative processes as fixing health care. Here is one example from the Atlantic magazine. Also, if a machine or engine is broken beyond a simple repair, we may need to totally overhaul it, taking it all apart and putting it back together again. An article at cnn.com refers to the Republican efforts to replace Obamacare as overhauling it.   Finally, when the gas mixture in an engine is not regulated correctly, it may backfire or produce a loud bang from the exhaust system. Metaphorically, when an effort to do something completely fails, we may say that it backfires. An article in the Daily Beast describes Donald Trump’s efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare as having backfired.

Example: How Republicans Can Fix American Health Care

Example: “We should not put our stamp of approval on bad policy,” Moran said in a bold statement that derailed Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s bid to overhaul the Affordable Care Act.

Example: How Donald Trump’s “All Vinegar, No Honey” Approach To Health Care Reform Ended Up Backfiring

Chemistry and Physics: litmus test, pressure

In chemistry, one way to test whether an element is an acid or a base is to put a small solution on a piece of special paper called litmus paper. This procedure is called a litmus test. Metaphorically, any process that determines if something will be successful may be called a litmus test. A recent NBC News story describes the efforts of the Democrats to retain Obamacare as federal law as a litmus test. In physics, the amount of force exerted upon an object is called pressure. We can talk of air pressure, barometric pressure, etc. Metaphorically, the power for a group of people to influence other people can also be called pressure. The Press Herald newspaper in Maine describes how the Maine senator, Susan Collins, withstood the pressure of her fellow Republicans to vote against the health care bill.

Example: Government-Run Health Care: Democrats’ New Litmus Test

Example: Susan Collins withstood intense pressure, ultimately voted against health care repeal

Boxing: round one, slam

Sadly, we also describe many aspects of the political process as if the politicians are fighting each other in a boxing ring. Most boxing matches last a total of 15 rounds. The preliminary battles between two opponents are often called round one. An article at cnn.com describes the defeat of the health care bill as a loss for Donald Trump in round one. Several weeks ago, an article in USA Today even described the diplomatic Bernie Sanders as slamming the Republican version of the health care bill.

Example: Health care defeat confirmed it: Trump has lost round one

Example: Bernie Sanders slams GOP health care bill, calls Trump CNN tweet ‘an outrage’

 

Military: kill, dead, blast, implode, torpedo

Even more violent metaphors can be found in military descriptions of political processes. An article at msnbc.com described how the health care bill was killed, while in an article in the New York Post, the authors describe the health care repeal process as a dead issue.   Other writers describe the process in terms of explosions or cannon fire. CNN describes President Trump as blasting the Senate rules that contributed to the defeat of the Republican bill, while a story at politico.com reports that Trump himself claims he wanted Obamacare to implode. Finally, another CNN story claims that the Senate has torpedoed the heath care bill.

Example: The stunning drama of killing the GOP health care bill

Example: President Trump hasn’t given up on health care reform — even though the Senate’s GOP leader say [sic] it’s a dead issue for now.

Example: Trump blasts Senate rules in Saturday morning tweets

Example: After health care loss, Trump tweets ‘let ObamaCare implode’

 

Example: House Republicans rail on Senate GOP for torpedoing health care

Science Fiction: the twilight zone

Last but not least, we find a metaphor derived from the name of a popular 1960s TV show called the Twilight Zone. In the TV show, the title referred to the time between day and night when normal rules of science are twisted into bizarre or unexpected occurrences. The term was originally was used as early as 1909 to describe the time between lightness and darkness when nothing could be seen clearly. Metaphorically the twilight zone refers to a situation in which normal social rules do no apply. Several articles reported that Missouri senator Claire McCaskill referred to the healthcare reform process as being in the twilight zone.

Example: “We’re in the twilight zone of legislating,” Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri said Thursday of the GOP’s strategy.

*******

As you can see, one political process may be described with a wide variety of conceptual metaphors. These examples offer more proof that the use of metaphors is a normal part of human cognition, not a specialized type of language. As always, comments, questions or additional examples are welcome. Thanks for reading!

 

 

Showing One’s True Colors

Figurative Language, Media, Metaphors, Politics, Rhetoric, Uncategorized, , , , , ,

There is a particular metaphorical phrase that has been mentioned in the news the past few weeks, that of a person or group of people showing their true colors. This metaphor has a colorful origin:

In the 1700s, ships were required to fly the flag or colors of the country of their origin so ship captains could see at a glance who was a friend and who might be an enemy on the high seas. Some dishonest captains, however, would fly the flags of other countries in order to trick some ships into coming closer so they could attack. These attacking pirate ships would then show their correct flags or their true colors. So metaphorically, if people show their true colors, this means that they are showing what they really think or believe.

After the recent health care bill passed by the House of Representatives, allegedly cutting many people off from health care, and giving more power to insurance companies, while giving tax breaks to other wealthy corporation, some liberal critics complained that the Republicans were showing their true colors. See one such blog post entitled “GOP shows true colors: Profits before people, always” here.

Some of my friends and colleagues have also wondered if President Trump is showing his true colors by firing anyone who seems to challenge his authority. To be fair, conservative commentators have used to same phrase to criticize Democrats such as in the article “Obama Shows His True Colors as He Leaves Office” here.

With many colors of flowers and trees popping out in this spring weather, I thought it was time to review a few metaphors of colors. Here is a sampling of some of the more striking metaphors of color.

Red and Blue

red states and blue states

                  The United States has two dominant political parties, the Democrats and the Republicans. During presidential elections, each state will be won by either party. In the 1990s, television stations and newspapers struggled to show which party had won each state. Eventually the media began using two contrasting colors for the two parties, red for Republican-won states, and blue for Democrat-won states. In time, people began to shorten the names to simply red states and blue states. Technically, these terms are not metaphors. There is nothing intrinsically red or blue about any political party. In this case, the color-based origin of these political metaphors is completely arbitrary. I include them here for the sake of clarifying these examples.

Example: The west coast of the United States has mostly blue states such as California, Oregon and Washington. However, the Midwest and South have many red states. 


purple

Since purple is a mixture of the colors red and blue, some media analysts say that states with an even mixture of Democratic and Republican voters are called purple states.

Example: Virginia was formerly known as a red state, but it has been purple during the 2008, 2012 and 2016 elections.

red

The color red has many metaphorical meanings. In addition to the political meaning explained above, the color red is commonly used to mean anger.

Example: In the year 2000, many Democrats were seeing red when the Supreme Court voted to uphold George W. Bush’s election win although Al Gore had won the popular vote.

red ink

Pens with red ink were formerly used to write down the amount of money that was lost in a business. When a business or government is losing more money than it is earning, we say that it is in red ink.

Example: When the economy is in recession, many state governments get into red ink. They must begin to make budget cuts.

red tape

Many years ago, a kind of red-colored tape was used to hold together official government documents. Nowadays, the phrase red tape indicates the problems and delays one encounters when trying to get something done in a bureaucracy.

Example: Many Americans are frustrated by all the red tape they must endure every time they deal with the government for taxes, licenses, passports, etc. 

redline

As with the phrase red ink, the term redline originally meant to use red ink to highlight a problem. In some cases, the names of people who applied for a loan from a bank but did not qualify were crossed off a list with red line. Thus, to redline someone means to disqualify him or her from doing something.

Example: In part, the banking crisis of 2008 was caused by banks giving loans to people who should have been redlined since they could not afford to pay the high mortgages.

rosy

The rose flower has petals in beautiful shades of red. If we say something is rosy, this means that the situation is very good.

Example: When a new president is elected, most people have rosy expectations of making positive changes for the country.

blue

In addition to meaning explained above that blue states are Democratic, the color blue is also used to indicate situations that are sad or depressing. Also, as mentioned in the chapter on Clothing, blue-collar workers are those who work in factories and make middle class wages.

Example: In 2008, Barack Obama was able to turn some red states blue.

Example: Many Republicans were feeling blue when Barack Obama won the election.

Example: During the 2016 election, Donald Trump won many votes from blue-collar Democrats in the Midwest.

out of the blue

If something is unexpected, it seems to fall from the blue sky. Thus we have an expression that something we were not expecting is out of the blue.

Example: The rise of Hitler in World War II was not out of the blue; many Europeans knew he was gaining power in the 1930s. 

blue blooded

Many years ago in Spain, the term translated as blueblood meant someone who was very rich or from a high social class. This term may have started from the idea that blood looks blue in people with very fair skin especially when compared to people with darker skin.

Example: After the American Revolution in the 1770s and 1780s, citizens did not want any more royal British bluebloods controlling their government; they wanted to elect their own presidents.

 

Green and Yellow

green

The color green has many metaphorical meanings. Since most plants are very green when they start to grow, the color green is used to indicate people who are not yet mature or experienced. Since the color green is associated with plant growth, it has been used to describe programs, organizations and governments that take good care of the environment. Subsequently, one who works in a business promoting environmental concerns can be called a green-collar worker. Finally, since American money is colored green, the term green can also be used to indicate financial gain.

Example: Some critics said that Barack Obama was too green to be elected president since he did not have much executive experience.

Example: Traditionally American-made cars have not been good at saving gas or reducing pollution. However, now the companies are stating to make greener cars with better gas mileage and less carbon dioxide emissions.

green-collar

Example: After the high oil and gas prices in 2008, many companies started making alternative energy, creating many green collar jobs.

greenhorn

                  A person who is inexperienced can also be called a greenhorn, perhaps derived from animals with new horns when they are young. 

Example: Ronald Reagan was no greenhorn when it came to making public speeches. He was a famous Hollywood actor before becoming the governor of California and the president of the United States.

greenback

A greenback is another word meaning American money, due to its color.

Example: Americans seem to need more and more greenbacks to buy simple things like food and gasoline. 

yellow

In popular terms, to be yellow means to be afraid or cowardly, as in a soldier who is afraid to fight in a war. In politics, a leader may be called yellow if he or she is afraid to use military force against an enemy.

Example: After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, President Roosevelt was not yellow; he declared war on Japan the next day and immediately began plans to attack.

yellow journalism

In the 1890’s, a New York newspaper had a comic strip character who always wore yellow clothes. The Yellow Kid, as he was known, was so popular another newspaper created their own yellow characters to get more people to buy their newspaper. This competition became known as yellow journalism, later meaning the type of reporting relying on headlines, exaggerations and sensational stories to sell newspapers instead of trying to find all the facts.

Example: American citizens should be careful about yellow journalism when it comes to learning the truth about the news. They should only read newspapers that tell the real truth about events.

 

Silver and Gold

silver lining

Silver and gold are both names for colors and names for precious metals. Thus they are used to describe things that are very valuable.   There is an old expression that every cloud has a silver lining. This phrase is thought to come from the fact that even dark clouds may have sunlight coming through along the edge giving a silver look to it. This in turn means that even though the sky is dark, the sun is still there and will shine again. Metaphorically, a silver lining means that even when life is bad, good things can still happen so we need to stay hopeful.

Example: When the economy is bad and many people lose their jobs, one silver lining is that prices for many items such as houses, cars and gasoline actually go down. 

silver tongued

If someone is described as being silver tongued, this means that the person is very good at speaking.

Example: Barack Obama proved himself to be a silver-tongued politician during the 2008 presidential election.

golden

Gold is one of the most expensive metals and if something is called golden, this means that it is very valuable.

Example: During Ronald Reagan’s presidency, Republicans thought he was the best president ever; he was absolutely golden.

golden boy

A young man with potential for doing great things is sometimes called a golden boy.

Example: John F. Kennedy, Jr., the son of the late 35th U.S. president, was considered America’s golden boy until his tragic death in 1999 at the age of 38.

golden parachute

                  When a business executive retires, he or she is often given a sum of money as a retirement gift. In some cases, these gifts amount to millions of dollars. These gifts are sometimes called golden parachutes because they allow the person to retire as if they are jumping from an airplane and landing safely in retirement.

Example: American citizens become angry when they learn that some business executives get million-dollar golden parachutes even though their companies went bankrupt and investors lost a great deal of money. 

gold star

In many American elementary schools, children are given a gold star sticker on their schoolwork meaning that the work was very good. In popular terms, anything that has high quality can also be described as being gold star.

Example: The Kennedy family has a gold-star reputation in the United States because of the many contributions their family members have made to American politics.

gold star families

When a soldier is killed in a war, his or her family receives a gold star made from paper that they can put in the front window of their home indicating their loss. Thus gold star families are those who have lost a family member in military service.

Example: Some gold star families support political candidates who try to end wars; other gold star families support those who continue America’s military strength around the world.

Other Color Metaphors 

colorblind

If someone cannot physically see colors, this is called being colorblind. Metaphorically, being colorblind means that one does not form opinions or make decisions based on a person’s race.

Example: Did America become more colorblind after Barack Obama was elected the first black president? Or will race still an important issue in society for many years to come?

off-color

If a person is looking off-color, this means he or shoe does not have the usual color of healthy skin. In jewelry, a jewel that is off-color is less valuable because it is not as pure as other examples of that type of gem. In popular terms, a joke or story is considered off color if it is not accepted by normal society, usually because it has some sexual content.

Example: Good politicians are careful not to tell any off-color stories since many people will be offended.

If you hear of any unusual color metaphors in the news, please let me know. Questions and comments are always welcome!

 

 

 

President Trump’s 1st Address to Congress

Figurative Language, Media, Metaphors, Politics, Rhetoric, , , , , , ,

This past week, Donald Trump made his first address to Congress as president of the United States. In contrast to his negative inauguration speech about “American carnage,” this speech was more positive and hopeful. You can read the transcript of the speech here.

Trump supporters were very pleased with the speech and claimed he was very “presidential.” Critics of Donald Trump were quick to point out many factual errors in his speech and were not very impressed. The Washington Post found errors on many different issues including immigration rates, defense spending, crime rates, welfare statistics and unemployment rates. You can read the summary here.

 

Regardless of the controversies surrounding the speech, I found that the frequency and type of metaphors also differed significantly compared to the inauguration speech. It has taken me a week to sort through all the different examples of metaphors in this long speech. Although there were many negative metaphors involving physical forces, there were also positive metaphors of vision and journeys looking forward as one might expect in an address to Congress. Here are a few interesting examples. As always, the quotations are taken directly from the transcript. I have added italics to mark the metaphors under analysis. In some cases, quotations are repeated if they contain more than one type of metaphor.

Building

            This speech presents an interesting contrast between using some metaphors in a negative manner, while using others in the same category in a positive manner. President Trump describes various aspects of the country as if they are buildings that are crumbling, collapsing or imploding. However, he also talks about building for the future.

crumbling

Example: “And we’ve spent trillions and trillions of dollars overseas, while our infrastructure at home has so badly crumbled.”

Example: “Crumbling infrastructure will be replaced with new roads, bridges, tunnels, airports and railways gleaming across our very, very beautiful land.“

collapsing

Example: “Obamacare premiums nationwide have increased by double and triple digits. As an example, Arizona went up 116 percent last year alone. Governor Matt Bevin of Kentucky just said Obamacare is failing in his state — the state of Kentucky — and it’s unsustainable and collapsing.”

Example: “Remember when you were told that you could keep your doctor and keep your plan? We now know that all of those promises have been totally broken.   Obamacare is collapsing, and we must act decisively to protect all Americans. (Applause.)”

imploding

Example: “Action is not a choice, it is a necessity. So I am calling on all Democrats and Republicans in Congress to work with us to save Americans from this imploding Obamacare disaster. (Applause.)”

building

Example: “We must build bridges of cooperation and trust — not drive the wedge of disunity and, really, it’s what it is, division. It’s pure, unadulterated division. We have to unify.”

Example: “I am sending Congress a budget that rebuilds the military, eliminates the defense sequester — (applause) — and calls for one of the largest increases in national defense spending in American history.”

Example: “The only long-term solution for these humanitarian disasters, in many cases, is to create the conditions where displaced persons can safely return home and begin the long, long process of rebuilding. (Applause.)”

Example: “We’ve financed and built one global project after another, but ignored the fates of our children in the inner cities of Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit, and so many other places throughout our land.” 

Machines and Tools

Similarly, Trump’s speech contrasts what can be broken and what can be fixed as if the United States is a machine. He also offers to provide the proper tools to the U.S. military to prevent war.

broken, fixed

Example: “Everything that is broken in our country can be fixed. Every problem can be solved. And every hurting family can find healing and hope.”

tools

Example: “Finally, to keep America safe, we must provide the men and women of the United States military with the tools they need to prevent war — if they must — they have to fight and they only have to win.”

Physical Forces

            The Trump speech also contains a large set of metaphors in a category of what I called physical forces, i.e., using a physical action to describe an abstract process. Donald Trump uses many of these metaphors to describe the state of the country, in some cases, in ways similar to his ideas of “American carnage.” We find that the middle class is shrinking, and we have job-crushing government regulations while he desires to demolish, destroy and extinguish ISIS. He also claims that drugs are pouring into the country. In contrast, he also uses metaphors of physical forces to describe positive efforts. He describes a desire to expand treatment for drug users, while national pride is sweeping the country and optimism is surging in the United States.

shrink

Example: “For too long, we’ve watched our middle class shrink as we’ve exported our jobs and wealth to foreign countries.”

crush

Example: “We have undertaken a historic effort to massively reduce job-crushing regulations, creating a deregulation task force inside of every government agency.”

demolish, destroy and extinguish

Example: “As promised, I directed the Department of Defense to develop a plan to demolish and destroy ISIS — a network of lawless savages that have slaughtered Muslims and Christians, and men, and women, and children of all faiths and all beliefs. We will work with our allies, including our friends and allies in the Muslim world, to extinguish this vile enemy from our planet. (Applause.)”

pour in, expand

Example: “We’ve defended the borders of other nations while leaving our own borders wide open for anyone to cross and for drugs to pour in at a now unprecedented rate.”

Example: “We will stop the drugs from pouring into our country and poisoning our youth, and we will expand treatment for those who have become so badly addicted. (Applause.)”

sweep, surge

Example: “A new national pride is sweeping across our nation. And a new surge of optimism is placing impossible dreams firmly within our grasp.”

Binding objects

Similarly, we find examples of a specific type of physical forces dealing with using force to bind two objects together. Again, these metaphors can be used with either positive or negative connotations. He spoke movingly of a young woman named Megan who suffers from a rare disease and whose father had to fight the government to approve new drugs to help her. Thus, Donald Trump speaks of FDA regulations are restraints that need to be slashed, while the girl had the unbounded love of her father. He also said that we should not be bound by the failures of the past but have an unbroken chain of truth, liberty and justice in America.

restraints

Example: “If we slash the restraints, not just at the FDA but across our government, then we will be blessed with far more miracles just like Megan. (Applause.) In fact, our children will grow up in a nation of miracles.”

unbounded

Example: “Megan’s story is about the unbounded power of a father’s love for a daughter. But our slow and burdensome approval process at the Food and Drug Administration keeps too many advances, like the one that saved Megan’s life, from reaching those in need.”

bound

Example: “From now on, America will be empowered by our aspirations, not burdened by our fears; inspired by the future, not bound by the failures of the past; and guided by our vision, not blinded by our doubts.”


unbroken chain

Example: “Each American generation passes the torch of truth, liberty and justice in an unbroken chain all the way down to the present.”

Fragile Objects

            Processes can be described metaphorically as if they are fragile objects. Trump uses some of these metaphors to describe various aspects of government policies and processes. He claims that President Obama broke many of his promises about the Affordable Care Act, while we must break the cycles of poverty and violence. He also claims that we have an unbreakable alliance with Israel.

break promises

Example: “Remember when you were told that you could keep your doctor and keep your plan? We now know that all of those promises have been totally broken.   Obamacare is collapsing, and we must act decisively to protect all Americans. (Applause.)”

break the cycle

Example: “But to break the cycle of poverty, we must also break the cycle of violence.”

unbreakable

Example: “I have also imposed new sanctions on entities and individuals who support Iran’s ballistic missile program, and reaffirmed our unbreakable alliance with the State of Israel. (Applause.)”

Nature and Natural Disasters

            Metaphors of nature are very common in political speeches. I have already analyzed Donald Trump’s frequent claim of draining the swamp, meaning the process of removing corrupt officials from government. He uses the metaphor again here. However, he also uses more powerful metaphors of natural disasters comparing the tremendous rise in his popularity during the election campaign to an earthquake, even describing the earth shifting beneath our feet. In one case, he has an odd mixing of metaphors saying that the chorus became an earthquake.

drain the swamp

Example: “We have begun to drain the swamp of government corruption by imposing a five-year ban on lobbying by executive branch officials and a lifetime ban — (applause) — thank you — and a lifetime ban on becoming lobbyists for a foreign government.”

earth shifting

Example: “Then, in 2016, the Earth shifted beneath our feet. The rebellion started as a quiet protest, spoken by families of all colors and creeds — families who just wanted a fair shot for their children and a fair hearing for their concerns.”

earthquake

Example: “Finally, the chorus became an earthquake, and the people turned out by the tens of millions, and they were all united by one very simple, but crucial demand: that America must put its own citizens first.”

Military

Along with the large sets of conceptual metaphors described above, the speech contains a nice variety of unusual metaphors that occur only once. We find there are metaphors of the military, animals, light, literature and sports. In one military metaphor we find the example of a beachhead which is the area on a shore where an invading force lands in order to bring troops and supplies. Metaphorically a beachhead is the first step of progress in a complex operation. Here Trump compares the growth of ISIS to a beachhead of terrorism.

beachhead

Example: “We cannot allow a beachhead of terrorism to form inside America. We cannot allow our nation to become a sanctuary for extremists. (Applause.)”

Animals

Animals have great strength and are often used as sources of metaphors. In one case, Trump compares the dying American manufacturing companies as lions that will come roaring back to life.

roar

Example: “Dying industries will come roaring back to life.”

 

 

 

Light

            Metaphors of light are often used in political speeches. Trump claims that his new government policies will light up the world. 

torch, light up

Example: “That torch is now in our hands. And we will use it to light up the world.”

Literature

            Politicians often claim that their policies will begin a new chapter of life as if American history is a book that is being written and they are the authors.

chapter

Example: “I am here tonight to deliver a message of unity and strength, and it is a message deeply delivered from my heart. A new chapter — (applause) — of American Greatness is now beginning.”

Sports

There is also a wide variety of sports metaphors used in political speeches. Strangely, I have not seen many of these yet in Trump’s speeches. However, there is one unusual metaphor used here describing tax codes for the middle class as being on a level playing field with corporations. As described in a previous post, the idea of a level playing field is derived from the problem in the early 20th century of creating level footballs fields so one team would not have the advantage of being able to run downhill and possibly score more points. Strange but true!

level playing field

Example: “At the same time, we will provide massive tax relief for the middle class. We must create a level playing field for American companies and our workers.”

Synecdoche

I also found a very strange and unusual example of synecdoche, the type of figurative language in which a part represents a whole. In this case, Trump speaks of “two world wars that dethroned fascism.” This is complex for two reasons. For one, the idea of dethroning a government implies that the throne represents the government because the leader sits on the throne to rule the country, a classic example of synecdoche. However, there is also an element of personification in that fascism is described as being a person, i.e., the leader that sits on the throne. It’s amazing that we can understand this type of figurative language!

dethrone

Example: “We strongly support NATO, an alliance forged through the bonds of two world wars that dethroned fascism, and a Cold War, and defeated communism. (Applause.)”

Personification

Speaking of personification, I found many examples of these types of metaphors. Trump compares cities to babies being born or having a rebirth, while America is strong, and we need to strengthen national security. We also find that countries are described as either friends or enemies.

rebirth

Example: “And our neglected inner cities will see a rebirth of hope, safety and opportunity. Above all else, we will keep our promises to the American people. (Applause.)”

strong, strengthen

Example: “All the nations of the world — friend or foe — will find that America is strong, America is proud, and America is free.”

Example: “I believe that real and positive immigration reform is possible, as long as we focus on the following goals: To improve jobs and wages for Americans; to strengthen our nation’s security; and to restore respect for our laws.”

friends and enemies

Example: “All the nations of the world — friend or foe — will find that America is strong, America is proud, and America is free.”

Example: “America is friends today with former enemies. Some of our closest allies, decades ago, fought on the opposite side of these terrible, terrible wars. This history should give us all faith in the possibilities for a better world.”

Vision

The final two sets of metaphors are very common in political speeches in which the speaker tries to convince his or her listeners that the country is moving forward with a strong vision and everyone in the country is on the same journey together.  Although these types of metaphors were absent in previous Trump speeches, they make their appearance here, perhaps initiating a newly positive direction for his speeches. In terms of vision metaphors, we find that Trump wants to focus on specific goals for the country with a collective vision for the future. In a nice contrast of light and dark, Trump contends that we need to be guided by our vision, not blinded by our doubts.

focus

Example: “I believe that real and positive immigration reform is possible, as long as we focus on the following goals: To improve jobs and wages for Americans; to strengthen our nation’s security; and to restore respect for our laws.”

vision

Example: “When we have all of this, we will have made America greater than ever before — for all Americans. This is our vision. This is our mission.”

Example: “When we fulfill this vision, when we celebrate our 250 years of glorious freedom, we will look back on tonight as when this new chapter of American Greatness began.”

guided, not blinded

Example: “From now on, America will be empowered by our aspirations, not burdened by our fears; inspired by the future, not bound by the failures of the past; and guided by our vision, not blinded by our doubts.”

Journeys

Finally, we find many examples of journey metaphors as Trump speaks of finding the right vehicle, following the correct path, clearing the way of obstacles, restarting the engine of the economy or reaching milestones in our journey to become a better nation.

vehicle, path

Example: “Free nations are the best vehicle for expressing the will of the people, and America respects the right of all nations to chart their own path.”

Example: “Tonight, as we mark the conclusion of our celebration of Black History Month, we are reminded of our nation’s path towards civil rights and the work that still remains to be done.”

clear the way

Example: “We have cleared the way for the construction of the Keystone and Dakota Access Pipelines — (applause) — thereby creating tens of thousands of jobs.”

restart the engine

Example: “But to accomplish our goals at home and abroad, we must restart the engine of the American economy — making it easier for companies to do business in the United States, and much, much harder for companies to leave our country. (Applause.)”

milestones

Example: “It will be one of the great milestones in the history of the world. But what will America look like as we reach our 250th year? What kind of country will we leave for our children?”

*******

            As one can see, President Trump’s first address to Congress contains a wide variety of metaphors. Although there are many examples of metaphors with negative connotations as in previous speeches, for the first time here we see some metaphors that are more positive and look to the future. Time will tell if President Trump can achieve all of the goals he laid out in this speech. Stay tuned for more analyses of Trump speeches… As always, comments and questions are welcome!