"Doomy, metaphorical phrases, minor keys, weird chords … and I can't do a thing about it".
The poetry is alliterative; one of its features is the kenning, a metaphorical phrase used in place of a common noun (e.g., "swan road" for "sea").
"The media themselves use language like this all the time – Mr X lashed out, the government launched an assault, the opposition attacked government – these are metaphorical phrases and they are all of course phrases that suggest violence," he said.
But there may be a limit to how much abstraction the brain's mirror mechanisms can handle: the researchers found that metaphorical phrases like "kick the bucket" did not activate motor planning regions.
In brief, I often find it helpful to pair a morsel of technical vocabulary with a metaphorical turn of phrase that will make sense to a reader unversed in musical jargon.
As my colleague Ethan Bronner reported the next year, one problem was translating a metaphorical turn of phrase in Persian that has no exact English equivalent — there was, for instance, no mention of a map — and there was a heated debate about whether the original statement was a threat or a prediction.
As The Lede explained last year, Mr. Ahmadinejad had, in fact, used a metaphorical turn of phrase in Persian that has no exact English equivalent, made no mention of a map, and might have intended his comment to be more of a prediction than a threat.
We would need to enquire into what is meant by various words and phrases – how far they are metaphorical, what metaphors might mean, how they could be interpreted in different ways, and so on.
The kenning, a metaphorical compound-word or phrase, is a descriptive stand-in for a noun.
You can find plain metaphorical nourishment in his phrase "isn't just in front of us, but inside of us".
