The Dubious Case for Metaphors in Educational Writing^*

Abstract

It has been widely argued that the various forms of figurative language, metaphors, similes, analogies, are pedagogically useful because they have explanatory and heuristic functions. A slightly different argument for the importance of metaphors has recently been offered by Andrew Ortony (Educational Theory, Winter, 1975) under the title, "Why Metaphors are Necessary and Not Just Nice." Ortony argues the necessity of metaphors on three grounds: (1) they are a compact form of expression, (2) they may express what is not literally expressible, and (3) they are vivid. The second claim made for metaphors by Ortony, that is, they can be used to express that which cannot be fully stated in literal terms, has a great deal of similarity to the claim put forward by Thomas Green in his section on "The Necessity of Metaphors."' It has also some relation to what Max Black says in examining the view that "metaphor is a species of catachresis."2 Ortony's first claim, for the compactness of metaphors, draws even more heavily upon the arguments of Black.3Perhaps this view, that metaphors have cognitive uses in addition to whatever force they may lend to the style of writing, has now the status of a standard interpretation of their use in serious writing. As a consequence of a recent examination of a wide range of figurative language used in educational writing, I conclude that the claims for the necessity of metaphors made by Ortony, and also those made by Green, are exaggerated and probably wrong in some important respects. Since Ortony limits his remarks to metaphors, and since it is also possible to isolate comments in Green which refer exclusively to metaphor, I shall limit my criticism of the use of figurative language in educational writing to the difficulties and abuses of metaphor. In opposition, primarily, to the recent article by Ortony, but also to the earlier comments of Green, I wish to maintain that in educational writing metaphors are typically used to gloss over matters which cannot be well explained or clearly specified. I shall also argue that metaphors are often used in a misleading way to play upon the emotions or to carry an argument by means of distortion and overemphasis.The first point of objection, that metaphors are used to gloss over matters which cannot be well explained or clearly specified, may seem to be conceding a main function of metaphors as argued by Ortony, and even more pointedly, by Green. However, in referring to such use of metaphors as an attempt "to gloss over," I wish to suggest that such uses of metaphor are not effective as alternative explanations and that their heuristic value is also very dubious. It seems quite remarkable that Ortony, in propounding the view "that metaphor is an essential ingredient of communication and consequently of great educational ~a l u e , "~ did not examine a single metaphor used in an educational context. There are references to the simile of the sails in Parmenides and to the cave metaphor in The Republic, but there is no discussion. The two major quo...

Metaphor: Theoretical and empirical research.

“…In fact, it led directly to the conclusion that the use of metaphor was an affectation that only obscured literal meaning. A modern example of such an opinion can be found in Miller (1976), who maintained that "metaphors are often used in a misleading way to play upon the emotions or to carry an argument by means of distortion and overemphasis" (p. 174). Other approaches, however, have allowed metaphor…”

Instructing with analogies.

“…Apart from the. positive aspects of these three functions, several drawbacks should be noted (see Davidson, 1976;Miller, 1976;Simons, 1982). One of the most important possible drawbacks of analogies in instruction may be the extra reading time they may require (see Simons, 1983).…”

Relation of metaphoric processing to comprehension and memory.

“…The second view, the nonfacilitative approach, is based primarily on the work of Miller (1976), although elements of it can be traced as far back as Aristotle (McKeon, 1947). Miller has taken the stance that metaphors are used in educational writing only when the author is unable to be explicit or precise about the information he or she is interested in conveying.…”