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US Intelligence Agency to Compile Mountain of Metaphors
coondoggie writes "Researchers with the US Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity want to build a repository of metaphors. You read that right. Not just American/English metaphors mind you but those of Iranian Farsi, Mexican Spanish and Russian speakers. Why metaphors? 'Metaphors have been known since Aristotle as poetic or rhetorical devices that are unique, creative instances of language artistry (for example: The world is a stage; Time is money). Over the last 30 years, metaphors have been shown to be pervasive in everyday language and to reveal how people in a culture define and understand the world around them,' IARPA says."
can't differentiate "that shit is the bomb!" from "let's bomb that shit!".
If a frog had wings, he wouldn't bump his ass everytime he hops. - Red Forman
Darmok and Jilad at Tanagra, anyone?
What we need here is a database of really bad analogies. Keep it somewhere safe.
Imagine putting it in the locked glove compartment in a car.
Task Mangler
Good luck!
Better check the handbook again, genius.
The libertarian solution to the failures of capitalism is to apply more capitalism til the failures are fixed.
Time is money
Except that it's not. Money is a renewable resource: time isn't.
Maybe US Int should focus on recruiting people who understand metaphors.
Ignoring the typo, you might want to brush up on figures of speech before bestowing the genius title. From wikipedia:
A simile is a figure of speech that indirectly compares two different things by employing the words "like", "as", or "than" . Metaphors compare things without using "like" or "as."
Those _are_ metaphors. A simile uses the term like to express the relationship between the words. E.g. the world is like a stage.
Spending time in any community with its own metaphors will ruin your vocabulary.
I can understand the desire to have metaphors for Iranian Farsi and Russian, to help keep a better watch on the governments in those two countries, but why Mexican Spanish? The only thing that comes to mind is the massive amount of drug trafficking in that country. It seems like Chinese would be a better language to focus on, given the worries that many people have about that country.
They should contact my grandfather, for he is himself the repository.
Muhammad must go to the mountain.
Have gnu, will travel.
Speaking of which...any crazy linguists compiled a Terran version yet?
My -1 Troll is actually a +1 funny. And my -1 flame is actually a +1 insightfull.
Now who's watching who? Did Mr. Munroe know about this first, or did the IARPA get the idea from him?
Hyperbole: I use it liberally!
http://wikilivres.info/wiki/Politics_and_the_English_Language
I mean it'll be like writing a new dictionary
Nope. A simile (you suck at spelling, by the way) is "X is like Y", whereas a metaphor is "X is Y". So when I say "your face looks like a horse's ass", I'm insulting you with a simile, but when I say "your brain is a black hole - things go in, and are lost to all time and space", I'm insulting you with a metaphor. Both of those (similes and metaphors) are examples of a broader category of analogies.
Time is money
Except that it's not. Money is a renewable resource: time isn't.
People taking metaphors and treating them like synonyms or taking the metaphorical figure of speech as literal meaning.
And next thing you know, we're having holy wars, inquisition, genocide...
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Metaphors don't compare anything. They describe things by calling them something that they aren't. For example (from the title) in "mountain of metaphors" the "mountain" is a metaphor for a large repository.
Sukat, his eyes uncovered !
-Dave Haynie
If time is money, and money is the root of all evil, is time the root of all evil? If time heals all wounds, does money wound all heels? If time waits for no one, who does the root of all evil wait for?"
'Metaphors have been known since Aristotle as poetic or rhetorical devices that are unique, creative instances of language artistry. Since they're unique, we can use them to fingerprint people using only text samples.'
Just in case i wasn't the only one in need of a basic grammar refresher.
While these three terms are related, their meanings are subtly different. To help understand the distinction, we consulted a number of sources -- American Heritage Dictionary, the Yahoo! Grammar, Usage, and Style category, and web search results for the three terms.
The dictionary defines a "metaphor" as a figure of speech that uses one thing to mean another and makes a comparison between the two. For example, Shakespeare's line, "All the world's a stage," is a metaphor comparing the whole world to a theater stage. Metaphors can be very simple, and they can function as most any part of speech. "The spy shadowed the woman" is a verb metaphor. The spy doesn't literally cast his shadow on the woman, but he follows her so closely and quietly that he resembles her own shadow.
A simile, also called an open comparison, is a form of metaphor that compares two different things to create a new meaning. But a simile always uses "like" or "as" within the phrase and is more explicit than a metaphor. For example, Shakespeare's line could be rewritten as a simile to read: "The world is like a stage." Another simile would be: "The spy was close as a shadow." Both metaphor and simile can be used to enhance writing.
An analogy is a bit more complicated. At the most basic level, an analogy shows similarity between things that might seem different -- much like an extended metaphor or simile. But analogy isn't just a form of speech. It can be a logical argument: if two things are alike in some ways, they are alike in some other ways as well. Analogy is often used to help provide insight by comparing an unknown subject to one that is more familiar. It can also show a relationship between pairs of things. This form of analogy is often used on standardized tests in the form "A is to B as C is to D."
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
= the act of U.S. agencies using a one-sided extradition agreement to take British citizens without due process or proof and to deny the extradition of U.S. subjects to the U.K. unless there is a mountain of exemplary documentation and lawyers have earned millions and the subject has possibly died in the meantime.
Todd: I hope it proves as delicious as the farmers that grew them
16th century French metaphors so you can decode the prophecies of Nostradamus
Error code IRONY101 - Comment does not compute.
"-1, Dumbass" moderation, not found.
which is totally what she said
Good troll. =]
Don't you mean.. cunning linguists? I'd lick to see them try.
which is totally what she said
This idea is as stupid as... uhm... err... hmm.
Hm, the two examples are not really metaphors, except the word is used differnt in english than e.g. in german.
(for example: The world is a stage; Time is money) This are only "dictums". A metapher e.g. is: "fiery snakes are crawling down the sky".
As metaphores are invented on the fly it is pretty hard to make a meaningfull database of them.
angel'o'sphere
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.
Isn't it blatantly obvious this is for automatic text scanning and interpreting for Intelligence purposes ?
Not as if English doesn't have its own allusions that have entered the vocabulary: "Trojan horse", "Doubting Thomas", "Christ figure", "You don't have to be an Einstein", and all coinages fitting Stigler's law.
Fiddling while Rome burns?
Rearranging the deckchairs on the boat-deck of the Titanic?
Alphabetizing your record collection?
The Devil making work for Idle hands?
Living in ivory towers?
The mice playing while the cat is away?
Counting the number of angels that can dance on a pinhead?
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
I'm bit disappointed, it's the current one even ..
XKCD
Atlas Shrugged : Thematic Story
Seems nice. A very geeky interest in something ... humm... I am going to say interesting, but probably I am a nerd, and I like these things for different reasons. :D
I would love to have access to this data, once is collected
-Woof woof woof!
that is a load of bull SH*T
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
The OA quotes IARPA (DARPA for intelligence gathering):
"For decision makers to be effective in a world of mass communication and global interaction, they must understand the shared concepts and worldviews of members of other cultures of interest."
Horse hockey.
No computer can help a human understand a simile, much less an abstraction that's often in the guise of a complex historical or literary reference (i.e. metaphor). So what is the *real* purpose for this 5 year spy program?
First, metaphors are a great identifier of individual writing styles. The trick though is to recognize *when* a word is being used as a metaphor. Tagging a word like 'lion' as trackworthy works only when you know when the word was not meant literally.
Second, and more likely, from snippets of some of Bin Laden's recently unearthed messages, it's clear that Al-Qaeda is using metaphorical code phrases to refer to plans and goals rather than explicit sentences. Part of this program is probably intended to recognize syntactic (and maybe semantic) variations on a given metaphor so it can be recognized and tracked across multiple messages from different people.
So despite IARPA's dumbass lie about 'encouraging greater cultural understanding', this is yet another signals intelligence target tracking program.
-anonymous
how many chosen ones holycost life0cides between here & our infernal rewards? a metaphorical guesstimate; how long is never?
Correct. But although 'time is money' isn't a metaphor, it's neither a simile, as it doesn't ascribe any likeness to the concepts. Time 'is' money because time should be spent making money. It's related by closeness, i.e. a metonymy.
Both simalies, genius.
That would be "simile" not "simalie", genius.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
A horse's ass? An ass's horse?
This is most likelly meant to improve automated processing of intercepted messages.
People trying to communicate over a non-encrypted channel which have secrets they want to keep from well funded state agents KNOW that pretty much any and all conversations on an insecure channel are monitored and automatically processed (in fact, thanks to government mandated secret backdoors and weaknesses in cryptographic implementations, probably many "secure" channels are monitored).
I suspect that, outside the cases were the sender and the recipient have pre-exchanged a dictionary of "secret words" by a secure channel, the only half-decent way of avoiding that an "open-air" conversation is detected as important by the automated systems and flagged for human processing is using analogies.
If you build a database of analogies in all languages you can make your automated systems be able to detect "keywords" which were said by way of analogy.
I thought "All the world's a stage" (William S) is a hyperbole
I just want to say, that for once, the title was well chosen.
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
Fruit flies like a banana. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_flies_like_an_arrow
To attempt to gather intelligence without knowing the metaphors of a language would be like eating soup with a fork, you might get something out of it, but how much is slipping though uncaught?
Shouldn't they measure it in Library of Congresses?
. . . to make a mountain of metaphors out of a molehill.
One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.
"Over the last 30 years, metaphors have been shown to be pervasive in everyday language and to reveal how people in a culture define and understand the world around them"
Shouldn't that read "Over the last 30,000 years"?
It's time to make like a tree, and get the fuck outta here!
We absolutely need this in case the Riddler unleashes his diabolical plot. It may be the only thing that could save us.
How exactly is this going to help in the war against pedoterrorists ?
I suggest they locate it up the OXO Tower.
I bet you have a lot of experience on foreign tongues.
I think they've bitten off more than they can chew. Practically anything can be a metaphor for something, and language is not static, so that these things ebb and flow like the tide. I do not think this project will be successful.
But, assuming it is successful (or at least those with the technology believe it is successful), what purpose does this really serve? My gut tells me that it will be used to sway public opinion on issues.
Perhaps I'm just paranoid.
Proverbs 21:19
They need the list of metaphors because their automated systems cannot currently handle them right now. They're fine if they parse your email and read, "plant the bomb" at such an such a place, but not so good when the same message is hidden inside a metaphor.
They ain't doing it in the interests of Literature.
I can't imagine the volume of data that the intelligence agencies must weed through, especially if they're monitoring text or voice-to-text.
Skipping over things like "beat some sense into him," or "bringing a knife to a gun fight," or the somewhat infamous "O'Keeffe & Company delivers a rifle shot at critical business, technology, and investment audiences," or even just flagging them as possible metaphors, would be incredibly helpful.
I can only imagine how difficult this would be when monitoring other cultures, languages, idioms, etc. I hope they make this database public, although it's a dim hope. It'd be a great trove of cultural information for the entire planet, not just intelligence agencies.
People really should stop assuming idiots are trolling. They're just idiots.
Grammar nazis are to this community what excrements are to gold.
Shaka, the walls fell!
Metaphors aren't just linguistic expressions or indicators of writing styles. Very often, linguistic metaphors are indicators of how people conceptualize the world. For example, people have spacial metaphors in their brains for concepts like "time" that are indicated by expressions like "going forward".
One interesting example of how cognitive metaphors shape or reflect worldviews is the current budget debate in the United States. Very often, proponents of austerity will use "family" metaphors to make their point. If the government is *not* like a family (for example, because a family doesn't have the same amount of control over its "means" as a government, or because parents don't typically fund themselves by taxing their children), then the points being made are quite possibly flawed.
Cognitive metaphors are so prevalent in the human brain that I don't think it's a huge overstatement to say that you can understand people by understanding their metaphors.
Proof that women are evil. Old but it is a classic http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20051008071751/uncyclopedia/images/0/03/Women_evil.jpg
and never scratch the surface. The entire language and culture are suffused with a multi-dimensional, poetic tradition. Metaphor, contextual reference and connotation are in everything.
And that's just what is implicit in the use of the language.
I doubt an outsider can really isolate individual rhetorical elements of the Persian idiom and understand them atomically. This also requires having a broad familiarity of the literary tradition: Mathnawi of Maulana (Rumi), Diwan-e Hafez, Shahnameh of Ferdowsi and the Rubiyaat of Omar Khayyam - at the very least.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
OU! OU! First xkcd reference for the thread!
Where is the comparison? What I was told in school is it is a comparison, similar to a similie that does not use "like" or "as"
All of those statements are intended to be used as part of a comparison along the lines of:
The US Intelligence Agency compiling a list of metaphors is like X
...thus representing an ironic conflation of concepts or "joke".
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
No human could make sense of so much chatter, but an AI that understood everything about slang could. ... artistry.
Because when I think of armies, I think of
I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
Darmok and Jilad at Kalenda's.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
/me dances to the Picard Song
I8-D
They need to go look at their own existing DBs--most cover of them are organized by dialects, which typically include metaphors since it maybe a way to classify the language(s) for intel reasons.
You're missing that the term "metaphor" here is being used in the sense of Conceptual Metaphor Theory, where it's not just an expression that compares two unlikes without using "like"; it's a mental model of one domain in terms of another to allow reasoning about one in terms of another. Check out the link.
Are you adequate?
That comment is like a dead horse, it wouldn't giddi-yup and go.
^^^THAT^^^ is a simile. THIS is a smile. :) NOTHING is a "simalies".
I8-D
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Metaphors
Using the same formatting a human can get his message across anyways. To try to fix this would be like "trying to close the stable door after the critters have vamoosed". or "tossing the kid out with the tubwater". now those examples probably won't trigger the keyword search form barn door and horses. or baby and bathwater. Now apply that to something more nasty, like "that fella needs a be introduced to a bucket of hot road tar and what you pluck from a chicken"
I re-told a story to a C.S. prof. years ago, about another university professor teaching an undergraduate philosophy class in a very large lecture theater. The professor was lamenting how there are many instances in the English language where two negative phrases create a positive statement, but no instances where two positive phrases create a negative statement. From the back of the lecture theater, he heard a cat call 'yeah, right!'. My C.S. prof. for a very brief moment started to re-affirm the statement made by the prof. in my story, then thought for a second about the retort... and stopped. Sarcasm aside, its true. Dammit!
...when the walls fell!
Almost twenty years ago I published a large compilation of cliches.
I thought people would use this database to help quat their cliched writing.
It turned out that its principal use was to search for and to verify the spelling of cliches that writers wanted to add to their writing.
*face palm*
If you want to understand what the project in TFA is about, you're going about it the wrong way by just looking up words in the dictionary. (And as an aside, why do people think that dictionaries are somehow sophisticated tools that will tell you the true answer to any question? They're just vague rough references about what somebody might mean by using a given word.)
The right thing to look at here is Lakoff and Johnson's Conceptual Metaphor Theory, which (a) your dictionary doesn't cover, (b) is much more elaborate than what your dictionary says (because, again, dictionaries ain't supposed to be that thorough and detailed!).
Are you adequate?
I haven't read Pinker. As an aside, I advice you to be extremely careful to believe anything he says. (And for the record, I have a similar opinion of Lakoff, one of the inventors of Conceptual Methaphor Theory...)
I just found this link which gives some brief, fundamental examples of Conceptual Metaphor Theory. Excellent brief discussion.
Are you adequate?
From your link it does seem like that's where he's starting from, especially with the whole "life is a journey" and other metaphors linking concepts to space; he then shows how this gives rise to various linguistic concepts that seem to be illogical or different across various languages, but when viewed in terms of the underlying metaphor can be linked. Or at least, that's my recall of it, it's been a while since I read it. Ta for the link :)
This is news? I'm no expert but it seems this is an obvious* prerequisite for adequate translation software. And lots of people are working on that. *50 years ago this maybe wasn't obvious. At some time it became obvious: not so recently as the last decade.
Depends on what theory of the universe you believe in.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Agencies, perennial curiosity, restless sea
Bits and bytes of hungry fishes
Machine like mountain on horizon, sun cannot be seen
Speech pause for reflection
Kirk! punching... a! Lizard-guy!
Spock, fascinated.
Janeway, fine temporal mess in another.
You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
Damn, a post that is Informative, Insightful and Funny all at once, with a dash of Flamebait and most definitely Underrated (and I am saying this while it is scored +5 Informative). Well done, sir!
Whenever in an argument, remember this.
For instance:
a) I was on a jury trial where the person was charged with hundreds of pounds of Cocaine, and the prosecutor said the messages were for "White Shirts"
b) Some terrorists were anticipating an attack, and they said the "wedding cake is ready"
I believe both of these count as metaphors (as opposed to similes which use "like" or "as"). Although this is not iron-clad ("John has a long moustache" was the code phrase for the invasion of D-Day by the Allies against Nazi Germany), it is an "out of context" remark that would slip through a mechanical search for key words "oil", "gold", "corn", "soy beans", "money", "coke", "grass", "weed", which could be scanned by a computer for later review by a person, which was the technology in use some 30 years ago by the NSA (National Security Agency) which ostensibly only monitors foreign traffic, but who knows under the Patriot Act of 2001, which is still not fully made public.
In other words, if the government had all the metaphors used to denote a victory in Iran for building a nuclear bomb, or testing its product, or for reaching a supply of the critical mass of uranium, plutonium, then those would be the metaphors one (or one's computer) would most likely search for.
As a comedian once said: I know that when I ask my friend for "circus tickets" for $50, I better not get tickets to the circus.
Will they be collecting idioms, catchphrases, and pop culture references as well? If not, the project is worthless.