From a Ghost to a Sketch: Translating Metaphors in Context

Since the beginning of the history of linguistics and philosophical thought, metaphor has been considered a powerful device in communication. In Rhetoric, metaphor played a special role among other rhetorical figures. Quintilian (Inst. Orat., VIII, 6 [4]), for example, described metaphor as a trope frequentissimus and longe pulcherrimus and stated that “[in] metaphor […] a noun or verb is transferred from the place to which it properly belongs to another where there is no literal term or the transferred is better than the literal”. Aristotle (1987) was aware that metaphors represented a non-eliminable way to communicate and think. In Poetics (322 B.C.) he wrote: “The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor. It is the one thing that cannot be learned from others; it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an eye for resemblance”. Aristotle himself (1973) identified an important property of metaphors: their capacity to put scenes before our eyes.