Analogy
An analogy in linguistics refers to a comparison between two things, often used to explain a complex concept by drawing parallels with a more familiar idea. It helps to clarify and illustrate linguistic principles and structures by highlighting similarities between different language elements or processes. Analogies can aid in understanding language acquisition, grammar, and phonetics.
6 Key excerpts on "Analogy"
eBook - ePubThe Nature of Classification
Relationships and Kinds in the Natural Sciences
- J. Wilkins, M. Ebach(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Palgrave Macmillan(Publisher)
...4 Homology and Analogy I’ll teach you differences ... [King Lear Act I, Scene IV] Instead of producing something common to all that we call language, I am saying that these phenomena have no one thing in common which makes us use the same word for all, – but that they are related to one another in many different ways. And it is because of this relationship, or these relationships, that we call them all “language”. [Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations §65 1 ] After having experienced the circulation of the blood in human creatures, we make no doubt that it takes place in Titius and Maevius. But from its circulation in frogs and fishes, it is only a presumption, though a strong one, from Analogy, that it takes place in men and other animals. The analogical reasoning is much weaker, when we infer the circulation of the sap in vegetables from our experience that the blood circulates in animals; and those, who hastily followed that imperfect Analogy, are found, by more accurate experiments, to have been mistaken. [Philo, in David Hume’s Dialogues in Natural Religion, Part II] Science arises from the discovery of Identity within Diversity. [W.S. Jevons 2 ] In this chapter, we consider what homologies and analogies are, in biology and other contexts. A homology is a relation from one set of objects or parts to another, a relation of identity no matter what differences of appearance or function exist in the parts or objects. Similarity relations are arbitrary, while homological relations are not. Homological relations are inductively projectible, based on consensuses of topographical agreement over time (causes) and space (forms). In biology, phylogenetic classifications are partial solutions to Goodman’s grue paradox, since homologies are the right dependence relations to make inferences from. This is why, although the evolution of species is somewhat grue-some, we can make ampliative inferences about organisms...
eBook - ePub- Graham McFee(Author)
- 2003(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...How can that be? Let us look at these difficulties in turn. What must be seen in the first difficulty is that the apparent meaningfulness of words in isolation is illusory: rather, a word has meaning only in the context of a sentence, and a sentence has meaning only in the context of a whole language and a whole set of human practices. I do not propose here to discuss this normative account of language (see Baker and Hacker, 1984a). The point is simply that the objection has no grounds, for it assumes that word-meaning is understood in ways which, on the conception of meaning adopted here, it will not be. Moreover, as was said earlier, our aim in drawing the dance/language Analogy may not be, if we follow Wittgenstein's account of meaning, to make points like this: although the third motivation is about them! The second objection is more fundamental, and gets to the heart of talk of a ‘language of dance’ or of the dance/language Analogy. It highlights how, in speaking of ‘the language of, some writers concentrate too exclusively on natural languages, such as English and French. The parallel, it seems to me, is more exact when one speaks of, say, the ‘language of mathematics’ or the ‘language of science’. There are important differences between these two uses. (This idea is so clearly discussed by Peter Winch [1987] that this paragraph and the next draw heavily on his work. The quotations are from pp. 197–8). Those differences turn on the role of new concepts: ‘An Englishman who wants to learn French will have to master a new vocabulary, having varying degrees of equivalence with the vocabulary of English, new grammatical rules for sentence construction…and the like’. These will be varyingly proximate to the rules of English, and so on...
eBook - ePubCognitive Flexibility
The Cornerstone of Learning
- Evelyne Clement(Author)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Wiley-ISTE(Publisher)
...7 Cognitive Flexibility and Analogy Lucas RAYNAL Paragraphe, CY Cergy Paris University, Gennevilliers, France 7.1. Introduction Analogies are fundamental to our minds as they allow us to interpret incoming experiences, which are always, strictly speaking, new, in light of more familiar situations. These comparisons are particularly useful to guide comprehension in that they are not solely based on the superficial appearance of situations, but on deeper commonalities making a given situation essentially similar to another one. As such, they are crucial to guide the resolution of new problems by transferring solution procedures associated with analog problems solved in the past. Certain analogies may be implemented in a relatively straightforward way. A new situation is conceptualized in the same way as a previously encountered situation, and this common conceptualization leads to the two situations being brought together. For instance, one may easily assimilate a royal crown and a roman laurel wreath despite their distinct appearances, as they are first and foremostly seen as symbols of authority. The objects from this comparison may not have to be perceived from a new and unusual perspective. However, there are analogies that may precisely depend on the ability to change our point of view about a given object or situation. The famous Analogy drawn by Archimedes to verify whether the king’s crown was entirely made out of gold illustrates this necessity (Goswami 1992; Sander and Richard 1997). Archimedes knew the weight of the crown, but he had to measure its volume to determine if the per-volume weight corresponded to that of gold. While bathing, Archimedes noticed that a volume of water equal to the volume of his own body was displaced. By making an Analogy with the crown, he realized that he could measure its volume by observing the volume of water it displaces when immersing it in the water...
eBook - ePubEpistemology in Classical India
The Knowledge Sources of the Nyaya School
- Stephen H Phillips(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...5 Analogy Analogy, upamāna, “comparing,” is in several classical schools the way we know the similarity between two things (or more), which can be important to know for different reasons. Mīmā sakas, “(Vedic) Exegetes,” to provide an interpretation of Vedic injunctions suitable for practice in actual performances need to be able to designate substitutes, of one type of grain for another, for example, or one animal for another, depending upon availability in the first place but in the second place similarity. Similarity is a secondary criterion governing the choice. In Vedānta, Analogy is said to be useful for understanding the Upanishads which make comparisons between spiritual or yogic experience and the experiences of ordinary humans. 1 A similar utility is identified in the case of understanding Vedic words such as ‘ svarga ’, “heaven,” the gaining of which is said to be the purpose of certain sacrifices. 2 Logicians, such as the late Yogācārins along with Nyāya philosophers, Jainas, and others, find similarity, or relevant similarity, to figure in inference as a knowledge-generating process. It is through cognizing similarity— and dissimilarity—that we arrive at knowledge of pervasion as required for inferential knowledge. 3 A kitchen hearth counts as an “example” in the stock inference because of its relevant similarity to the mountain which is the center of inquiry. It is part of what is called the sapak a, the set of positive correlations, that make us know an inference-underpinning pervasion. Knowledge of similarity is not viewed in Nyāya as the result of Analogy as a knowledge source—Analogy is restricted in scope to a subject's learning the meaning of a word...
eBook - ePub- Rainer Guldin(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...At the one end, classical rhetoric defines metaphor as a single-word figure of speech, a trope of resemblance operating through displacement. At the other, cognitive linguistics claims that everyday speech, scientific discourse and the very way we think and act are fundamentally metaphorical in nature. These different conceptions will play an important role in the following chapters. They influenced the changing attitudes towards the notion of metaphor and the use of translation metaphors within the field of translation studies (Chapters 2 and 3), as well as the various metaphorical uses of translation within other disciplinary areas (Chapters 3, 4 and 5). Sections 8 and 9 consider the close relationship between metaphor and translation and the theoretical parallels in the development of metaphor theory and translation theory in the West. This connection is pivotal for the present book. It highlights the fact that a sustained study of metaphors for translation and of translation metaphors can be profitable for the fields of both translation studies and metaphor studies. 1 Transference and Analogy: Aristotle’s Definition of Metaphor Aristotle formulated the first substantial discussion of metaphor in the Western tradition. Although he discussed metaphor in only a few short paragraphs of his Poetics (2007) and Rhetoric (2011), his comments proved extremely influential. In Section 3, Part XXI of his Poetics, Aristotle draws a distinction between current or ordinary words that are in general use and strange, alien words that are in use in other countries. He positions metaphorical words between strange and ornamental words, suggesting their common exceptional character. The enumeration (Ricœur 2003: 19) that follows – newly coined, lengthened, contracted and altered words – reinforces the closeness of metaphor to that which is uncommon and outlandish...
eBook - ePub- Usha Goswami(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Psychology Press(Publisher)
...Teachers often assume that giving the children the right Analogy will be sufficient for learning. Transfer from the analogical base to the target mathematical concept is expected to be automatic. Because of this assumption, the teachers rarely instruct the children about the analogies themselves. To the teachers, the analogies are so transparent that they do not require explanation. However, to the children, the analogies may not be obvious at all. The Spontaneous Use of Analogy Analogies in Biology Studies of children's developing biological knowledge have shown that young children will make decisions about whether an object has certain animal properties on the basis of how similar it is to people. For example, a 4-year-old might say that a dog breathes "because I do". A 5-year-old might explain that baby rabbits must inevitably grow "because, like me, if I were a rabbit, I would be five years old and become bigger and bigger". The original data on early biological concepts came from a series of studies by Carey (1985). She asked 4-year-olds and 7-year-olds whether familiar and unfamiliar living things had biological properties, such as "eating", "having bones", "having babies" and "having a heart". The children were questioned about living things as diverse as hammerhead sharks, aardvarks, orchids and baobab trees, as well as more familiar species like dogs, fish, worms, flies and flowers. The experimental technique involved showing the children pictures of each living thing, and then asking them to make predictions about biological properties. Carey found that the attribution of every biological property fell off gradually across the animals as they became physically less similar to people, with the fly and the worm faring most poorly. Plants received very few attributions indeed. Within this gradient of physical similarity, there was no differentiation of biological properties...
