TED演讲：暗喻言说(2)

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　　Elvis uses it, but so does Shakespeare in this famous line from "Romeo and Juliet:" Juliet is the sun. 埃尔维斯用到它，莎士比亚也同样用到它，于《罗密欧与朱丽叶》中有这样的名句：朱丽叶是太阳。

　　Now, here, Shakespeare gives the thing, Juliet, a name that belongs to something else, the sun. 在这里莎士比亚赋予朱丽叶一个属于其它事物的名称，太阳。

　　But whenever we give a thing a name that belongs to something else, we give it a whole network of analogies too. 但是当我们赋予A事物以B事物的名称时，我们也赋予它一整套的类比。

　　We mix and match what we know about the metaphor's source, in this case the sun, with what we know about its target, Juliet. 我们把对喻体的认知，此处是太阳，与对本体的认知--朱丽叶联系在一起，

　　And metaphor gives us a much more vivid understanding of Juliet than if Shakespeare had literally² described what she looks like. 这样的暗喻可使我们更生动地理解朱丽叶，强过莎士比亚忠实地描述她的相貌。

　　So, how do we make and understand metaphors³? This might look familiar. 那我们如何运用和理解暗喻呢？大家对此并不陌生。

　　The first step is pattern recognition. Look at this image. What do you see? 第一步就是模式识别。请看这张图。你看到了什么？

　　Three wayward Pac-Men, and three pointy brackets are actually present. 其实只有三个在外沿的吃豆人和三个尖角括号而已。

　　What we see, however, are two overlapping⁴ triangles. 但我们实际看到的是两个重叠的三角形。

　　Metaphor is not just the detection of patterns; it is the creation of patterns. 暗喻不仅仅是模式辨识，也是模式创造。

　　Second step, conceptual synesthesia. 第二步，概念联觉。

　　Now, synesthesia is the experience of a stimulus⁵ in once sense organ in another sense organ as well, such as colored hearing. 联觉是指一种感官受到的刺激引起另一种感官的感受，例如色彩听觉。

　　People with colored hearing actually see colors when they hear the sounds of words or letters. 有色彩听觉的人就会在听到词语的声音时将会看到色彩。

　　We all have synesthetic abilities. This is the Bouba/Kiki test. 我们都拥有联觉的能力。这是Bouba/Kiki测试。

　　What you have to do is identify which of these shapes is called Bouba, and which is called Kiki. 请你说出哪个形状叫Bouba，哪个叫Kiki。

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