TED演讲：暗喻言说(4)

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　　One of the sentences was, "Some jobs are jails." 其中一句话是：“有些工作是监狱”

　　Now, unless you're a prison guard, the sentence "Some jobs are jails" is literally³ false. 当然，除非你是监狱看守，“有些工作是监狱”这句话字面上是错的。

　　Sadly, it's metaphorically⁴ true. 不幸却在暗喻上是对的

　　And the metaphorical truth interferes⁵ with our ability to identify it as literally false. 而暗喻上的真实干扰了我们的辨识能力，以至于难于区分字面上的真假。

　　Metaphor¹ matters because it's around us every day, all the time. 暗喻很重要，因它随时随地，无处不在。

　　Metaphor matters because it creates expectations. 暗喻很重要，因它带来期待

　　Pay careful attention the next time you read the financial news. 下次你看财经新闻可要注意，

　　Agent metaphors⁶ describe price movements as the deliberate action of a living thing, as in, "The NASDAQ climbed higher." 拟人化的暗喻用来描述价格运动，就像是有人有意那么做。比如：“NASDAQ指数攀至新高”

　　Object metaphors describe price movements as non-living things, as in, "The Dow fell like a brick." 拟物化的暗喻用物体来描述价格运动，比如：'道琼斯指数象砖头一样下跌。'

　　Researchers asked a group of people to read a clutch of market commentaries, and then predict the next day's price trend. 研究人员请一群人在读了一些股评之后，来预测第二天的股价走势。

　　Those exposed to agent metaphors had higher expectations that price trends would continue. 那些读过拟人化暗喻的人更多地期待股价走势会持续。

　　And they had those expectations because agent metaphors imply the deliberate action of a living thing pursuing a goal. 而他们这样期待是由于拟人化的隐喻暗示了有人在刻意追逐一个目标。

　　If, for example, house prices are routinely described as climbing and climbing, 如果房价总是被说成是不断攀升，

　　higher and higher, people might naturally assume that that rise is unstoppable. 越走越高，人们自然会以为房价上升势不可挡。

　　They may feel confident, say, in taking out mortgages they really can't afford. 他们会感觉良好，以至于背负超过支付能力的按揭。

　　That's a hypothetical example of course. But this is how metaphor misleads. 当然这只是个虚构的例子。但是暗喻确实会这样误导人。

　　Metaphor also matters because it influences decisions by activating⁷ analogies. 暗喻很重要，因为它通过激活类比机制来影响决策。

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