Analogies compare difficult material with something easily understood. They can use present objects, common knowledge, or shared experiences. Analogies can be similes or metaphors, and are used in entertainment and on exams.
An important type of analogy is a method of explanation or clarification that involves comparing the difficult material with something that is more easily understood by the explainer’s audience. The two items used in the analogy need not be similar in any way other than the item that is the subject of discussion. Because of the narrow need for similarity in an analogy, elements that we would normally consider quite disparate from the subject matter can play a part in increasing understanding.
In an analogy in conversation, comparison is often made with:
• something that is present and can be manipulated: you can sometimes see people in restaurants displaying scenarios using their salt and pepper shakers and cutlery to create the analogy;
• reference can be made to something common knowledge for almost everyone, for example a film, a song, a story or a shared cultural experience and therefore usable as a basis for explaining an element not yet shared;
• a particular experience or common understanding that the explicator shares with the particular audience, such as something that occurred in a previous interaction, may form the basis of an analogy.
Perhaps the most famous use of analogy in entertainment is found in the explanations Dr. Charles Eppes gives on the show Numb3rs to help non-mathematicians, like his brother and FBI colleagues, understand a concept or method of analysis of data involving highly specialized mathematics. Using everyday examples or using objects that are present in his surroundings, Charlie is able to make his leap of logic concrete for the people he is talking to.
Many of these kinds of analogies are made using the word like, and so are technically examples of the figure of speech called a simile.
A second type of analogy, the metaphor, differs from the first in that it takes more liberties in saying that one thing is another. As with other tropes, this one is not to be taken literally, but should be seen as figurative language. The expression “Time is running out” is a metaphor that creates an analogy between time and an hourglass in which the sand particles rush from side to side. Time isn’t just a bunch of little particles: it’s a dimension. Through metaphor, we momentarily imagine time in a different way.
A third type of analogy is the type found in the verbal section of the Graduate Record Exam, or GRE. In this type of analogy problem, the relationship between a set of items is given and the candidate has to choose an analogous set out of five choices. An example is:
COW : VEAL :
(A) sheep: kid
(B) mare: foal
(C) hen: rooster
(D) mutton: lamb
(E) sow: pig
The answer is B, because just as a cow is the mother of a calf, a mare is the mother of a foal. None of the other choices show a mother/child relationship.
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