{ "model": { "rank": 2575, "code": "thing-q18534", "model_id": "vr.tr.metaphor", "name": "metaphor", "purpose": "Let an agent recognise and explain metaphors, distinguish metaphor from simile, metonymy, analogy and parable, relay theories of metaphor with attribution, and support interpretation, writing and translation.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.KNW", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q18534/", "tier": 2, "score": 102, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "primary rock", "parable", "Quranic parable", "spatial metaphor", "copular metaphor", "red line", "Extended metaphor", "Internet metaphors", "conceptual metaphor", "mitate", "interface metaphor", "elephant in the room", "dead metaphor", "Animal metaphors in Romanian language", "visual metaphor", "New Testament military metaphors", "sacrificial lamb", "smoke and mirrors", "red lines in the Russo-Ukrainian War" ], "aliasCount": 19, "merged": 19, "knownIn": 102, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q18534", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18534", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T20:35:42Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 3, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q18534", "registryId": "vr.tr.metaphor", "name": "metaphor", "version": "0.2.0-wave.3", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.KNW" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q18534/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.metaphor", "name": "metaphor", "purpose": "Let an agent recognise and explain metaphors, distinguish metaphor from simile, metonymy, analogy and parable, relay theories of metaphor with attribution, and support interpretation, writing and translation.", "definition": "A figure of speech in which one thing is described in terms of another to suggest a likeness without using like or as, as in time is a thief; metaphor pervades everyday language and thought as well as literature, and is studied in rhetoric, linguistics, cognitive science and philosophy as a way of understanding one domain through another.", "what_it_is_for": "Understanding and expressing one thing in terms of another.", "affordances": [ "identify metaphors in text", "explain how a metaphor works", "distinguish related figures", "relay theories with attribution" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Transfer of meaning between domains", "Implicit comparison", "Conventional and creative forms", "Cognitive as well as rhetorical" ], "appearance": "Not visible; words used in a transferred sense.", "visual_identification": [ "Direct identification of one thing with another", "Source and target domains", "Simile uses like or as; metonymy substitutes an associated thing; parable is a narrative" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "conventional and dead metaphors", "creative and extended metaphors", "conceptual metaphors such as argument is war", "spatial and orientational metaphors", "mixed metaphors", "political metaphors such as red line" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "figure of speech", "why": "a trope" }, { "relation": "is confused with", "target": "simile", "why": "an explicit comparison" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "metonymy", "why": "a neighbouring trope" }, { "relation": "is studied by", "target": "cognitive linguistics", "why": "conceptual metaphor theory" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "No regulation; style guides advise on use" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Mixed and confusing metaphors", "Literal misreading of metaphors", "Metaphors that mislead in policy or science" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "concept", "name": "Concept", "description": "What a metaphor is.", "rationale": "Definition.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is a metaphor, and how do source and target domains relate?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the figure a metaphor, a simile, a metonymy, an analogy or a parable?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "kinds", "name": "Kinds", "description": "Kinds.", "findings": [ { "id": "kinds-finding", "name": "Kinds", "description": "Kinds.", "questions": [ { "text": "What kinds of metaphor exist, from dead to creative and conceptual?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the related figure?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "interpret", "name": "Interpret", "description": "Reading metaphors.", "rationale": "Practice.", "layers": [ { "id": "analysis", "name": "Analysis", "description": "Analysing a metaphor.", "findings": [ { "id": "analysis-finding", "name": "Analysis", "description": "Analysis.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is a metaphor identified and analysed in a text?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "What does the metaphor in question convey?", "kind": "measurement" } ] } ] }, { "id": "effects", "name": "Effects", "description": "Effects.", "findings": [ { "id": "effects-finding", "name": "Effects", "description": "Effects.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do metaphors shape understanding and persuasion, with findings attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits rhetoric?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "theory", "name": "Theory", "description": "Theories of metaphor.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "theories", "name": "Theories", "description": "Theories.", "findings": [ { "id": "theories-finding", "name": "Theories", "description": "Theories.", "questions": [ { "text": "What do rhetorical, cognitive and philosophical theories say about metaphor, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "research", "name": "Research", "description": "Research.", "findings": [ { "id": "research-finding", "name": "Research", "description": "Research.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is metaphor studied empirically in linguistics and psychology?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits cognitive linguistics?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "use", "name": "Use", "description": "Writing and translation.", "rationale": "Application.", "layers": [ { "id": "writing", "name": "Writing", "description": "Writing.", "findings": [ { "id": "writing-finding", "name": "Writing", "description": "Writing.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are metaphors used well in writing, and what do style guides warn against?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits style guides?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "translation", "name": "Translation", "description": "Translation.", "findings": [ { "id": "translation-finding", "name": "Translation", "description": "Translation.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are metaphors handled in translation across languages and cultures?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which entry fits translation?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should conceptual metaphor be a separate entry?", "How should theories be linked?", "The registry entry has merged aliases for parables and a geological term; should they be split off?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "discipline or field of knowledge", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a metaphor, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent recognise and explain metaphors, distinguish metaphor from simile, metonymy, analogy and parable, relay theories of metaphor with attribution, and support interpretation, writing and translation.", "characteristics": { "substance": "information", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "read and interpreted" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: primary rock, parable, Quranic parable, spatial metaphor, copular metaphor, red line, Extended metaphor, Internet metaphors, conceptual metaphor, mitate, interface metaphor, elephant in the room.", "19 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 102 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a metaphor, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "content that has to be carried by something else", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "read it and act on what it says" ], "howItIsRecognised": [], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "primary rock", "parable", "Quranic parable", "spatial metaphor", "copular metaphor", "red line", "Extended metaphor", "Internet metaphors", "conceptual metaphor", "mitate", "interface metaphor", "elephant in the room" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 102 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 19 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one metaphor from another, and a metaphor from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a metaphor, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a metaphor, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a metaphor is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a metaphor, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a metaphor, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a metaphor is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a metaphor sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a metaphor, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a metaphor, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a metaphor is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a metaphor from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a metaphor, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a metaphor, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a metaphor is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a metaphor passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a metaphor between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a metaphor, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a metaphor, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a metaphor is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a metaphor, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a metaphor is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a metaphor, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a metaphor, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a metaphor is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "content-and-access", "name": "Content, encoding and access", "description": "What a metaphor says, how it is encoded and who may read it.", "rationale": "An informational thing carries content that can be copied, versioned and withheld, none of which its physical carrier explains.", "layers": [ { "id": "content-and-encoding", "name": "Content and encoding", "description": "The content itself, its format and its language.", "findings": [ { "id": "content-and-format", "name": "Content, format and language", "description": "What a metaphor contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a metaphor, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the content of a metaphor, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the content of a metaphor is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "access-and-rights", "name": "Access, rights and retention", "description": "Who may read, copy or change it, and for how long it is kept.", "findings": [ { "id": "access-rules", "name": "Access rules and retention", "description": "The permissions attached to a metaphor and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a metaphor, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about access to a metaphor, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once access to a metaphor is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "subject-and-method", "name": "Subject matter and method", "description": "What metaphor studies and how it establishes anything.", "rationale": "A field is identified by its questions and its methods, and those are what distinguish it from the fields next to it.", "layers": [ { "id": "subject", "name": "Subject matter", "description": "The questions it takes as its own.", "findings": [ { "id": "subject-record", "name": "Questions and objects of study", "description": "What it is about, stated so a neighbouring field can be told apart.", "questions": [ { "id": "subject-record-q01", "text": "What questions and objects does metaphor take as its own?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "subject-record-q02", "text": "Which questions does it share with a neighbouring field, and who claims them?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "method", "name": "Method and evidence", "description": "How claims are established and what counts as evidence.", "findings": [ { "id": "method-record", "name": "Methods and standards of evidence", "description": "The methods used and what they are taken to establish.", "questions": [ { "id": "method-record-q01", "text": "By what methods does metaphor establish claims, and what counts as sufficient evidence?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "method-record-q02", "text": "What kind of claim can this field not settle, and where should an agent look instead?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "institutions-and-classification", "name": "Institutions and classification", "description": "Where metaphor is practised and how catalogues place it.", "rationale": "The institutional footprint is the evidence that a field exists as a field rather than as a topic.", "layers": [ { "id": "institutions", "name": "Institutional markers", "description": "Societies, journals, degrees and departments.", "findings": [ { "id": "institution-record", "name": "Bodies and venues", "description": "Where the field organises itself.", "questions": [ { "id": "institution-record-q01", "text": "Which societies, journals or degrees mark metaphor as an established field?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "institution-record-q02", "text": "What would show that it is emerging or dissolving rather than established?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification", "name": "Classification schemes", "description": "Where library and research classifications put it.", "findings": [ { "id": "classification-record", "name": "Codes and their disagreements", "description": "The classification codes that place it, and where they differ.", "questions": [ { "id": "classification-record-q01", "text": "Which classification schemes place metaphor, under what codes?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "classification-record-q02", "text": "Where do those schemes disagree about its scope?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a metaphor came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a metaphor and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a metaphor, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a metaphor, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a metaphor is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a metaphor is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a metaphor, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a metaphor, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a metaphor is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }