Examples of Mixed Metaphors and Cliches

As defined in our glossary, a mixed metaphor is a succession of incongruous or ludicrous comparisons. When two or more metaphors (or cliches) are jumbled together, often illogically, we say that these comparisons are mixed. In Garners Modern American Usage, Bryan A. Garner offers this classic example of a mixed metaphor from a speech by Boyle Roche in the Irish Parliament: Mr. Speaker, I smell a rat. I see him floating in the air. But mark me, sir, I will nip him in the bud. This sort of mixed metaphor may occur when a speaker is so familiar with the figurative sense of a phrase (smell a rat, nip in the bud) that he fails to recognize the absurdity that results from a literal reading. Now and then a writer may deliberately introduce mixed metaphors as a way of exploring an idea. Consider this example from British journalist Lynne Truss: Well, if punctuation is the stitching of language, language comes apart, obviously, and all the buttons fall off. If punctuation provides the traffic signals, words bang into each other and everyone ends up in Minehead. If one can bear for a moment to think of punctuation marks as those invisibly beneficent fairies (Im sorry), our poor deprived language goes parched and pillowless to bed. And if you take the courtesy analogy, a sentence no longer holds the door open for you to walk in, but drops it in your face as you approach. Some readers may be amused by this sort of metaphorical mix; others may find it tiresomely twee. In most cases, mixed metaphors are accidental, and the haphazard juxtaposition of images is likely to be more comical or perplexing than revealing. So stick these examples in your pipe and chew them over. So now what we are dealing with is the rubber meeting the road, and instead of biting the bullet on these issues, we just want to punt.[T]he bill is mostly a stew of spending on existing programs, whatever their warts may be.A friend of mine, talking about the Democratic presidential candidates, tossed out a wonderful mixed metaphor: This is awfully weak tea to have to hang your hat on.The mayor has a heart as big as the Sahara for protecting his police officers, and that is commendable. Unfortunately, he also often strips his gears by failing to engage the clutch when shifting what emanates from his brain to his mouth. The bullets he fires too often land in his own feet.The walls had fallen down and the Windows had opened, making the world much flatter than it had ever been -- but the age of seamless global communication had not yet dawned.Ive spent a lot of time in the subways, said Shwa. Its a dank and dark experience. You feel morbid. The environment contributes to the fear that develops in men and women. The moment that you walk into the bowels of the armpit of the cesspool of crime, you immediately cringe.Anyone who gets in the way of this cunning steamroller will find himself on a card-index file and then in hot -- very hot -- water.A Pentagon staffer, complaining that efforts to reform the military have been too timid: Its just ham-fisted salami-slicing by the bean counters.All at once, he was alone in this noisy hive with no place to roost.Top Bush hands are starting to get sweaty about where they left their fingerprints. Scapegoating the rotten apples at the bottom of the militarys barrel may not be a slam-dunk escape route from accountability anymore.It is easy to condemn Thurmond, Byrd and their fellow pork barons. Few of us would hail a career spent stewarding the federal gravy train as the vocation of a statesman.Rather than wallowing in tears, let this passionate community strike while the iron is hot. It probably won’t cost the National P ark Service a single penny, will be no skin off its nose, will heal the community and it presents a golden opportunity for first-person interpretation.Federal Judge Susan Webber Wright stepped up to the plate and called a foul.[Robert D.] Kaplan keeps getting into scrapes at the keyboard. I wanted a visual sense of the socioeconomic stew in which Al Qaeda flourished. You smile in admiration, as at something rare, like a triple play; its a double mixed metaphor. Remember this: Keep an eye on your metaphors and an ear to the ground so that you dont end up with your foot in your mouth. Sources Lynne Truss,  Eats, Shoots Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, 2003 Chicago Tribune, cited by  The New Yorker, August 13, 2007 The New York Times, January 27, 2009 Montgomery Advertiser, Alabama, cited by  The New Yorker, November 16, 1987 Bob Herbert, Behind the Curtain,  The New York Times, November 27, 2007 Thomas L. Friedman,  The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, 2005 Our Town, N.Y., cited by  The New Yorker, March 27, 2000 Len Deighton,  Winter: A Novel of a Berlin Family, 1988 The Wall Street Journal, May 9, 1997 Tom Wolfe,  The Bonfire of the Vanities Frank Rich,  The New York Times, July 18, 2008 Jonathan Freedland,  Bring Home The Revolution, 1998 Daily Astorian, cited by  The New Yorker, April 21, 2006 Catherine Crier,  The Case Against Lawyers, 2002 David Lipsky, Appropriating the Globe,  The New York Times, November 27, 2005 Garner, Bryan A. Garners Modern American Usage. 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press, October 30, 2003.

Ama Marketing and Definition - 5314 Words

The American Marketing Association’s New Definition of Marketing: Perspective and Commentary on the 2007 Revision Gregory T. Gundlach and William L. Wilkie In a follow-up to the fall 2007 special section of Journal of Public Policy Marketing that examined implications of the American Marketing Association’s (AMA’s) 2004 definition of marketing, the authors examine the AMA’s revision of its definition—the new 2007 definition of marketing. The article first describes the concerns about the 2004 offering and then traces the process taken by the AMA to consider these issues and revise the definition. The authors conclude that the new definition addresses many of the major issues with the 2004 definition that had been identified by scholars†¦show more content†¦In addition, commentary can be found in Lusch and Vargo (2006) (e.g., essays by Laczniak 2006; Lehmann 2006; Levy 2006; Wilkie and Moore 2006). 4Three of these people—Shelby D. Hunt, William L. Wilkie, and Debra J. Ringold (as AMA chairperson)—were especially involved in the facilitation of this process. 5Edited by Gregory T. Gundlac h (2007), the special section contributors included Debra J. Ringold and Barton A. Weitz, Robert F. Lusch, William L. Wilkie and Elizabeth S. Moore, Shelby D. Hunt, George M. Zinkhan and Brian C. Williams, David Glen Mick, Clifford J. Shultz II, and Jagdish N. Sheth and Can Uslay. Journal of Public Policy Marketing Vol. 28 (2) Fall 2009, 259–264 Gregory T. Gundlach is Coggin Distinguished Professor of Marketing, Department of Marketing Logistics, University of North Florida, and Senior Research Fellow, American Antitrust Institute, Washington, D.C. (e-mail: ggundlac@unf.edu). William L. Wilkie is Nathe Professor of Marketing, College of Business, University of Notre Dame (e-mail: wwilkie@nd.edu).  © 2009, American Marketing Association ISSN: 0743-9156 (print), 1547-7207 (electronic) 259 260 AMA’s New Definition of Marketing long been recognized to be vital parts of marketing. Defining marketing in a way that captured all the constituents involved in marketing was considered essential to anyShow MoreRelatedCompare Alternative Definition of Marketing913 Words   |  4 Pages1a. Marketing term appeared firstly in United State in the early 20th century and then spread to Europe and Asia. 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Classical Conditioning in My Life Free Essays

I experienced a food aversion when I took an anti-allergy medicine with water. When I was seven, I had an allergy on cats. When the allergy started, I took very nasty and bitter pills with water. We will write a custom essay sample on Classical Conditioning in My Life or any similar topic only for you Order Now In time whenever I drank water without the pills, I felt bitterness in my mouth. I didn’t drink water since then. Only in five years I started to drink water again. At first I felt bitterness in my mouth from the medicine which I took with water together. Therefore my unconditioned stimulus was the medicine, and the unconditioned response was the bitterness. When I didn’t have cats around anymore and stopped to use the medicine, I felt bitterness whenever I drank the water. Therefore my conditioned stimulus was the water while the conditioned response was the bitterness. Adolescent Emotional Experience When I lived in Russia, I often came home from school in a bad mood because I could not get along with my classmates. When I came from school, I tried to relax and either watched the movie or to do other things. Once I tried to relax by listening to the songs. I put my favorite song on and listened. Somehow I started to go over the things that happened at school. I became sad because I realized that I had no friends except for my family. The next few days I spent time listening to that song again. However, now that song made me feel sad. Now I don’t listen to that song because I don’t want to feel sad again. In this case the unconditioned stimulus is the things that happened at school while the unconditioned response is my sadness and loneliness because when I remembered them I felt bad. The conditioned stimulus is the song and the conditioned response is sadness because whenever I listened to that song I became sad. Fear or Phobia My friend is afraid of the large vehicles. When she was a child, she walked with her mother a lot. The park was far away from home, so they had to walk near the road to come there. The big vehicles were noisy. She didn’t like the noise in general. Later she was scared every time the vehicles beeped and started to cry. She was afraid of the loud and quick noises, and she still is. Now she closes her ears every time the noisy vehicle approaches. The unconditioned stimulus is the noise which caused the fear, the unconditioned response. The conditioned stimulus is the big vehicles which later produced the fear, the conditioned response. How to cite Classical Conditioning in My Life, Papers