Blog 2

As I began reading Erard’s article a second time, I found myself reading more in depth to the words he wrote. I was able to dive deeper into the real meaning behind the words he was saying and truly understand what he wanted the audience to believe/see. For instance, in the beginning of the story he wrote that if someone heard the phrase “a paintbrush is a kind of pump” they may believe that it was a mistake and not what another person meant to say. However, once you really think about the similarities between the two objects, a pump and a paintbrush, you realize the connection that both move water in some way. Thus, more connections can be created or thought up due to the original idea.  Erard also discusses “dual reference” in terms of words that are being used in a metaphor. I understood the meaning of dual reference when re-reading the passage and looking at the examples given to get the overall idea of what it meant. I realized that these words have their own literal mean like a rock is literally a thing that is on the ground outdoors. However, it has another meaning of being stable or strong such as a person in someone’s life being a rock. The person is not literally a rock but a dependable source of strength for another individual which shows how a rock has dual reference because it has two meanings and fits into more than one category.

One word I “glossed” was the word “salient”. The word salient describes something noticeable or significantly important or standing out. Discovering the meaning of this word allowed me to understand what the author was trying to say about family and their significance in society. He was describing the family as the most significant social piece in our society and how making a metaphor that refers to family needs to be taken with extreme caution because an audience could take the metaphor to a negative level the author did not intend to if it is not written correctly.