Metaphor sound

In his poem Splinter, Carl Sandburg uses metaphor and sound to suggest loss. 

To support your assertion, you will need to discuss the poem s content, structure, and style. But that s only part of the task. In addition to telling the readers why you think what you do about the poem, you also need to show them the evidence that led you to your conclusion. Thus, you can tell readers that the poem suggests loss by the repetition of the short i sound, known as a phonetic intensive, in line 4 (thin, splinter, singing). You can also explain how metaphor is used to emphasize the same theme, and show evidence by quoting the last line, which describes the voice of the last cricket by comparing it to a thin splinter. 

All this sounds more like a metaphor and this is probably why the idea was so catchy - it draws on visual evidence of simple and well-known mechanisms. However, from a metaphor to a chemical reality there is a wide gap - how proteins... 

The reason that the illicit use of these drugs is so difficult to curb is not only because they elevate vigilance, but also because they greatly enhance mental energy, elevate mood, increase physical strength, and maximize sexual potency. This sounds like a dream, in the metaphorical sense, and indeed, some actual dreams have these desirable qualities, but the stimulants do not produce otherwise dreamlike mentation even when they trigger psychoses. The similarities between dopamine and cocaine can be appreciated in figure 15.2. 

The sound of a ticking clock in a scene may be simply part of ambient sound, or, as in High Noon, serve as a metaphor for the passage of time, bringing the hero inexorably closer to a showdown he does not want. Sometimes the long wail of a locomotive reminds us that our character lives near railroad tracks ... 

Sound used as metaphor can create a whole dimension of meaning not immediately apparent in the visual images of a scene. It is one of the more powerful tools available to us in writing the short screenplay. 

One more step remains to exploit fully the visualization process. Look over your story, rethink it, and rewrite it as a silent film. Distancing yourself from language will help you think and make writing decisions visually. Now that you have thought about your script in visual terms, we recommend that you add sound in order to include another level of credibility. Sound can also help you introduce a level of metaphor to the story. We will discuss this point in the following section. 

Notice that this is a deceptively simple, yet highly powerful, passage. The passage may be best absorbed when read aloud, in a slightly marching, monotonous tone. You and your learner might discuss how close to poetry the passage is and why (use of rhythm, alliteration, assonance, repetition of words, sounds, phrases, metaphor, and so on). 

Implementation of sound design practices, including the use of requirements definition, user profile development, tasks analysis, and task allocation Setting usability objectives that focus around effectiveness, intuitiveness, and subjective perception Iterative usability evaluation Identification of users mental models Identification of appropriate metaphors... 

Whether or not Kuhn is aware of this (and there is no indication of this in his writing), the idea of any attachment of language to the world itself is metaphorical. Ernst Cassirer, on the other hand makes this an explicit claim that lies at the basis of his Philosophy of Symbolic Forms. For Cassirer, the very act of speech, the act of attaching thought to a medium that is fundamentally different from thought (i.e., sound) is itself an embodiment of metaphor, as one thing is made to stand for another. Cassirer also notes that radical metaphors don t merely point out similarities and dissimilarities, they institute them. This is one manner in which metaphorical commitment has practical, even material impact. 

As a metaphor to understand the fundamentals of waveshaping synthesis, imagine a note played on an electric stringed instrument connected to a vacuum-tube amplifier. If the volume knob of the amplifier is increased to its maximum, the vacuum-tubes will be saturated and the sound will clip and if the amplitude of the note is increased at its origin, before entering the amplifier, then the output will clip even more. If the note is a sinusoid, the louder the input, the more squared the output wave will be. If the note has a complex spectrum, then the output will be a signal blurred by distortion. 

When designing synthesis instruments, we should give preference to those techniques that best fit the way we understand the sound phenomena we want to work with. For example, whilst those composers interested in timbral manipulation will be better off working with analysis and resynthesis techniques (Chapter 3), those working with scientific metaphors (e.g. dynamic systems, cellular automata, etc.) would certainly prefer to use granular or statistical synthesis methods (Chapter 5). 

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