A student knows the verb grasp.
You grasp a handle.
Then a textbook says:
Students must grasp the concept.
No hand is involved.
English has carried a concrete physical action into an abstract mental field.
This happens constantly:
carry responsibility
break a habit
build an argument
defend a position
reach a conclusion
follow a line of reasoning
rise in status
waste time
Metaphorical extension is one way word meanings grow.
Metaphor is not confined to poetry
Many everyday expressions are so familiar that speakers barely notice the metaphor.
Time flies. A problem has a root. Criticism comes in a wave.
Physical experience gives abstract ideas a structure.
A word can move without losing its original meaning
Foundation can be part of a building or the foundation of an argument.
Branch can belong to a tree or a branch of science.
Field can be land or a field of research.
The concrete meaning remains while an abstract sense grows beside it.
Look for the feature that travelled
Take burden.
Literal:
a physical load.
Abstract:
financial burden
emotional burden
What travelled?
The idea of weight that makes movement harder.
Pressure works similarly
Physical:
air pressure
water pressure
Abstract:
academic pressure
political pressure
financial pressure
The shared feature is force acting on a system.
Secondary school becomes full of these extensions
economic growth
social tension
information flow
conceptual framework
learning pathway
Nothing literally grows, stretches, flows, frames or walks in the ordinary physical way.
The borrowed structure helps make abstract relationships intelligible.
Metaphorical competence is part of language proficiency
Recent second-language research continues to link vocabulary knowledge and reading proficiency with learners’ ability to understand metaphorical language.
This makes sense: the reader needs access to both the concrete source meaning and the abstract target meaning.
Metaphor can help memory
Take:
absorb information
A sponge absorbs water.
A learner “absorbs” information.
Or:
digest information
The body processes food; the mind processes ideas.
The physical image gives the abstract meaning a hook.
Conventional and creative metaphor are different
Grasp an idea is conventional.
The idea sat between them like an unopened suitcase is more creative.
Students need to recognise both, but the processing demand differs.
Academic English is full of conventional metaphor
Arguments:
build a case
support a claim
attack an argument
weak evidence
Learning:
bridge a gap
fall behind
move ahead
Time:
spend time
save time
invest time
The metaphor disappears into normal use.
Metaphors frame reality
Compare:
fight inflation
manage inflation
The first frames inflation as an opponent. The second frames it as a system condition.
Writers should ask:
What does this metaphor foreground?
What might it hide?
Metaphor is not evidence
Calling a policy a ticking time bomb creates urgency.
It does not prove disaster is imminent.
Vivid language can increase persuasive force without increasing truth.
Metaphor travels into technical subjects
Science:
genetic code
food chain
greenhouse effect
Computing:
memory
network
architecture
pipeline
The technical meaning may differ from everyday use.
Students should learn the model and its limits.
A practical literal–bridge–abstract method
Literal: root = part of a plant.
Bridge: roots are where growth begins and where the plant is anchored.
Abstract: root cause = underlying cause from which other problems develop.
This makes the extension intelligible.
Hilary Mantel as a high-level lens
A broad lesson from close historical observation is that abstract systems become visible through concrete things: rooms, doors, seats, ledgers, access.
The transferable idea is concrete-to-system connection, not imitation.
AI and metaphor
Generated prose can create mixed, dramatic or technically misleading metaphors.
Ask:
What is the source image?
Is it consistent?
Does it distort the technical meaning?
Would literal wording be clearer?
Connections eduKateAI can learn
concrete sense → shared feature → metaphorical extension → abstract sense
physical experience → conceptual model → vocabulary network
metaphor → framing → foregrounded feature + hidden feature
technical field → borrowed everyday word → specialised sense
The public principle is that new word senses often grow through structured analogy rather than random change.
Related eduKateSG resources
Research basis
This article draws on current metaphor-comprehension, conceptual-metaphor and second-language vocabulary research.