cross-linguistic metaphors (fwd)

[Rory M Larson]

Bob wrote:
> What I find interesting is the fact that, after centuries
> of interactions with Germans and lots of bilingualism,
> this metaphor hasn't penetrated Czech.  I'd have expected
> it to be more or less pan-European.

Does this metaphor exist even in German?  I'm looking in an unabridged 
Collins dictionary, and I see almost nothing in there to support what 
we're looking for.  An idea can be glaenzend, which means 'shiny' or 
'lustrous', as can a success or one's prospects.  But a person is 
intelligent, klug, schlau, aufgeweckt ("woken-up"), gewitzt or gescheit. 
As far as I know, none of these indicates luminousity.  'Stupid', 
'fool(ish)' or 'dimwit' gets dumm, bloed, Narr, Tor, Schwachkopf 
("weak-head") and daemlich.  Daemlich looks like it might possibly be 
related to a set of "daemmer" words that float around the meaning of 
'dusk' or 'twilight'.  If so, it's the only German usage I see that really 
works for this metaphor.

In a (much smaller) French dictionary, I find even less support for it. 
'Intelligent', 'smart' and 'clever' get intelligent, vif ("lively"), 
eveille ("wide-awake"), habile ("able") and adroit ("right-handed"?). 
'Stupid', 'dumb' and 'fool(ish)' get stupide, sot, imbecile, fou, bouffon 
and bete ("beast").  'Dim' merely gets us sombre, indistinct and terne, 
which seem to have no reference to intelligence.  Both dictionaries 
recognize the metaphorical English use of "bright" and offer "intelligent" 
as a translation, but no native luminousity metaphor for the same idea.

I took a quick look at some Oxford English Dictionary entries for 
"bright", "brilliant", "dim" and "dim-wit".  It looks to me like the 
metaphor developed in two stages in English.  In the early 18th century, 
philosophers were using such luminousity terms as metaphors for 
"enlightenment" and understanding.  "Dim" as a metaphor for poor vision 
goes back to the 16th century and probably played a supporting role in the 
inability-to-see/understand metaphor.  "Bright" and "dim" as terms for 
native intelligence seem to have developed in the 19th century as a 
humorous colloquialization of the enlightenment metaphor.  The term 
"dim-wit" seems to have appeared first in the 1920s.  Prior to the 18th 
century, "bright" was used metaphorically on people to say that they were 
beautiful, fair and comely; "brilliant" meant that they were 
distinguished, elegant and high-class.

Equation of intelligence to luminousity does not seem to be a universal 
metaphor at all, or even pan-European.  As far as I can tell, it is a 
peculiar development in English that took place in the last three hundred 
years.

Rory
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