The political conflict in America, including the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, rests in part upon a language distinction. When does a speaker or writer mean something ...

"I love you so much I could eat you up," a mother might say to her child. Chances are, the mother will be met with a confused and possibly concerned look. What does she actually mean? To grasp this, ...

So accustomed are we to metaphors related to taste that when we hear a kind smile described as "sweet," or a resentful comment as "bitter," we most likely don't even think of those words as metaphors.

In Jonathan Swift’s satirical novel Gulliver’s Travels, the sea-faring Lemuel Gulliver tries to explain human nature to a member of a species of intelligent and purely rational horses called ...

What’s the most persuasive way to convey a message? Many writers say, “Tell a story!” Nothing hooks like narrative. I’ve said so myself. But research shows stories have a rival for hooking power: ...