60
it can cause a severe pain. He says it to tell the assistant how disappointed he is and to expect the assistant to be more helpful.
d. Metaphor
Metaphor is a strategy to flout maxim of quality by making a statement to make the others believe that something is something else. An example of this
strategy’s use can be seen below. David: Then he became a spin doctor for the government, and it all went a bit
tits-up. Is that a fair summation, Martin?
Martin: Thats fair enough. I always say, If you shovel shit for long enough, eventually youll get some on your shoes.
8QTTM Martin, who comes to a restaurant, meets his old friends. David, one of his old
friends, introduces him to other people. However, he also tells a bit about his past. He says that he used to be a spin doctor who worked for the government before he
was dismissed. After hearing David’s summation, Martin gives a metaphor as a response. He
says ‘If you shovel shit for long enough, eventually youll get some on your shoes’, which means that if someone is involved in a bad activity for too long, it will affect
him badly, which is similar to his past because he thinks that journalism is awful. He becomes unemployed after being a journalist for a long time. In other words, he says
a metaphor that resembles his awful past. Another example of metaphor can be seen on another dialogue between
Martin and Philomena. The topic is Saint Christopher.
61
Philomena: Thats for good luck. Martin : Ive always thought that Saint Christopher was a bit of a Mickey
Mouse saint. I used to be an altar boy.
15QLMT When Martin and Philomena is their way to Sean Ross, the latter hangs a medallion
of Saint Christopher on the rear-view mirror and she says that it is for good luck. Martin, who does not believe in God, compares the Saint to Mickey mouse, a
fictional character which is lousy, as an expression of disapproval. In other words, he flouts maxim of quality by giving a metaphor, since he makes Philomena see the
Saint as something that resembles him. The last dialogue that contains this strategy is the dialogue between Martin
and Alex. They talk about Martin’s dismissal. Alex : I hope you didnt think I dropped you in it.
Martin: Dont worry about it. The fog of war.
21QLMT The setting is inside an aeroplane. Martin meets Alex, his old friend, coincidentally
there when he is taking Philomena to America. Alex feels guilty because he thinks that Martin was dismissed because of him.
In this case, Martin tells Alex to stop worrying about it and says ‘the fog of war’, a metaphor that resembles Martin’s past. Since fog tends to confuse people, and
his scandal is like a war, he says ‘the fog of war’. The word ‘war’ itself means conflict, and in this case, it means Martin’s scandal. He says that to convince Alex
62
that he got dismissed because of the confusion in his scandal and his friend is not the one to blame. In short, he flouts maxim of quality by using a metaphor.
e. Irony
