ABSTRACT
A simile, as we have seen, proposes a looser form of association. If we say, ‘James behaves like a spaniel’, we are inviting the listener to consider the way or ways in which James resembles a spaniel and, perhaps, even to adjudicate for him-or herself as to whether the comparison is apt. But similes depend, like all forms of metaphor, on a certain degree of common ground. If we were instead to have said, ‘James is like an armadillo’, we could reasonably expect considerably more puzzlement on the part of listeners as they try to work out in what way or ways James resembles an armadillo, which might be somewhat more testing in terms of our knowledge of, or assumptions about, natural history.
