Metaphors

Whilst analysing what people have told me, I'm enjoying the metaphors they use. Personally I cope better with visual metaphors, such as "walking through treacle", though some people use metaphors of taste such as "palatable promises". On reflection, I see the walk through the treacle, but perhaps someone else would feel the viscosity, and someone else would taste the treacle.

My colleague has just asked me if I'm transcribing everything, including the "erms" and "ers". But the ums and ers, and the "you knows" tell me something about the speaker in the same way as the metaphors do. One person used a lot of visual metaphors, another used only a few metaphors but more mechanistic, or I can't see the metaphors. One person used a lot of ums and ers whilst thinking about what the next word would be, or how to express something, whereas another had so many 'you knows' that I had to think there was an expectation that I understood, would agree, could encourage a somewhat perhaps shy or diffident character.