ET228 Metaphors for language by Tilly Harrison

Tilly

tilly_harrison — 2025-09-22 14:16:05 UTC

Language is a path in the woods. It is made by people repeating the same actions. It helps us navigate the world and get to places we haven't been to before. A language is an individual path - perhaps windy, perhaps stony under foot, perhaps surrounded by different trees. Each path is unique but it serves the people who use it.

Trung

2025-10-05 19:39:09 UTC

Language is a river. Many different sources contributes to it. It is ever-changing and flowing. It brings life and nourishes communities. It can also be a marker of identity: one often finds rivers serving as border markers (part of the river above serves to mark the border between Sweden and Finland).

Molly

2025-10-06 09:19:16 UTC

Language is a clock. Constantly changing and never staying the same. Always evolving and moving on second by second. A language is the seconds ticking by, uniform but at different rates all over the world.

Max

2025-10-06 09:20:10 UTC

Language is a gift. It allows us to show our love for one another, but can also create awkward moments if one does not like said gift.

2025-10-06 09:20:20 UTC

Language is a city with seperate boroughs and neighbours (different languages and dialects) where people will move around depending on their needs.

Michelle

2025-10-06 09:20:25 UTC

Language is a pair of sunglasses. It changes the way you see the world.

2025-10-06 09:20:41 UTC

Language is a tree. A language is the branches coming off it. It grows into new stems as more variants blossom.

Keira - language is a strand of DNA

2025-10-06 09:22:03 UTC

It is the coding of the values, stories, and identity of a people, passed down and reshaped through generations.

Ruby

2025-10-06 09:22:07 UTC

Language is an ocean. Continuously flowing like language.

Daisy

2025-10-06 09:22:11 UTC

Language is a cloud. It never stays still.

Language is a puzzle

2025-10-06 09:22:14 UTC

It is full of different components that come together to create a meaning like when the pieces of the puzzle come together to create the bigger picture.

Ellie

2025-10-06 09:22:37 UTC

Language is a museum. It documents evolution and change over time across communities and the world.

Megan

2025-10-06 09:22:52 UTC

Language is a mirror. It is used to express ourselves and often serves as a reflection of ourselves as we share our own opinions, experiences and morals.

Saoirse

2025-10-06 09:23:01 UTC

Language is a box. A language is the chocolates you get inside.

Language is a bouquet of flowers and a language is a flower. There are so many of them and they are very different. Yet somehow they work wonderfully together and compliment each other. Alisa :)

2025-10-06 09:23:09 UTC

Ella

2025-10-06 09:24:03 UTC

Language is a heart. A living and breathing organ of humanity. Like a heart, languages are present across a vast range of organisms. The mother tongue of an individual is also something considered personal and a key aspect of identity. The heart is central to life and feeling, just as language is in communicating this. The heart also works as part of a larger machine, similar to the relationship between language and society.

Phoebe

2025-10-06 09:25:20 UTC

Language is a university.

It is then broken down into all the different degrees and modules within it that represent the different aspects.

Chiara

2025-10-06 09:25:23 UTC

Language is a camera, you can use it to show people how you see the world.

A language is a filter that modifies how you read the world.

Yasmeen

2025-10-06 13:00:07 UTC

Language is a globe. It holds countless lands, each with its own shape, colour, and way of life.

Some regions are close and easily connected, while others are distant and unfamiliar. As we travel, we discover new sounds, meanings, and ways of seeing the world, yet all belong to the same sphere. No language floats alone in space, each touches another at its edges, sharing words, ideas, and cultures. Together, they form one round, living world that we all inhabit, endlessly turning and changing with the people who speak it.

Molly

2025-10-20 12:56:46 UTC

Language is a key that unlocks access to knowledge, opportunities, and society.