I thought this deserved a post of its own!
For those who need some background information, Abrams’s A Glossary of Literary Terms (7th ed.) says that a “mixed metaphor conjoins two or more obviously diverse metaphorical vehicles. When used inadvertently, without sensitivity to the possible incongruity of the vehicles, the effect can be ludicrous” (98; author’s emphasis).
And that concludes our Sensitivity to the Nuances in Language lessons for today. Lim Swee Say’s sweesayisms, unfortunately, are in a class of their own, and will have to be discussed another day.
