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When I say broad features and narrow features, are the "broad" and "narrow" here metaphors for "general" and "specific" or do they mean "big" and "small"?

Supposing broad features of the American economy and we mention one by one its employment, industries etc. Here is the word broad a metaphor for general?

Actually what I am confused about is when we say "broad" features or "narrow features" do the words "broad" and "narrow" here mean literally big and small or metaphorically general and specific? what do "broad" and "narrow" here mean?

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  • Yes sure.What is your say on this?
    – Rrrrhh
    Commented Mar 5, 2019 at 17:14

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Broad and narrow are certainly metaphors in most cases. They refer to measurements of certain kinds. They're not really the same as 'general' and 'specific', though they can be used that way in some contexts.

Literally, broad can be used to describe a river, a path, or a road (meaning 'wide'). Note that all of them have to do with unidirectional motion along some two-dimensional path, river, road, trail of footprints, etc. It is opposed by narrow (meaning 'thin') in these uses.

In non-literal metaphoric use, broad and narrow usually appear as part of a Path metaphor, like

  • Life is a Path He takes the straight and narrow path to salvation.
  • Achieving a Goal is Following a Path He gave that problem a broad clearance.
  • Thinking is Following a Path We are in broad agreement about the plans.

In each of these the broadness or narrowness refers to the path involved, which is a further elaboration.

In the first one, narrow refers to the large amount of self-discipline required (or at least asserted) in order to stay within specified bounds.

In the second one, give a wide berth refers to avoiding a problem (itself a path metaphor) while moving to achieve some further goal -- wide refers specifically to the large distance between the moving agent and the problem avoided

In the third one, broad agreement means 'agreement in principle, without details specified' -- i.e, there is some distance between the two participants, which may get smaller as they move into closer (though not *narrower) agreement.

All of these and most metaphoric uses are idiomatic, and refer to larger metaphor schemas it's coherent with, like Path or Container.

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  • I would take issue with "unidirectional motion along some two-dimensional path". broad vistas: google.com/… and broad skies google.com/… and broad oceans google.com/… and broad meadows google.com/…
    – TimR
    Commented Mar 5, 2019 at 23:11
  • Where broad means something like "expansive".
    – TimR
    Commented Mar 5, 2019 at 23:17
  • Here in the below Link. When we say Broad features of the Garo kinship. We mention one of them to be that they follow matriliny. When we say it to be a broad feature, what do we mean by broad here? If "They follow matriliny" is a broad feature how is it broad and how can some feature be more specific?
    – Rrrrhh
    Commented Mar 6, 2019 at 4:51
  • owlgen.com/question/…
    – Rrrrhh
    Commented Mar 6, 2019 at 4:54
  • Another example would be when we say broad features of the american economy, we mention one of them to be its "employment". Here too how is it broad? The feature i.e employment seems to specific to me and not broad in any sense, so we are we using the word broad here?
    – Rrrrhh
    Commented Mar 6, 2019 at 5:07
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The terms broad and narrow have a literal meaning that refers to the width of something. A broad valley. A narrow tunnel.

They can be used figuratively to refer to something that is abstract as if it were something physical or "concrete".

That's a rather broad question.

Can we focus on the narrow issue of whether plaintiff has standing?

There, broad means encompassing many features or elements (each of which could be dealt with on its own) and narrow means limited in scope.

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  • Okay. But do they mean in the above context that I have put forward.When referring to features, obviously can't be wide so the literal meaning of broad there would be general/basic, and the meaning of narrow "specific" in a methaporical sense, right? Can General and specific be the two best synonyms?
    – Rrrrhh
    Commented Mar 5, 2019 at 17:22
  • Sorry, I don't understand your comment. general is sometimes a decent synonym for broad and sometimes not. broad does not mean "basic".
    – TimR
    Commented Mar 5, 2019 at 17:24
  • There is a difference between "wide" and "General". Wide has to ecompass many things but General doesn't need to. Something can be General and not have narrow elements within them.So what would be the single terms "broad" and "narrow" here?
    – Rrrrhh
    Commented Mar 5, 2019 at 17:26
  • Where is "here"? I don't know what you're referring to.
    – TimR
    Commented Mar 5, 2019 at 17:27
  • Oh sorry. "Broad" articles of the consitution for suppose, here we are mentioning the Main articles and not the minor ones. So here Broad isn't ecompassing anything still it is broad, how?
    – Rrrrhh
    Commented Mar 5, 2019 at 17:29

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