[lojban] how universal are metaphors?

[jongausib <so.cool.ogi@gmail.com>]

I don't know, but I assume that the use of metaphors is very cultural
dependent.

gusni stedu for example is probable a swedishism, meaning a smart
person (usually in a sarcastic sense). Probably not so obvious for non-
swedish people.
It would therefore be interesting to know if some kind of metaphors
are more universal than others, so you could know more or less what
kind of tanru is likely to be understood by lojbanists all over the
world.
I've heard that body-parts like head, legs, ear are widely used by
different cultures to describe details of external objects. So do you
think that metaphors like cup-type of ear, hammer-type of head, chair-
type of leg, neck-type of clock (hourglass) makes sense in most
cultures?
In vlasisku you can see that many definitions of body-parts has an
explicit metaphor part, for example stedu [metaphor: uppermost
portion]. Does this mean that it's ok to make tanru/lujvo with stedu
as a metaphorical part, like tricu stedu (=crown of tree)?
/mu'o mi'e jongausib

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