Is 'broad and narrow features' metaphorical?

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?

Solution 1:

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.

Solution 2:

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.