Sunday, July 29, 2007

Metaphor

How is it possible for the speaker to say metaphorically "S is P" and means "S is R", when P plainly does not mean R? page 103


Rejecting traditional theories, comparison theory and interaction view as theory of meaning for Metaphor, Searle ("Expression and meaning") partially endorses them as theory of interpretation.


First he must have some strategy for determining whether or not he has o seek metaphorical interpretation f the utterance in the first place. Second....he must have some set of strategies ...for courting possible values of R. and third, he must have a set of strategies..for restricting range of Rs....page 105


Thus.
It is sometimes said that the notion of similarity plays a crucial role in the analysis of a metaphor, or that metaphorical utterance are dependent on the context for their interpretation. But...both of these features are true of literal utterances as well. page 93
(Comparison theory)

When you hear "S is P", to find possible values of R looks for ways i which S might be like P, and to fill in the respect in which S might be like P. look for salient, well known, and distinction feature of P things. page 106

Go back to the S term and see which of the many candidates for the values of R are likely or even possible properties of S
(Interaction theory)



Literal utterance
A speaker says S is P and mean S is P
P=R
sentence meaning and utterance meaning coincide.

Indirect speech act
Speaker means what he says, but he means something more as well. Thus utterance meaning includes sentence meaning but extends beyond it.
P⊃R
Ironical utterance.
Speaker means the opposite of what he says. Utterance meaning is arrived at by going through sentence meaning and hen doubling back to the opposite of sentence meaning.

Metaphorical Utterance(simple)
Speaker says S is P but means metaphorically that S is R. utterance meaning is arrived at by going through their sentence meaning.

Metaphorical utterance(open ended)
Speaker says S is P but means metaphorically an indefinite range of meanings. S is R1,R2,etc. As in the simple case . metaphorical meaning is arrived at by going though literal meaning.
P≠R1, R2....


Dead Metaphor.
Original sentence meaning is bypasses and the sentence acquires a new literal meaning identical with the former metaphorical meaning .
R≠old P
R=new P


some principles(strategies);

P1 R will be one of the salient defining characteristics.
Sam is a giant.
Sam is big.

P2 R should be a salient of well known property of P things.
Sam is pig.
Sam is filthy, gluttonous and sloppy, etc.

P3 Things which are P are often believed to be R
Richard is gorilla.
Richard is mean, nasty , prone to violence, and so on.

P4 It is a fact about sensibility , whether culturally or naturally determined, that we just do perceive a connection, so that P is associated in our mind with R properties.

Sally is a block of ice.
Sally is unemotional.

P5 the condition of being P is like the condition of R

You have become an aristocrat.

P6 P and R are the similar in meaning but P is usually restricted in its application.
His brain is addled.

P7 Go S-P relation to S-R relation based on the above principles.

The ship ploughs the sea.
(ploughing is b definition partly a matter of moving a substance to either side of a pointed object while the object moves forward.
......etc.

Given that a speaker and a hearer have shared linguistic and factual knowledge sufficient to enable them to communicate literal utterances, the following strategy and principles are individually necessary and collectively sufficient to enable speaker and hearer to form and comprehend utterances of the from S is P, where the speaker means metaphorically that S is R (where P≠R). page 112)



It is often the case that we use metaphor precisely because there is no literal expression that expresses exactly what we mean. page 114



Metaphor works only against shared belief about the sense and referent of the word.

Literal meaning

In general notion of the literal meaning of a sentence only has application relative to a set of contextual or background assumptions. page 117


For Searle, literal meaning is the base on which we interpret the metaphor.


What then is truth? A movable host of metaphors, metonymy's, and; anthropomorphisms: in short, a sum of human relations which have been poetically and rhetorically intensified, transferred, and embellished, and which, after long usage, seem to a people to be fixed, canonical, and binding. Truths are illusions which we have forgotten are illusions- they are metaphors that have become worn out and have been drained of sensuous force, coins which have lost their embossing and are now considered as metal and no longer as coins.Friedrich Nietzsche


On my reading , for Nietze, metaphor is the primordial usage of language and the literal meaning is derivative of metaphor; After long usage and social practice and sanction, it just happens to look as if it was fixed, canonical, binding, hiding the playful aspect of language.



METAPHOR AND MEANING
William Grey

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