Metaphor in Context (Bradford Book) - Softcover

Stern, William H Colvin Professor Of Philosophy Josef

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0262529580 ISBN 13: 9780262529587

Publisher: MIT Press, 2016

Synopsis

Josef Stern addresses the question: Given the received conception of the form and goals of semantic theory, does metaphorical interpretation, in whole or part, fall within its scope?

The many philosophers, linguists, and cognitive scientists writing on metaphor over the past two decades have generally taken for granted that metaphor lies outside, if not in opposition to, received conceptions of semantics and grammar. Assuming that metaphor cannot be explained by or within semantics, they claim that metaphor has little, if anything, to teach us about semantic theory. In this book Josef Stern challenges these assumptions. He is concerned primarily with the question: Given the received conception of the form and goals of semantic theory, does metaphorical interpretation, in whole or part, fall within its scope? Specifically, he asks, what (if anything) does a speaker-hearer know as part of her semantic competence when she knows the interpretation of a metaphor?

According to Stern, the answer to these questions lies in the systematic context-dependence of metaphorical interpretation. Drawing on a deep analogy between demonstratives, indexicals, and metaphors, Stern develops a formal theory of metaphorical meaning that underlies a speaker's ability to interpret a metaphor. With his semantics, he also addresses a variety of philosophical and linguistic issues raised by metaphor. These include the interpretive structure of complex extended metaphors, the cognitive significance of metaphors and their literal paraphrasability, the pictorial character of metaphors, the role of similarity and exemplification in metaphorical interpretation, metaphor-networks, dead metaphors, the relation of metaphors to other figures, and the dependence of metaphors on literal meanings. Unlike most metaphor theorists, however, who take these problems to be sui generis to metaphor, Stern subsumes them under the same rubric as other semantic facts that hold for nonmetaphorical language.

About this title

About the Author

Josef Stern is Professor in the Department of Philosophy and the Committee on Jewish Studies at the University of Chicago.

Review

Stern's rigorous and stimulating book located metaphor at the heart of the philosophy of language. A remarkable piece of work, broad in scope, artful, and a great read.

―Stephen Neale, Professor of Philosophy, Rutgers University

Edition details

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262529580
• ISBN 13: 9780262529587
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 406