Metaphor: Its Cognitive Force and Linguistic Structure

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Clarendon Press, 1990 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 358 pages
A detailed revision and refinement of the "semantic theory of metaphor," this book provides a comprehensive philosophical theory explicating metaphor's cognitive contribution. According to the author, metaphor effects a transference of meaning, not between two terms, but between two structured domains of content, or "semantic fields." Semantic fields, construed as necessary to a theory of word-meaning, provide the contrastive and affinitive relations that govern a term's literal use. In a metaphoric use, these relations are projected into a second domain which is thereby reordered with significant cognitive effects. Amply illustrated with sensitive and systematic analyses of metaphors found in literature, philosophy, science, and quotidian language, this book forges a new understanding of the relation between metaphoric and literal meaning.

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Contents

Introduction
1
Towards a Perspectival Theory
13
The Identification of Metaphor
40
A Relational
96
Interpreting Metaphor
140
A Critique
178
Semantic Field Theory
214
Semantic Fields and the Structure of Metaphor
258
Reference and Truth in Meta
301
Bibliography
328
Author Index
344
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About the author (1990)

Eva Feder Kittay is at State University of New York.

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