Toward understanding metaphor

The aim of the paper is to present different approaches on the study of metaphor from the point of view of metaphor comprehension. The central question of my attention will be “how metaphor works” as viewed by different theories on metaphor. There are also some other questions related to it, which I will focus on:

1. Why do people use metaphors?

2. If metaphorical utterance is given out of the context, do speakers agree on the most likely interpretations?

Paying some attention to metonymy with the aim in view of answering the same question about metonymy comprehension, I will also try to consider the following issues. Why is it possible to say “Hemingway is unique and interesting. I like him (meaning definitely his works), but the phrase “Mary was tasty (meaning by Mary the cheesecake that Mary made) is absolutely absurd, though the model is the same?

Although not claiming to solve these challenging problems and provide definite answers to all the above mentioned questions, I hope to identify some theoretical ideas and research findings arising from studies of metaphor in linguistics concerning metaphor comprehension.

Why do people use metaphors?

The same question was asked by Searle “why do we use expressions metaphorically instead of saying exactly and literally what we mean?” [102] .

To answer this question let’s compare the following examples.

Instead of saying “Sally is a block of ice” let’s say

“Sally is an extremely unemotional and unresponsive person”

Or let’s try to paraphrase the verse by Emily Dickinson:

My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun –

In Corners – till a Day

The Owner passes – identified

And carried Me away

and express the ideas in such a way:

My life was one of unrealized but readily realizable potential (a loaded gun) in mediocre surroundings (corners) until such time (a day) when my destined lover (the owner) came (passed), recognized my potential (identified), and took (carried) me away^.

Searle’s point of view that in both the cases the paraphrases, though approximate what the speaker meant, are somehow inadequate, something is lost, proves to be right.

The main question that logically derives from these two examples is whether all metaphorical utterances can be given a literal paraphrase? As Searle puts it, the answer will depend on what we mean. If we mean the possibility of finding or inventing the expression that will express the intended metaphorical meaning, then the answer in many cases will definitely be “yes”. Due to the redundancy of the language code and the possibility of paraphrasing which it gives, any idea may be expressed in more than one way. But if the question is interpreted as meaning “does every existing language provide us exact devices for expressing literally whatever we wish to express in a given metaphor?” then the answer is obviously “no”.

It is often the case that we use metaphor precisely because there is no literal expression that expresses exactly what we mean. It is in this sense that we feel that metaphors somehow are intrinsically not paraphrasable. It is not paraphrasable because without using the metaphorical expression, we will not reproduce the semantic content which occurred in the hearer’s comprehension of the utterance. There are even cases when we feel that we know exactly what metaphor means and yet would not be able to formulate a paraphrased idea because there are no literal expressions that convey what it means (consider Chomsky’s example Colourless green ideas sleep furiously) [102].

Undoubtedly metaphor fulfills the necessary communicative function. First of all metaphor enables us to talk about experiences which cannot be literally described (the so-called A.Ortony’s “inexpressibility thesis”. For example we have no literal language for talking about what thoughts do – “the thought went away, the thought invaded me”, etc. [81].

One more situation when we use metaphors (or similar tropes) is to describe the less-known or the unknown (that is the topic) in terms of the known (the vehicle) (Speaking about a very loud sound we may say: It sounded as if the plane was flying through the room).

We also use metaphors to describe or explain something about the world in a memorable, efficient, new way. Metaphors make these descriptions possible due to their compactness (they are analytic as regards their production and synthetic as regards their comprehension) and expressive power, which are a matter of two different situations brought together in one context. As Dr. Johnson said metaphor gives us two ideas for one.

There are two main approaches to the study of metaphor: classic (comparison theory, interaction theory, pragmatic theory, etc.) and conceptual, which differ basically on the view of the locus of metaphor: either language or thought.