Journal article
Metaphor from the perspective of literary semantics
A.U.M.L.A, Vol.87(1), pp.53-74
1997
Abstract
The interpretation of orthodox semantics appears to be driven by two assumptions. One, that meaning is a relation between language and the world as a physical given and, two. that this relation is ruled by the definitional syntax of a dictionary. I suggest that both assumptions are misguided. The first assumption is flawed because it begs the question of the interpretive and hence significatory nature of our grasp of the world; the second, because dictionary entries are not so much definitions as records of meanings as social practice. Neither the empiricist tradition which undermines the problematic of mediation in the notion of 'world' nor the formal and hence homosemiotic trust in meaning as definition provide a sound footing for semantics. The paper offers an intersemiotic and heterosemiotic alternative, with metaphor being used as a complex meaning event well suited to demonstrate the force of this two-pronged interpretation.
Details
- Title
- Metaphor from the perspective of literary semantics
- Authors/Creators
- HORST Ruthrof - Murdoch University
- Publication Details
- A.U.M.L.A, Vol.87(1), pp.53-74
- Publisher
- Routledge, Taylor & Francis Ltd.
- Identifiers
- 991005614930007891
- Copyright
- © 1997 Journal of the Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association
- Murdoch Affiliation
- School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article
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