What is it about?
Most metaphors are based in words that have more than one meaning: it is very often indeterminate which meaning is intended by the language user. This allows for different uses by people reading or hearing the metaphor in question. It allows for the possibility that most metaphor is not comprehended as a metaphor but as language that is not metaphorical.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
If most metaphor can be comprehended non-metaphorically, the power of metaphor over our speech, thinking and action is much smaller than has been assumed. It also raises new questions about the power of metaphor as a framing device in text and talk.
Perspectives
This article may be one of my most significant contributions to the debate about the power of metaphor, which I think is much less great and much more specific than many people think.
Professor Emeritus Gerard Steen
University of Amsterdam
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Ambiguity of Metaphor: How Polysemy Affords Multivalent Metaphor Use and Explains the Paradox of Metaphor, Metaphor and Symbol, October 2024, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/10926488.2024.2359406.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
