Interpreting metaphor (Donald Davidson)

Given a linguistic metaphor such as “Snow sweats” and an interpretation such as “Snow produces liquid”, the question addressed in this dissertation is how one gets from the former metaphorical expression to the latter interpreting expression. On my proposal, informed by “semantic feature theory”, the metaphorical expression is first analyzed into topic and modifier. The metaphorical modifier in our example is “sweats” and the topic is “snow”. Once the metaphorical modifier is identified, semantic features can be deleted from the modifier (“sweats”) so that what is left over (“produces liquid”) literally modifies the topic. In this way, an interpretation of the metaphor is determined via semantic feature deletion.; I do not believe that an interpreting expression arrived at in this manner will always strike one as a “complete” interpretation. For instance, when taking “Jesus was a carpenter” metaphorically, my proposal suggests deleting features from “carpenter” to get “a person who shapes things”. But a complete interpretation of the metaphor would have it that Jesus shaped people, or souls—not, more generally, things. A semantic feature deletion story cannot give this more complete interpretation. However, the theory still shows the antecedent connection between carpenters and the sort of thing Jesus is famous for doing, since, in both cases, shaping of something is at work. In all cases of metaphor, such an antecedent connection between the metaphor's modifier and the interpreting expression's modifier can be found in the semantic materials of the original metaphorical expression.; It is important that a theory of metaphorical interpretation be grounded in some larger theory of language. Semantic feature theory of metaphorical interpretation is compatible with a form of semantic theory developed by Donald Davidson. Davidson can be interpreted as arguing against a notion of semantic feature, so I show that such a notion does not contradict Davidsonian principles. Davidson has also argued—in “What Metaphors Mean”—against the possibility of developing any theory of metaphorical interpretation whatsoever. Thorough analysis of Davidson's essay on metaphor, plus argument for a Davidson-friendly notion of semantic feature, motivates reassessment of Davidson's conclusions on theory of metaphor.