Context's Role In Interpreting Metaphor

Any applied metaphor studies cannot avoid the issue of rigorous identification of metaphorical, in contrast to non-metaphorical, language. Identification through definition, by setting up necessary and sufficient conditions for metaphor, produces apparently insurmountable difficulties, for it involves semantic, pragmatic and psychological knowledge along with the subconscious assumption contained in metaphor itself as a language phenomenon. However identification through context would seem a more promising approach. In addition, context functions well in interpreting metaphor when we apply semantic and pragmatic rules. This paper aims to reveal and expound context's role in interpreting metaphor, starting from the basic classification of context practically, the underlying study of metaphor, and then moving to the identification and interpretation of metaphor by a definite context. This paper runs as follows:Chapter one clarifies the concept of context and metaphor respectively and advocates the classification of context into semantic, pragmatic and implicit context separately, which is different from traditional linguistic and non-linguistic context. Metaphor is a device for seeing something in terms of something else. The relation between topic and vehicle梩wo components in a metaphor is in some sense parallels to a le signifie and le significant in theories of meaning of non-figurative language. The meaning of metaphor is the result of the perspectival juxtaposing of two ideas. Topic and vehicle should be comprehended as a system. Metaphorical transfers of meaning are transfers from the field of the vehicle to the field of the topic of the relations of affinity and opposition that the vehicle term bears to other terms in its field. The distinction between first-level and second-level meaning in an utterance replicates the distinction between sentence meaning and speaker meaning, taking into account linguistic units that range from words to sentences to texts and discourses, and thus favors our distinguishing metaphor from literal meaning of an utterance..Chapter two demonstrates that semantic context is composed of semantic rules. Metaphor is a deviance from semantic rules governing first-level discourse. Only in a definite context can we distinguish topic-vehicle; therefore context determines the location of topic and vehicle. When the first-level meaningcomplies with the meaning in the speaker's mind, the meaning of the utterance is taken literally; when the first-level meaning is incongruent with the given context, the second-level meaning emerges and the utterance should be understood metaphorically. Thus, context acts as an indicator to decide whether we comprehend an utterance literally or metaphorically.Chapter three illustrates the importance of pragmatic and implicit context in interpreting metaphor. The identification of an utterance as a metaphor supposes that we have the circumstances in which a conventional implicature can arise. This is the situation in which the speaker appears to flout some maxim of the Co-operative Principle. When we lack a specific context, the implicit concept constructed mainly by default assumption will function in identifying and interpreting metaphor. Default assumption is a cognitive system consisting of general background and special background assumptions. In addition, correctly applied explicit cues imply that the utterance should be interpreted metaphorically.Chapter four expounds that metaphor promotes parallels and analogies which are not accomplished through literal comparison and which use the resources of second-order discourse. Thus, metaphorical interpretation revisable in the light of a larger context is conceived as a particular function of the literal conventional interpretation. Within the confines of the only available context, there results some empirical or conceptual incongruity; given the general background default assumptions, metaphorical interpretation proves to be the most appropriate interpretation. For another thing, semantic fi...