Questions About The Rule of Metaphor

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about The Rule of Metaphor, please sign up.

Answered Questions (1)

Has anyone who has read this also read Metaphors We Live By (George Lakoff)? How do the books compare?

Kriss Dunk I'm sure this answer comes far too late to be of use to the question poser, but in case any fellow travellers find themselves in the position to ask, …moreI'm sure this answer comes far too late to be of use to the question poser, but in case any fellow travellers find themselves in the position to ask, I do have something of an answer. Paul Ricoeur is engaged in hermeneutics (refracted through analytic philosophy and Husserlian phenomenology) and is historically aware. His theory of metaphor takes Aristotle's formulations from Poetics and Rhetoric and closely critiques them to trace the historical development of metaphor and to posit his own refined definition.

Lakoff (and subsequently Lakoff and Johnson 1989/99) is proposing cognitive metaphor theory (CMT) which, whilst almost embarrassingly ignorant (or dismissive) of the historical research, does expound new insights into metaphor. Their main insight is that metaphor is conceptual and, hence, cognitive (i.e. its use in language is just one instantiation of metaphor in a particular modality, here, language). This is actually not a new idea, but it is latent in other works (Max Black, Ricoeur), and it mainly differs because it defines language outside of truth-conditional semantics.

If you want a philosophical treatment, Ricoeur is the book for you.

If you want to understand the "cognitive turn" in linguistics (and, arguably, hermeneutics) then read Lakoff. (less)

flag

Unanswered Questions

About Goodreads Q&A

Ask and answer questions about books!

You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.

See Featured Authors Answering Questions

Learn more