Metaphor and minimalism

Abstract

This paper argues first that, contrary to what one would expect, metaphorical interpretations of utterances pass two of Cappelan and Lepore's Minimalist tests for semantic context-sensitivity. I then propose how, in light of that result, one might analyze metaphors on the model of indexicals and demonstratives, expressions that (even) Minimalists agree are semantically context-dependent. This analysis builds on David Kaplan's semantics for demonstratives and refines an earlier proposal in (Stern, Metaphor in context, MIT Press, Cambridge, 2000). In the course of this argument, I also discuss some new examples of linguistic phenomena that motivate a semantic structure underlying metaphorical interpretation, phenomena I argue that neither Minimalists nor Contextualists can explain.

Metaphor, Minimalism, and Semantic Generality: Seeing Things in Context

“…Put differently: is it essential to semantic minimalism that metaphor not only does not involve any hidden or overt context-dependence, but also falls outside the realm of meaning altogether? Josef Stern (2009) clearly thinks it is not.…”

“…In line with this general attitude,Cappelen & Dever (2013) argue that context-dependence is rather less widespread and rather less philosophically interesting than has been thought in the wake of Kaplan's seminal writings.14 Stern (2009); cf Camp (2007)…”

“…This distinction virtually coincides with what in the literature have come to be called, respectively, semantic minimalism, contextualism, and literalism (cf. e.g Stern 2009)…”

Challenging Issues in Translating Conversational Implicature from English into Arabic

“…This category is another clear case of the difference between the said and the unsaid meanings, in which one may utter something and mean something else. Some argue that the meaning of metaphor has to be made regardless of the linguistic surface structure of the metaphorical utterance (Stern, 2009). This, of course, creates situations in which the translator needs to exert much effort in order to arrive at the implicature intended by the use of a metaphor in a speech situation.…”

A subdeterminação semântica da metáfora

“…Destacamos o texto inaugural de Black (1962), as aulas de Grice de 1967Grice de (2013, as discussões de Davidson (1978) e de Searle (1979), passando pelos estudos de Sperber e Wilson (1995), Lakoff e Johnson (1980) e, mais recentemente, os textos de Stern (2000Stern ( , 2009, Reimer (2009) e Bezuidenhout (2001). Esse fenômeno, ao figurar no limite da significatividade, acaba servindo tanto àqueles que defendem uma visão mais dura quanto aqueles que defendem uma noção mais frouxa da significatividade linguística.…”