Unlocking meaning: theoretical perspectives on the cognitive dimensions of metaphor from antiquity to modern cognitive linguistics
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.56461/ahilejev_stit.2025.2.01Keywords:
Aristotle, Max Black, metaphor, image-schema, Cognitive Metaphor Theory, cognitive linguisticsAbstract
The text explores how metaphor has been understood across ancient, modern, and contemporary philosophical perspectives. Through this theoretical review, it reveals how the cognitive functions and character of metaphor have gradually been uncovered. Ancient philosophers primarily regarded metaphor as a linguistic phenomenon, observing its significance in cognitive processes such as teaching and persuasion. Modern philosophy, through thinkers like I. A. Richards, Max Black, Paul Ricoeur, and other influential 20th-century philosophers, reexamined these ancient theories. They concluded that metaphor operates on a far more comprehensive level than mere language; it emerges from the interaction of thoughts and represents an act of mental creativity. Building upon these insights, modern cognitive linguists further developed the idea that metaphor is fundamentally rooted in cognition and is manifested in linguistic expressions. In the third part of the paper, dedicated to cognitivist insights into metaphors, the definition, structure, peculiarities, elaboration, application, and identification of metaphors are presented. Cognitive Metaphor Theory defines metaphor as the understanding of one concept or conceptual domain through the lens of another. In this view, metaphor serves as both a means and a structure for our understanding of the world it is essential, constitutive, and actively employed in everyday thinking and communication. Consequently, metaphor plays a crucial role in shaping experience and comprehension. Consequently, studying metaphors within oral and written discourse allows us to uncover the underlying thought processes and semantic dimensions embedded in them. Due to its insights into the cognitive foundations and essence of metaphor, as well as the analytical tools it provides for analyzing conceptual metaphors, the cognitive theory of metaphor has proven highly productive. Understanding metaphor through this cognitive lens enriches our comprehension of communication, revealing the deep interconnectedness between thought, language, and our perception of reality. It enables us to interpret metaphor not merely as a semantic structure but also as a comprehensive hermeneutical key for understanding the meaning and purpose of discourse in which it appears. Ultimately, by recognizing that metaphor is a powerful tool for understanding, expressing, sharing, and interpreting experience, its significance for our individual and collective existence is both illuminated and amplified.
References
ИЗВОРИ
Aristotle. Poetics. Tom 23. Translated by Stephen Halliwell. Loeb Classical Library 199. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995. https://doi.org/10.4159/DLCL.aristotle-poetics.1995
Aristotle. Rhetoric. Translated by Christopher David Charles Reeve. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Hackett Publishing Co., 2018.
Cicero. On the Orator: Book 3. On Fate. Stoic Paradoxes. Divisions of Oratory. Translated by H. Harris Rackham. Loeb Classical Library 349. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1942.
Hermogenes. Hermogenes' on "Types of Style'. Translated by Cecil W. Wooten. Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1987.
Hermogenes. Hermogenis Opera. In: Rhetores Graeci vol. VI. Ed. Hugo Rabe. Editio stereotypa editionis anni 1913. Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana. Stuttgart: Teubner, 1985.
Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria. Books I-III. Translated by H. E. Butler. Loeb Classical Library 124. Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1980.
Plato. Plato, Volume V: Laches. Protagoras, Meno, Euthydemus. Translated by W. R. M. Lamb. Loeb Classical Library 165. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1924. https://doi.org/10.4159/DLCL.plato_philosopher-euthydemus.1924
ЛИТЕРАТУРА
Шијаковић, Богољуб. Отпор забораву: неколико (прогледа. Фоча: Православни богословски факултет Светог Василија Острошког; Београд: Хришћански културни центар др Радован Биговић, 2016.
Aristotel. Retorika. Prevod sa starohelenskog i komentari dr Marko Višić. Podgorica: ITP Unireks, 2008.
Bagić. Krešimir. Rječnik stilskih figura Zagreb: Školska knjiga, 2012.
Black, Max. Models and Metaphors: Studies in Language and Philosophy. New York: Cornell University Press, 1962. https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501741326
Black, Max. More about Metaphor. In: Andrew Ortony (ed.). Metaphor and Thought. Second Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993, 19-41. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139173865.004
Blumenberg, Hans. Paradigms for Metaphorology. Signale: Modern German Letters, Cultures, and Thought. New York: Cornell University Press, 2010. https://doi.org/10.7591/j.ctt7v7cn
Cassirer, Ernst. The Phylosophy of Symbolic Forms. Vol. 1: Language. New Haven, London: Yale University Press, 1955.
Czachesz, István. Cognitive Science and the New Testament: A New Approach to Early Christian Research. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198779865.001.0001
Eden, Kathy. Hermeneutics and the Ancient Rhetorical Tradition. Rhetorica: A Journal of the History of Rhetoric, 5/1 (1987): 59-86. https://doi.org/10.1525/rh.1987.5.1.59
Gadamer, Hans-Georg. Istina I metod: Osnovi filozofske hermeneutike. Preveo Božidar Zec. Beograd: Fedon, 2011.
Grady, J. E. Foundations of meaning: Primary metaphors and primary scenes. University of California, Berkeley, 1997.
Jakobson, Roman. Morris Halle Fundamentals of Language. The Hague: Mouton, 1956.
Jakel, Olaf, Kant, Blumenberg, Weinrich: some forgotten contributions to the cognitive Theory of metaphor. In: Raymond W. Gibbs, Gerard Steen (ed.). Metaphor in Cognitive Linguistics. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1999, 9-27. https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.175.02jak
Johnson, Mark. Image-Schematic Bases of Meaning. Recherches Semiotique/Semiotic Inquiry 9 (1989)
Johnson, Mark. Philosophical Perspectives on Metaphor, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1981
Johnson, Mark. The Body in the Mind The Bodily basis of meaning, imagination, and reason. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226177847.001.0001
Kant, Imanuel. Kritika moči suđenja Preveo Nikola Popović. Beograd: BIGZ, 1975
Kirby, John T. Aristotle on metaphor. American Journal of Philology 118/4 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1353/ajp.1997.0056
Klikovac, Duška. Metafore u mišljenju i jeziku Beograd: Biblioteka XX vek, 2004
Kövecses, Zoltán. Metaphor: A Practical Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010
Kövecses, Zoltán. Extended Conceptual Metaphor Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108859127
Lakoff, George Johnson, Mark. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1980.
Lakoff, George, Johnson, Mark. Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought. New York: Basic Books, 1999.
Lakoff, George The Death of Dead Metaphor. Metaphor and Symbol 2/2 (1987): 143-147. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327868ms0202_5
Lakoff, George. Turner, Mark. More than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor. Chicago: The University Of Chicago Press, 1989. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226470986.001.0001
Lancaster, Mason D. Metaphor Research and the Hebrew Bible Currents in Biblical Research 19/3 (2021) 235-285. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476993X20987952
Lausberg, Heinrich. Elemente der Literarischen Rhetoric: eine Einfuhrung fur Studierende der klassischen, romanischen, englischen und deutschen Philologie Ismaning: Hueber, 1990
Lodge. David. The Modes of Modem Writing: Metaphor, Metonymy, and the Typology of Modem Literature. London: Edward Arnold, 1977.
Harvard University Press, 1969. McCall, Marsh H. Ancient Rhetorical Theories of Simile and Comparison. Cambridge, MA:
Mikulić, Borislav. Writing in Water/Ins Wasser Schreiben: Studies in the Epistemology of Metaphor /Studien Zur Epistemologie Der Metapher. Zagreb: FF Press, 2023
Nerlich, Brigitte. Semantic Theories in Europe 1830-1930: From Etymology to Contextuality. Studies in the History of the Language Sciences 59. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1992. https://doi.org/10.1075/sihols.59
Niepert-Rumel. Sophia. Metaphernkombinationen in der neutestantlichen Rede vom Tod Jesu, Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2/563. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1628/978-3-16-160895-7
Nietzsche, Friedrich. On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense (1873). The Nietzsche Reader. Edited by Keith Ansell Pearson and Duncan Large. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. 2006, pp. 114-123
Novokhatko, Anna. The Linguistic Treatment of Metaphor in Quintilian. Pallas 103 (2017) 311-318. https://doi.org/10.4000/pallas.4420
Novoikhatko, Anna The use of the term 'metaphor' in Latin linguistic discourse before Quintilian. In: Paolo Poccetti (ed.). Latinitatis rationes: Descriptive and Historical Accounts for the Latin Language Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2016, 395-409.
Perelman, Chaim. Tyneca, Olbrechts L. The New Rhetoric: A Treatise on Argumentation. Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1971.
Richards, Ivor Amstrong. The Philosophy of Rhetoric. New York: Oxford University Press, 1964.
Ricoeur, Paul. The Rule of Metaphor. The creation of meaning in language Translation into English Robert Czerny, Kathleen McLaughlin, John Costello, SJ. London, New York Routledge, 2003
Stanojević, Mateusz Milan Dijakronijska varijacija u metaforičkim modelima razrada metodologije. Doktorski rad. Zadar: Sveučilište u Zadru, 2008
Stanojević, Mateuzs-Milan. Konceptualna metafora temeljni pojmovi, teorijski pristupi i metode Zagreb: Srednja Evropa, 2013
Steen, Gerard J. Aletta G. Donst, J. Berenike Herrmann, Anna A Kaal, Tina Krennmayr, и Trijntje Pasma, прир. А Method for Linguistic Metaphor Identification: From MIP to MIPVU. Amsterdam: Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1075/celcr.14
Steen, Gerard J. Slowing Metaphor down. Elaborating Deliberate Metaphor Theary. The Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research 26. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1075/celcr.26
Steen, Gerard J. Thinking by metaphor, fast and slow: Deliberate Metaphor Theory and the dynamics of metaphor comprehension. Psychol. 14 (2023)
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1242888
Vico, Giambattista. Načela nove znanosti zajedničkoj prirodi nacija. Zagreb: Naprijed, 1982.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Philosophical Investigations. Translated by GEM. Anscombe, 3rd edition. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001.
