Davidson on metaphor and conceptual schemes

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:WHY METAPHORS HAVE NO MEANING:CONSIDERING METAPHORIC MEANING IN DAVIDSONSince the publication of Donald Davidson's essay 'What Metaphors Mean' (1984c) - in whichhe famously asserts that metaphor has no meaning - the views expressed in it have mostlymet with criticism: prominently from Mary Hesse and Max Black. This article attempts toexplain Davidson's surprise-move regarding metaphor by relating it to elements in the rest ofhis work in semantics, such as the principle of compositionality, radical interpretation and theprinciple of charity. I conclude that Davidson's views on metaphor are not only consistentwith his semantic theory generally, but that his semantics also depend on these insights.Eventually, the debate regarding Davidson's views on metaphor should be conducted on thelevel of his views on the nature of semantics, the relationship between language and the worldand the possibility of there existing something like conceptual schemes.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University