Metaphorically Speaking

When a woman says “My husband Steve is a sheepdog,” she's using a metaphor. Is she talking nonsense or saying something meaningful? Does the metaphor accomplish its intent by saying or implying something? Nogales carefully answers these questions in detail by providing an account of metaphor in terms of reconceptualization, which conforms to the intuition that metaphors inflict a change in perspective. At the same time she provides an illuminating critique of accepted theories of metaphor and a list of phenomena that any theory of metaphor or natural language processing must address. While being philosophically rigorous, Nogales's account of metaphor is compatible with current trends in cognitive linguistics.

Patti D. Nogales received her Ph.D. in Philosophy from Stanford University. She is currently an independent researcher.

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