Views of Metaphor

Abstract

Any theory of metaphor will necessarily involve assumptions and implications about the nature of language and the nature of literal and metaphorical speech, some of which we saw in the first chapter. Accord?ingly, I have classified the major writers on metaphor into groups based on their view of the role metaphor plays in language and on what they believe understanding metaphor involves. Since Black’s analysis in 1962, there have been far too many articles written on metaphor for them all to be examined here; we will concentrate instead on some of the major and more influential approaches.

What I am pointing out is that unless you are at home in the metaphor, unless you have had your proper poetical education in the metaphor, you are not safe anywhere. Because you are not at ease with figurative values: you don’t know the metaphor in its strength and its weakness. You don’t know how far you may expect to ride it and when it may break down with you. You are not safe in science; you are not safe in history.

[Robert Frost quoted in Cox and Lathem (1949), p. 39]