Abstract:

Metaphor is a semantic phenomenon, in that it involves the assigning of distinctively metaphorical truth conditions to sentences and distinctively metaphorical semantic values to some of the words and phrases that figure in these sentences. It is also an aesthetic phenomenon, in that an intelligible metaphorical utterance always exhibits some degree of aptness, and an audience's efforts to understand such an utterance always involve efforts to make the best of it, finding it as apt as its words and circumstances permit it to be. The key to understanding the connection between metaphorical truth and metaphorical aptness is to view the individual metaphorical utterance as a move in a game of make-believe, a move so structured that a competent audience can infer the game's rules from this single sample of legal play. Metaphor thereby exploits and helps to maintain a presumptively shared sense of fun that forms a key component in human cultural competence.