Why metaphors make good insults: perspectives, presupposition, and pragmatics

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• 作者：Elisabeth Camp
• 关键词：Complicity ; Framing ; Seeing ; as ; Pragmatics ; Speech act ; Illocutionary act
• 刊名：Philosophical Studies
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：January 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：174
• 期：1
• 页码：47-64
• 全文大小：
• 刊物类别：Humanities, Social Sciences and Law
• 刊物主题：Philosophy, general; Epistemology; Philosophy of Mind; Ethics; Metaphysics; Philosophy of Language;
• 出版者：Springer Netherlands
• ISSN：1573-0883
• 卷排序：174

文摘

Metaphors are powerful communicative tools because they produce ‘framing effects’. These effects are especially palpable when the metaphor is an insult that denigrates the hearer or someone he cares about. In such cases, just comprehending the metaphor produces a kind of ‘complicity’ that cannot easily be undone by denying the speaker’s claim. Several theorists have taken this to show that metaphors are engaged in a different line of work from ordinary communication. Against this, I argue that metaphorical insults are rhetorically powerful because they combine perspectives, presupposition, and pragmatics in the service of speech acts with assertoric force.