The ‘handles’ and ‘sides’ of metaphor
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Ersu Ding
His research interests include semiotics, comparative literature, translation, and critical theories. His recent publications include ‘Othering the face and facing the other: Textual strategies in transnational cultural production’ (2003); ‘History as effects of power’ (2004); ‘Hidden icon-icity: A Peircean perspective on the Chinese picto-phonetic sign’ (2005); and ‘Appropriation of the other: Contrasting notions of China in British literature’ (2005).
Abstract
This article explores from a semiotic perspective the structural features of the ‘poetic logic’ that lies behind metonymy and metaphor. More specifi-cally, it treats metonymy and metaphor not as ‘abnormal’ uses of language but as the results of the same indexical and iconic ways of thinking that we see elsewhere in our lives. The paper also brings to bear on the topic of metaphor some important insights from the late Chinese scholar Qian Zhong-shu, whose ‘two handles and several sides’ theory of metaphor seems to complement contemporary Western ‘metaphorology’ very well.
About the author
His research interests include semiotics, comparative literature, translation, and critical theories. His recent publications include ‘Othering the face and facing the other: Textual strategies in transnational cultural production’ (2003); ‘History as effects of power’ (2004); ‘Hidden icon-icity: A Peircean perspective on the Chinese picto-phonetic sign’ (2005); and ‘Appropriation of the other: Contrasting notions of China in British literature’ (2005).
© Walter de Gruyter
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- Plant names and folk taxonomies: Frameworks for ethnosemiotic inquiry
- Towards a grande paradigmatique of film: Christian Metz reloaded
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