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Metonymy And Metaphor As Verbal Postulation: The Epistemic Status Of Non-Literal Speech In Indian Philosophy, Malcolm Keating
Metonymy And Metaphor As Verbal Postulation: The Epistemic Status Of Non-Literal Speech In Indian Philosophy, Malcolm Keating
Philosophy: Faculty Publications
In this paper, I examine Kumārila Bhatta's account of figurative language in Tantravārttika 1.4.11 -17, arguing that, for him, both metonymy (laksanā) and metaphor (gauna-vrtti) crucially involve verbal postulation (śrutârthāpatti), a knowledge-conducive cognitive process which draws connections between concepts without appeal to speaker intention, but through compositional and contextual elements. It is with the help of this cognitive process that we can come to have knowledge of what is meant by a sentence in context. In addition, the paper explores the relationship between metonymy and metaphor, the extent to which putatively literal language involves metonymy, and the objective constraints for …
Mukulabhaṭṭa's Defense Of Lakṣaṇā: How We Use Words To Mean Something Else, But Not Everything Else, Malcolm Keating
Mukulabhaṭṭa's Defense Of Lakṣaṇā: How We Use Words To Mean Something Else, But Not Everything Else, Malcolm Keating
Philosophy: Faculty Publications
We frequently use single words or expressions to mean multiple things, depending upon context. I argue that a plausible model of this phenomenon, known as laks{dot below}aN{dot below}ā by Indian philosophers, emerges in the work of ninth-century Kashmiri Mukulabhat{dot below}t{dot below}a. His model of laks{dot below}aN{dot below}ā is sensitive to the lexical and syntactic requirements for sentence meaning, the interpretive unity guiding a communicative act, and the nuances of creative language use found in poetry. After outlining his model of laks{dot below}aN{dot below}ā, I show how arthāpatti, or presumption, forms the basis of both semantic and pragmatic processes in this …