Publications
Publication details [#9475]
Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, Francisco José. 1999. From semantic underdetermination via metaphor and metonymy to conceptual interaction. In Komendzinski, Tomasz. METAPHOR: A Multidisciplinary Approach [Special edition of "Theoria et Historia Scientiarum"]. Torun: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu M. Kopernika. URL
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Keywords
Place, Publisher
Torun: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu M. Kopernika
Abstract
The question of semantic underdetermination is related to the distinction between what is said and
what is implicated. In this paper we examine the relevance-theoretic notion of enrichment as a
procedure for developing what is said into a fully specified proposition or explicature. We make
the claim that there are two forms of such a procedure, viz. grammatically-motivated and
conceptually-motivated enrichment, and discuss their role in communication. We further contend
that the notion of enrichment and the other procedures of propositional development recognized
in the relevance-theoretic literature are insufficient to account for all cases of explicated
meaning. In this connection, we propose other cognitive mechanisms such as mitigation and -
more interestingly-metaphoric and metonymic mappings. This discussion allows us to cast some
light on the implicature/explicature division line and to rank as explicatures some cases of
inferences which have so far been considered as implicatures, including those where metaphor
and metonymy are involved. Finally we examine the role of metaphoric and metonymic mappings
-both in isolation and as part of conceptual interaction systems- in the production of explicatures,
which allows us to understand better the communicative potential of these cognitive mechanisms.