Lecture by Gerard Steen: Why deliberate metaphor theory does have a future
Monday 8th June, Gerard Steen will give a talk entitled: ‘Why deliberate metaphor theory does have a future’ at the University of Palermo (Italy):
In a recent exchange between psychologist Ray Gibbs and myself, Gibbs wonders whether Deliberate Metaphor Theory has a future. Gibbs (2015b) raises this question as a result of my critique (Steen 2015) of an allegedly failed test of Deliberate Metaphor Theory reported in Gibbs (2015a). My critique of Gibbs’ experiment argues that the test fails because it is an inadequate conceptualization and operationalization of Deliberate Metaphor Theory. Gibbs replies that in general there is no empirical foundation for my theoretical claims about deliberate metaphor use and that I ignore empirical evidence that goes against DMT. In addition, Gibbs retorts, my critique of his experimental study fails to explain how it should have been conducted. This leads him to wonder whether DMT has a future.
In this talk I will take up Gibbs’ response to my critique. I will point to the empirical evidence that I think is available for my theoretical claims and I will discuss how I look at the empirical evidence that is supposed to go against DMT. I will also make some comments as to how Gibbs’ study could have been conducted. These three elements will then lead to an argument why DMT does have a future, and what it might plausibly look like.
Gibbs, R.W., jr. (2015a). Do pragmatic signals affect conventional metaphor understanding? A failed test of deliberate metaphor theory. Journal of Pragmatics.
Gibbs, R.W., jr. (2015b). Does deliberate metaphor theory have a future? Journal of Pragmatics.
Steen, G.J. (2015). Developing, testing and interpreting deliberate metaphor theory. Journal of Pragmatics.