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THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAGMATICS FOR UNDERSTANDING

METAPHORS

Our life is in constant communication. We communicate every day: primarily

using vocal communication. Language is present in every detail of our life.

Whatever we express and do is generally through verbal language rather

than through sign language or body language.

Language is a cognitive activity that is done with symbols (symbols means a

format of knowledge  that is characteristics  of   human-beings that   means a

process through which the subject captures the aspects of reality through

sensory organs in order to understand reality in other words the world where

he/she lives. On the other hand, why is it important to take into account thisconcept about language? It shows and explains that our daily communication

is based on how we have captured the aspects of reality in order to

understand it. In fact , language cannot be reduced to a tool for

communicating or express ideas, nor as a system of signs , but as a way for

Understanding the world , and it does through linguistic codes that translate

reality and it makes real in speech. 

Having a clearer definition about what language is , and not what its function

is or how it is represented(as a system of signs )2  (with an opening

parenthesis, there must be a space before the parenthesis) it is concluded

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(by whom?) that the language is the abstraction of our reality that is

expressed in words and these words take part in a real communicative act

that shows (there is only one space between words) our communicative

competence. In proper English, all paragraphs require at least two

sentences—you are not Jane Austen writing in the eighteenth century.

(This sentence must follow the previous sentence to create a clear

understanding of this point; use a transitional qualifier.) This is important for

defining what the process of communication is, because it is not only a

transmission of information or a sequence of words without sense as it is

thought, but messages structured according to grammatical rules. This

depends on that language spoken or used in a communication process. ¶The

message also shows the intention of the speaker in order to explain that the

language is embedded in the social cognition of people. This means that most

of the time people use the language in a social context that causes that

language to be a way for expressing how we experience the world and not

only words individually. (This is a paraphrase from the Spanish edition of 

Wikipedia.)

If the language (language does not need an initial article) is inserted in a the

social cognition of people this means that people use the language as a tool

for communicating their ideas according how they have captured reality

(this includes cultural aspects )and process is shown through the use of 

metaphors in our daily communication. This topic will developed in on the

next pages. (I find a lot of this at these Spanish websites:

http://www.slideshare.net/raymarmx/abc-de-la-reforma-en-educacin-

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primaria-estacin-2  and here

http://aprendelenguaje.blogspot.com/2007/03/sugerencia-didctica-n-2.html 

and http://filosofia-del-lenguaje.blogspot.com/2010_03_01_archive.html; it

comes from (it is lifted from) the Frenchman Jean Piaget

http://percyacunhavigil.blogspot.com/2011/11/teorias-del-lenguaje.html; 

psychological studies show conclusively that people write as they speak, and

you do not speak like this.)

Language as an abstraction of our reality that is expressed in words

(http://www.monografias.com/trabajos15/analogias/analogias.shtml)  and

these words take part in a real communicative act that shows our

communicative competence. This shows us that most of time we use

language in a determine context and this context is involved in a specific

culture, in other words how we have experience the world. This is uniquely

similar to http://spanishwika.blogspot.com/2009/04/resena-sobre-el-texto-

extraido-de-el.html  -- please write as you speak and do not paraphrase. I

have written books on this subject and am familiar with the literature. Please

see me—very soon.

The use of language which is studied by pragmatics has become an

interesting issue for who are dedicated to the study of language. (I encourage

you to stop using www.es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competencia_comunicativa) I

am quite familiar with this source) This discipline involves the study of the

language in a determined context, in other words pragmatics studies the

language in use.3While semantics deals with the literal meaning (what a

word means), what a sentence says literally independent from context. (This

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is a fragmented sentence.) Pragmatics deals with what you want to say with

that word (the intention of the speaker).

4Pragmatics also involves: psychological, biological and sociologicalphenomenon that take part in the use of signs. This means how users use the

language what Chomsky calls “communicative competence” (This is not APA

style and makes this an unqualified essay; Norman Chomsky actually calls it

linguistic competence as communicative competence appears in Spanish only

as “communicative competence”: http://asian-efl-

 journal.com/sept_05_ac.pdf  as the actual term is the creation of Hymes, D.

H. (1971). “On communicative competence.” In J. Pride and J. Holmes (Eds.),

Sociolinguistics. Penguin, 1972; and is developed in the Canadian journal:LIU

Ya/Canadian Social Science Vol.4 No.3 2008 80-86. It was taken from my

book: Ide, A. F. (1970). Linguistic and communicative competence in the

English language. Chicago: Seporo) how users use the language in a real

communicative act. The pragmatics is characterized by studying the effects of 

context. Norman Chomsky is best know for:

Chomsky, N. (1975b). Current issues in linguistic theory . The Hague: Mouton.

Chomsky, N. (1975c). Reflections on language. New York: Pantheon.

Chomsky, N. (2000d). The architecture of language. New Delhi: Oxford

University Press.

Chomsky, N. (2000e). New horizons in the study of language and mind.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

There are several studies about pragmatics. Charles Morris was the first (not

true; it was actually first used by Charles Sanders Peirce (who defined it in his

pragmatic maxim): Haack, S; Lane, R E (2006). Pragmatism, old & new:

selected writings]. Prometheus Books. pp. 18 –67, and then was developed

and used by William James and John Dewey (who gave us cataloging

pragmatics for use in cataloging books in libraries): Biesta, G.J.J. & Burbules,

N. (2003). Pragmatism and educational research. Lanham, MD: Rowman and

Littlefield). contemporary philosopher who introduced this term, pragmatics

(actually it is discussed by Aristotle (if you read Greek, you will find it at

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http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus, and should at least

cite it) and it comes from the Greek πραγματικός (pragmatikos), that is

incorporated in the works of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari who discuss

linguistic pragmatics in the fourth chapter of   A Thousand Plateaus 

("November 20, 1923--Postulates of Linguistics" University of Minnesota

Press); APA requires you cite me as I gave you this information since you do

not read Greek. Daejin Kim et al. (2002) "The Role of an Interactive Book

Reading Program in the Development of Second Language Pragmatic

Competence", the Modern Language Journal, Vol. 86, No. 3 (autumn, 2002),

pp. 332-348). 5His studies were focused on the science of signs or semiotic.

He divided the semiotic into three parts: the syntactic, semantic and

pragmatic.

Pragmatics also has an important role for understanding our daily

communicative. This means our conversational acts, in other words “the

communicative act”. Moreover, pragmatics deals with the use of language.

How people use language in our daily communication.

6Moreover, Pragmatics is important not only because it studies the language

in use, but also because the pragmatics focuses a part of its study in

figurative meaning and how speaker can interpretive it. Moreover, figures

are key elements for transmitting implicit information and they are important

for theories that pretend to explain what the connection between semantics

and pragmatics is (meaning and use) for establishing differences.

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7Since Aristotle wrote Metaphors have it has been defined as a the use of a

word (metaphors are words and they popularize more academic phrases into

simple jargon—they do not designate another reality—that is a bad Spanish

translation from the original language) in order to designate another reality

that doesn’t represent its conventional meaning (what a word means )in

other words is the use of a sign instead of another.

8Moreover, most of people think that metaphors are rhetoric resources used

in poetry as simple comparisons. For example the expression “Rose is like a

rose or “Juan is like lion” in part these examples show that there is a

connection with the conventional meaning (semantics) however this doesn’t

happen in all cases, for example expressions as:9love is a work of art or life is

a mirror . These examples show us that most of time metaphors aren’t

rhetoric resources in poetry or have to have connection with its conventional

meaning, but a way how people have captured reality and how they

experience and do things. Moreover, metaphors structure our conceptual

system which is fundamentally metaphorical and nature and also define our

reality.

The reason for which people use a metaphor in their daily communication is

because of metaphors is innate, they reflect how we experience and define

our reality.

[that is only true in semiotics, read

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/symbols?s=t and then it is the last

definition, not the first)

NOTATIONS

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1-  Eugenio coseriu , introducción a la lingüística(1993).p.71

2-  Eugenio coseriu , introducción a la lingüística(1993).p.71

3-  Graciela reyes, El Abecé de la pragmática (Madrid, 2003).p.

4-  Stephen levinson, pragmática (Cambridge university press, 1983) .p.

5-  Stephen levinson , pragmática ( Cambridge university press , 1983) .p.1

6-  Elisa Baena , Graciela reyes , Eduardo urios , ejercicios de pragmática ii

(Madrid , 2000).p.145

7-  María Escandell, introducción a la pragmática (Barcelona, 2002) p.188.

8-  George Lakoff , mark Johnson (university of Chicago , 1980).p.39

9-  Zoltán Kövecses, introduction to metaphors (Oxford University, 2010).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

KÖVECSES, zoltán.2010.INTRODUCTION TO METAPHORS, Oxford.396 pp.

LAKOFF,  George and JOHNSEN Mark .2003. METAPHORS WE LIVE BY,

London. 193 pp.

ESCANDEL-VIDAL, María. 1996. INTRODUCCIÓN A LA PRAGMÁTICA,

España.250pp.

MIRANDA, Luis. 1993. LINGÜÍSTICA GENERAL, lima

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FACULTY OF LANGUAGES TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETATION

TITLE

THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAGMATICS FOR UNDERSTANDING

METAPHORS

AUTHOR

ANGEL TIMOTEO GOMEZ URIARTE

ADVISORY

ARTHUR FREDERICK IDE

TYPE OF RESEARCH

METAPHORS

AREA OF RESEARCH

LINGUISTCS

2013