Metaphorical Prosional Meanings

Abstract

First, we will argue the non conventional nature of metaphorical meanings from the proposal that defends that there are no metaphorical utterances of monolexemes in an usual context. Metaphorical provisional meanings –non conventional– have an ephimeral life and thus we call them "provisional". Second, we will analyze how the provisional meanings that emerge from metaphorical utterances are produced. We will take into account Indurkhya's theory that allows to explain, in pan, how metaphorical transference takes place from a source domain to a target domain through the concept off T-MAP and two operators. We will expand Indurkhya's formal theory, in particular the function of the operators, to justify the different types of metaphorical provisional meanings that, in general, can be produced. Applying a T-MAP to a metaphorical utterance amounts to translating it into another utterance which only contains terms belonging to the vocabulary of the target domain. This translation is carried out from term to terco, with the result that the metaphorical provisional meaning of the source domain terms becomes the meaning (provisional or not) of the terms belonging to the target domain.