25.3562, Diss: Pragmatics: Gargani: 'Poetic Comparisons: How Similes are Understood'

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LINGUIST List: Vol-25-3562. Tue Sep 09 2014. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 25.3562, Diss: Pragmatics: Gargani: 'Poetic Comparisons: How Similes are Understood'

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Date: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 22:49:24
From: Adam Gargani [a.gargani84 at gmail.com]
Subject: Poetic Comparisons: How Similes are Understood

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Institution: University of Salford 
Program: Linguistics 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2014 

Author: Adam Gargani

Dissertation Title: Poetic Comparisons: How Similes are Understood 

Dissertation URL:  http://usir.salford.ac.uk/31952/

Linguistic Field(s): Pragmatics


Dissertation Director(s):
Diane Blakemore

Dissertation Abstract:

In this thesis I develop a pragmatic account of how similes are understood
within the framework of relevance theory (Sperber and Wilson, 1995). Similes,
or ‘poetic comparisons’ (Achilles is like a lion) and non-poetic comparisons
(Wasabi is like mustard) are understood in similar ways. While non-poetic
comparisons communicate that A is like B in terms of a (relatively)
determinate range of respects in which the comparison is taken to hold, poetic
comparisons achieve relevance by virtue of weak implicatures which are evoked,
in part, in pursuit of certain respects in which the comparison holds.
However, the outcome of simile understanding does not necessarily involve
deriving a determinate range of points of comparison as part of the content of
the comparison. In these cases, the speaker/author simply communicates that
the relevance of the comparison lies in the fact that two entities or
activities are being compared and the hearer/reader has the responsibility for
deciding where relevance lies. This account explains: (i) why certain
comparisons achieve relevance in this way (why certain comparisons are
poetic); (ii) why metaphors and similes, nonetheless, can achieve similar
effects; (iii) why competing accounts (which tend to conflate metaphor and
simile) are vulnerable to counterexamples; (iv) why qualifying similes
(Achilles is a lot like a lion) and supplying additional
linguistically-specified content which relates to potential points of
comparison (Achilles is like a brave lion; Achilles is like a lion in the
parched savannah) does not make a comparison less ‘poetic’; (v) why certain
relationships between tenor and vehicle tend to obtain in similes but not in
non-poetic comparisons; and (vi) how certain types of metaphor/simile
interaction work.







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