Pour une approche de la métaphore: statut du nom, du verbe et de l’adjectif
An Approach to the Metaphor: the Status of Noun, Verb and Adjective

Summary/Abstract: Most studies of metaphor neglect the structural side of the conceptual interaction that it provokes, since they rather focus on its interpretation at the level of discourse and on its value as a message within a specific text or context. In the analyses aimed at defining its grammatical status, theoretical approaches are often grounded in a substitutive logic – inherited from classical rhetoric – which prevents an exhaustive examination of the complexity of the formal configurations the analogical figure is able to provide. In this essay, we aim to illustrate several linguistic modalities actualizing the metaphorical process, seeing that the interpretative developments that it allows, as well as the aspects distinguishing it from other figures, are closely related to its grammatical and functional features. We focus on nominal, verbal and adjectival metaphors in particular, which realize different structural configurations – simple or complex – in order to prove that the internal form of the conceptual conflict that this figure creates may vary, depending on whether it concerns the relationship between the subject and the different types of predicate, the relationship between the verb and its complements, or the articulation of nominal expressions (see Prandi 1999: 187). The examination of these typologies aims to bring to light the limits of the substitutive conceptions that consider the metaphor as a “dénomination déviante” (Ricœur 1975: 8) and, in addition to that, it offers an approach that describes the metaphor as a “prédication impertinente” (Ricœur 1975: 8), which corresponds to the linguistic mise en forme of a complex and contradictory content (see Prandi 1992: 29).

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