Friedrich Max Müller’s cultural concept of metaphor

Musolff, Andreas (2016) Friedrich Max Müller’s cultural concept of metaphor. Publications of the English Goethe Society, 85 (2-3). pp. 125-134. ISSN 0959-3683

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Abstract

This paper analyses Müller’s concept of metaphor, which he expounded in the eight of his second series of Lectures on the Science of Language (1863). It highlights the central role that metaphor played in Müller’s theory of mythology, as well as his critical appraisal of the latter as a form of ‘diseased language’. This critical ‘deconstruction’ of metaphors and mythology was, however, no end in itself but an application of the comparative, ‘historical’ philology that had clarified the ‘genealogical’ relationships of (Indo-European) languages and was now to be applied to cultures. Müller’s position in the history of metaphor theory is that of an outsider, but his emphasis on the role of metaphor reinterpretation in cultural history remains a challenge for philosophy and linguistics.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	etymology,indo-european,metaphor,misunderstanding,mythology
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Language and Communication Studies Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Migration Research Network
Related URLs:	http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1...
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	25 Oct 2016 11:00
Last Modified:	04 Mar 2024 17:32
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/61051
DOI:	10.1080/09593683.2016.1224509

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