Since writers began to concern themselves with the topic, it has been recognised that a metaphor is a displaced sign. Few writers nowadays take metaphors to be names, most identify the metaphorical unit as the sentence. Some writers have objected to the notion of metaphor as a displacement on the ground that it makes metaphor appear to be anomalous when instead it has to be recognised as an integral feature of natural language. However, even these types of writers find it hard to avoid speaking of metaphor as some sort of transference of meaning. This idea leads to several philosophical...

Since writers began to concern themselves with the topic, it has been recognised that a metaphor is a displaced sign. Few writers nowadays take metaphors to be names, most identify the metaphorical unit as the sentence. Some writers have objected to the notion of metaphor as a displacement on the ground that it makes metaphor appear to be anomalous when instead it has to be recognised as an integral feature of natural language. However, even these types of writers find it hard to avoid speaking of metaphor as some sort of transference of meaning. This idea leads to several philosophical inquiries, whether such transference of meaning serves a cognitive end, and this is explored in most parts of this chapter.